What does Sully Sullenberger and SALES PROCESS have in common?
I thought about when we had the Miracle on the Hudson in New York and that plane went down. When they interviewed Sully the hero of the day really what he said as humble as he is.
He said, “It really didn’t have anything to do with me I’m not a hero, all I did was follow the procedures that I was
taught over and over and over again.”
What does any of this have to do with the sales process? All he did was follow the process and follow the procedure. Now, I know you’d feel comfortable if you were on his plane.
The idea of approaching sales without a sales process is very difficult to accomplish. Can sales be done without having a process of some kind? Yes. Possible certainly doesn’t mean successful sales. Like anything else, to do the best job at selling and make the most money takes a process. Having a ‘good personality is so often mistaken for a good salesperson. Frankly, that may hurt your sales ability more than help it.
But why?
We wouldn’t feel comfortable getting on a plane with somebody that doesn’t follow a procedure. Because that is true, what is the reason we don’t follow a sales process? Sales training today should include a true sales process. No, I do not mean scripting or memorizing scripts.
Certainly, we wouldn’t get on a plane of a guy said, hearing a guy say, “you know I fly all the time on those flying
video games on my computer so I think I can fly this thing.”
You’d be out the door quicker than ever!
But in sales for some reason, people feel that they can ‘wing it’. You are not going to be as successful as
you could be. What in the world does any of this have to do with the sales process?
So what should be in our own sales process?
1) Make sure you are doing the research before you attempt to speak to a sales prospect. What do you k ow about them? Have you gone to their website, LinkedIn, Googled themselves, their company, etc? How about a blog? Do they have one?
2) Pre-qualify each conversation by starting with the research you found. Gain credibility by asking specifics about the research you did.
3) Set the conversation up with ground rules before you begin. How long will this take? Will you be asking questions? What are the expectations at the end of the conversation?
4) Ask open-ended, thought-provoking questions. Use the research you uncovered to begin.
5) Summarize the conversation and do not get carried away with your side of the sale. Only summarize what they told you, for now. conversation then
6) Set up your Clear Next Step or attempt to close the sale (if appropriate).
7) Immediately do a Recap Email to include all discussed, and any next steps you set. Not the time to sell your stuff!
If you follow these steps with your own word and style, you will have the ability to be successful on every sale! Does that mean you will close every sale? No. But one of the most important things with selling is to be able to get one of 3 POSITIVE outcomes on every call or appointment. A positive outcome isn’t always a sale. When then what is it? It is a true understanding of what went well, and what went wrong, specifically.
If you have a sales process, you are able to dissect what went wrong and what to do differently and better the next time. Sales is not brain surgery, but it is not just about your outgoing personality. As a matter of fact, that will probably hurt you more than help.
Want to know more about the sales process and being successful?
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