Our sales team is 40% more productive.
What follows are a few questions which should be addressed by members of your sales department. The objective is to make them more productive. We at Deco Source in Tacoma ask ourselves these questions after making the dreaded cold call.
- How much does the rep listen during a sales presentation? One problem is that sales people have a tendency to talk too much when visiting a customer. You have to let the customer talk and share their problems with you. It makes more sense to be a problem solver.
- Once you hear the customer you should adjust your message to fit his or her needs. Customers have a tendency to reach out to sales people if given the opportunity. The key here is to listen and then solve the problem.
- One technique I like in a sales presentation is the open ended question. Don’t ever ask a yes or no question during a sales call. An open ended question like “what features do you like about this product?” starts a sales discussion.
- Have you brought the customer to the point of asking questions and trying to get you to help him or her? This is a crucial point in the sales discussion to turn the conversation in your favor. When the customer identifies the problem you are on your way to making a sale. Now you are helping and not selling.
- The next key point to have is actual solutions to your customer’s problem. Customers like sales people who will actually help them. It makes their job so much easier. It will eventually elicit such loyalty from your customer. The invitations to come back will be more frequent. This means no more cold calls when you have created a raving fan for a customer.
- The main technique to always remember is to debrief after a sales call. You should review what was discussed and how well you interacted with your prospect. The key is to practice and you will get so much better with time.
