Apr 15 2009
The Sales Process - Opening
We’ve discussed opening at length earlier in our journey together. Here are the links to the posts so you can review them if you wish:
http://salesandmarketingtips.today.com/2009/01/09/start-from-the-start/
http://salesandmarketingtips.today.com/2009/01/10/lets-go-win-game-1/
Basically, the opening is three main steps - the greeting, introduction, and transition to investigation.
A strong greeting is key. And, as has been mentioned before, “Can I help you?” is NOT a strong greeting. It’s not even mediocre - it’s the death knell. Greet a person that way and you’ve elicited your first objection before they even know who you are.
Image from http://pro.corbis.com/images
Your greeting includes two pieces - a proper welcome, and an either/or question. Something like this:
“Welcome to ABC Yahoozits! Is this your first visit, or have you been here before?”
The key to the either or question is that it can’t be answered ‘no’. It doesn’t matter what they answer is - you simply use that as part of the next step, the introduction. Perhaps along these lines:
“Excellent - we’re always pleased when one of our customers returns to us! My name is Blog-Man……and you are?”
After they’ve introduced themselves (and you’ve made sure to remember their names however necessary), we use more either/or questions to make our transition to the introduction. For example:
“Great! Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Prospect, and I look forward to assisting you today. Have you come in to replace one of your current Yahoozits or are you adding a new one?”
“Are you adding because of an increase in business or simply to have a spare in case of a problem?”
“Terrific! I’m glad to hear business is going well for you! Let’s step into my office for a moment or two so I can ask a few questions to ensure we set you up with the right product for your needs……….”
In a span of about 4 or 5 minutes, we’ve done three things:
1. Gotten our first few pieces of information on the road to the sale
2. Put our prospect at ease with a professional demeanor and the knowledge that we are interested in HIS needs
3. Gotten the prospect to answer several questions in a non-defensive fashion, AND prepared him for the fact that we will be asking more questions.
What more can you ask for in your first five minutes with a prospect?
NEXT POST: We begin our in-depth investigation………no CSI training required.
Now go sell something!
