golden opportunity for you people who sell things that can’t be seen or touched
Monday, May 18th, 2009 It poses a worthy challenge to your determination and willingness to grow. Overcome that challenge and you’ll reap the rewards that go only to those who rise above the competition.
Of course, I can’t tell you exactly how to do this with your offering because I don’t have your expert knowledge of it. But the principle is simple and can readily be adapted to selling anything—services or products. One example will indicate the direction you should take.
Let’s suppose that you sell life insurance and annuities to self- employed people by helping them set up Keogh retirement plans to fund the insurance and other investments. When you call on a prospect, you could sit there and blow tax and insurance technicalities at him until his eyes glaze over and he’s desperate to be rid of you. You could load his desk down with charts and visual selling aids that you flip, point at, and are generally active with while he sits there watching. (As long as this approach isn’t your main thrust, it’s effective. I urge you to incorporate all the visual aids you can to support, but not make, your main arguments). You could do either of those two things, or you could show him how to calculate the advantages that you’re offering. When he does that, he’s actively learning why he should invest in your plan and your insurance. You’ll lose control if you try to do this by talking while he’s supposed to work it all out on a blank pad of paper. (If you’re working on large transactions, prepare a prospectus for each client that clarifies all the formulas and simplifies all questions.) In the repetitive sales situations that most of us work with, have a packet of forms typed and run off on a copying machine. Keep them simple. Triple-spaced. Wide margins all around. Limit yourself to ten lines of information on each page, with no more than three blank spaces for the prospect to fill in.
Don’t slow the process down with details. You can get things like social security numbers during the close or after the sale is made. For now, stick to the bare essentials, and urge the prospect to use the estimates and round numbers.