Demonstration- The most important element in the Sales Process

You have worked your way to the Customer’s heart by properly following the MEET & GREET stage. Thereafter, during the QUALIFICATION process you asked him the relevant questions and listened to him effectively and made all the notes required for you to understand what the prospective customer wants from his new car/ product.

Now you need to effectively convince the client that your product meets all his requirements and hence you must now demonstrate the product to him/ her. If you have understood all his needs/ wants, then during DEMONSTRATION, you should only focus and demonstrate those features of the product which will satisfy his needs/ wants. This means that you should show the benefits that a particular feature provides. E.g.; if the client wants his family to be safe at all times in the new car, then you must show him how SAFE your car is from his perspective. So, in this case you will show him how good the seat belt system is e.g. a three point seat belt, or how long and wide is the beam of the headlights is which are great in the night while driving, additional safety is ensured by 4 Airbags, etc, etc.

However you have to be properly prepared before any demonstration appointment.

1) You must be completely knowledgeable about the product, as the client can ask any technical/ non-technical queries at the time of the demo. If your product/ service has any WOW factors (USP) which your competitor may not have then you must highlight it, e.g. pedestrian safety feature where the bumpers of your vehicle are designed in such a way that, in an unfortunate event of an accident the pedestrian does not go under the vehicle, but rolls over the bonnet. In this case you do not accidently harm the person fatally.

2) You must be extremely enthusiastic and excited about your product/ service and it should be seen through in the way you demonstrate the product.

3) Always build a story around your demonstration, so that the demo sticks in the mind of the prospect.

4) Create an image in the mind of the prospect that he is already owning the product and enjoying its use.

5) Stress only on the benefits with respect to the needs expressed by the prospect during the QUALIFICATION stage.

Above all, make the demonstration and interesting exercise and not a boring one, where both, the prospect and you enjoy the entire process. This will be the biggest differentiator between a Good demonstration and a Brilliant demonstration

Happy Selling!

If you want more information on how to sell effectively, and more so if you want your team to succeed in the ever increasing competitive world, then, visit my website at www.prashantwelling.com or better still arrange for a training program for you sales team. All details are available on the website.

Qualification- Why it is the most important part in the Selling Process

Let me first introduce you to the various steps in the selling process:

1)         Meet & Greet- Here you introduce yourself and get to know the prospects name and     other initial details. (In some cases, you might be lucky to get hold of his Visiting card straightaway)

2)         Qualification- Understand the prospective customer’s needs and wants

3)         Presentation- Present the product/ service

4)         Overcome Objections- Effectively clarifies/ answers/ satisfies queries and questions of the prospect.

5)         Negotiation- Negotiate the deal (Price, terms and conditions, etc)

6)         Close- gets the contract signed and seals the deal

If you have noticed, Qualification comes immediately after the meeting and greeting stage. Have you ever wondered why?

It is one the most important steps in the selling process. It helps in saving a huge amount of time and gets you to close the deal effectively and smoothly.

If Qualification of the prospect is done in a proper way then you will not have to deal with a lot of objections regarding the product/ service at a later stage and also the price negotiation will not be a long and tedious process. Most salesmen try to cut short the qualification process and then spend huge amounts of time and energy in overcoming objections and clarifications about the product/ service, thus putting pressure on themselves and end up delaying the process or even losing the deal and also converting a perfect good prospective customer into a dis-satisfied customer who will damage the reputation of your brand.

For example, look at this scenario;

A prospect comes into a car showroom looking to purchase a car which has good safety standards and features. He has a family with children whose safety is his concern.

The salesman at the dealership does not qualify his requirements/ needs properly and shows him a vehicle, which is known for speed e.g.; this car, goes from 0-100 Kph in just 8 seconds.

Now the customer who is looking for safety, will immediately reject this vehicle in his mind, as he is looking for safety and not speed, will raise objections at a later stage of the sales process, which will either delay the deal or even reject the proposition totally leading to a loss of sale to the dealership and the brand too.

Now consider this: If the salesman informs the prospective customer that this vehicle has Airbags, ABS Braking system, bigger headlamps which will illuminate the road ahead and on the sides for a longer area while driving and additionally it also has child locking system on the doors which will not allow the doors to open accidentally while driving. These and other safety features of the same vehicle if presented properly (after understanding the prospects requirements) will lead to lesser objections and also help in closing the deal for the salesman and end up getting a happy and a satisfied customer for life.

As you can see from this small example it is extremely important to qualify the needs and wants and the overall requirements of the prospect before suggesting a product in your portfolio. Your product/ service has many features which will benefit the prospect’s various needs and wants, but the salesman must be aware of all these and must present them selectively to the prospect, in order to convince him/her that this is the right choice of brand for his/ her requirement.

The qualification process is effectively managed with the help of these six open ended questions;

What, When, Where, How and Why

If the salesman uses these effectively to ask the relevant questions then you can be sure you will be on the road to successful selling.

So, practice these questions and use them as much as you can till you have understood the prospects requirements and then move ahead on the sales process as mentioned above.

All The Best!

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If you need your sales team to be more effective, then invite me for a consultancy and/ training program tailored to your needs and create more sales and business for your organisation.

Visit my website www.prashantwelling.com where this blog is also recorded. 

What Makes an Ideal Salesman!

A salesman has always been labelled and generalised as Con Man, and dishonest. This is because of a few dishonest men in this very noble profession who have tarnished it. It is one of the noblest professions in the world because a salesman helps you taking the right decision for yourself. He is actually your friend in need! He helps you in going through your needs and wants and then helps you to choose the product or service which will suit your requirements and budget.

A salesman job is the most difficult. He has to go out there and sell the company’s products and /or services and get revenue for his organisation. Sales the department which actually, physically converts all the effort of an organisation which has conceived, produced, packaged and marketed the product.

Hence, the salesperson becomes a very important person in the entire chain of the organisation.

He has to have a following traits/ qualities in order to become a successful salesperson.

1-         Self Confident

A sales person must be a confident of himself. This means that he must know his product/ service thoroughly. He must be knowledgeable of his competition and the strengths and weaknesses of his own product/ service as well as his competitors’. He must know his target audience or his customer profile. If he is not aware of who, his prospective customers are, he will never be able to sell effectively. For example, If the prospect, he has approached does not have need for the product/ service or if the product /service is as per his needs or wants, but he does not have the required wherewithal (disposable income) to pay, the efforts will be in vain and the sale will not happen.

2-         Empathy

A sales person must always be empathetic towards the clients’ moods and emotion. He must try to think from the clients’ perspective and react.

Suppose during a sales call, a client gets news that some calamity has occurred in his office or premises, it would be help if the sales person understands the situation and asks the customer whether it would be better to stop the discussion there and then if the situation warrants it or does he want to continue. If the customer says that it will be handled by his staff (HR/ Admin dept) and that they can continue, only then he should go further. It will help in strengthening his customer relationship and help him later to close the deal effectively.

3-         Problem Solver

Every salesperson must be a solution provider to the prospective client. He must help the client in visualising how his product or service will help increase the productivity of his firm by saving, time, energy, money, manpower or all of them in some form or the other. 

4-         ‘Never say Die!’ Attitude

An effective and successful sales person has a ‘Never say Die!’ attitude at all times. He is eternally optimistic in nature.

He must be able to take a 99 “No’s” and finally get that 100^th yes and clinch the deal. Every sales call is different because every prospect is different and therefore the next call will also be different than the previous one. Even if the earlier calls have not been converted successfully, he should say to himself, one more call, and I will close this one. Try and try until you succeed.

Try different ways and means, think laterally, and tread the path which others haven’t tried before. There is always a better way, a different way to close the deal.

Be Successful, Be different, Keep Trying! That’s the Mantra!

If you have any queries or would like to communicate with me then you may write in to me at welling1161@gmail.com.

Visit my website www.prashantwelling.com