Another element to remember is the handshake. If you meet someone for the first time, then in my opinion, reaching out to shake his/her hand is too aggressive. I have a rule of thumb on the handshake – don’t reach out unless it is a pre-planned visit, meaning they know who you are and why you are there; then there is nothing wrong with reaching out. Please, the business handshake for both men and women today is a deep firm handshake. People judge you often times by the way you come across in the very beginning with the handshake.
Next, we move on to the third piece in the puzzle, which is Qualification. The term qualification means we qualify them before we start asking/telling them about a future decision. We have created an acronym that will help you learn this concept. It is using the word “needs” spelled “n.e.a.d.s,” meaning we are not going to talk about a future buying decision until we find out what their n.e.a.d.s. are. Now, this will make you unique in the profession of selling. Most salespeople right from the beginning tell the prospect that they know what they need, why they should buy it, and so forth. The problem with that is it is too pushy today. So, we are going to use the acronym, and each letter triggers one of the concepts of questioning and qualifying. The ‘N’ stands for the word ‘now’, meaning, what do they have now? Here is a key point. Their past buying experience somewhat dictates their future buying decisions. If you show me your past, I can tell you a lot about your future.
Once I know what you have now, or what your past experience is, I then want to probe with questions about what you ‘enjoy’, and that is what the ‘E’ stands for. What do they enjoy about what they have now? Why are they enjoying it? The reason why this is important is that they will want that same feature or an improvement of that feature in a new product.
The ‘A’ in N.E.A.D. stands for what they would like to ‘alter’. That means what would the prospect like to do different or what would they like to change in the product or service?
The ‘D’ stands for ‘decision maker’. It is vitally important that we as sales professionals find out who the real decision maker is for our prospect. You can do that with one wonderful little sentence. You can smile at the decision maker and say, “If we are fortunate to satisfy your needs, who other than yourself will be involved in the final decision?” That is a wonderful sentence for you to write down and start using.
The ‘S’ stands for ‘solution’. As sales professionals, we are the solution to their need. We find out what that need is, and then we become the solution for it.
The fourth in the puzzle is called Presentation. Presentation, or demonstration, is the way that you show the benefits of your product. Never forget this: people do not invest in your product. They primarily invest in what it will do for them after they own it. In other words, my product is not what it is; my product is what it does and that is how the entire presentation must be structured.
There are fundamentals of a good presentation. First of all, presenting is not a spectator sport; it must be an involvement process where you involve the prospect in the presentation. Remember, the more senses that you get involved, the better. To do this, you must master the art of questioning. When you ask the prospect questions, you not only are building rapport, but you are also learning what their needs and concerns are. You are involving them in the presentation.
The presentation covers three basic fundamentals:
1 Who we are
2 What we have done
3 What we will do for you.
Now, when you finish your presentation, the next process is you are going to see how they feel about going further. We call this developing a little test question, and these two are so wonderful; I hope you will develop them. Just smile and say, “Mr. Johnson, how are you feeling about all of this so far?” What a great little question. It lets you know if they are ready to go further or if they have more questions.
The second question I would like you to consider is this: “Mr. Johnson, do you see why we are so excited about this product?” You see, if he says to you, “Yes, I am excited too,” then he wants to go further and you know you are on target emotionally to get ready for the final closing of the sale.
At this point in the presentation, I can almost guarantee something is going to happen. Never forget, in most cases, no one can say “yes” until they first give you some type of no. In other words, there is something that happens when you present a product or service they don’t own. They hear a little voice in their ear that says, “I want it, I want it, I want it,” but then comes the fear of ownership. The buying tension grows. A pro knows how to turn the no into a yes. In fact, I do not believe we are really doing our job, the art of selling, until they say no or hit us with an area of concern. So, let me now cover the six steps of handling the objection.
Step Number 1 is what we call “Hear Them Out.” In a nutshell, this simply means don’t interrupt them. Too many people in selling, especially after they have a few years under their belt, answer objections too soon. They hear a couple of words that smell like an objection, so they jump in and end up answering the wrong area of concern. So, as a cardinal rule, I suggest you never attempt to answer an objection until the end of your presentation.
Use the, hear it twice rule. Now, what does that mean? Well, the prospect needs to mention the objection twice or it is probably not a real area of concern. So, if we are going to not answer a concern, we need to develop a concept I call the bypass. A bypass is simply asking them if it is ok if you wait to answer their question till the end of your presentation.
When they interrupt you with an objection and you are in the middle of the presentation, just simply say, “Mr. Johnson, I can appreciate that and I would like to note that as an area of concern, and with your permission, can I handle that at the end of my presentation?” Do you see how nice that was? Very gentle. The reason you use a bypass is two-fold. One, during your presentation you can address and overwhelm the objection to where it has no more power. Two, he may forget about the objection all together.
Step Number 2 is called ‘Feed it Back’. That means we ask him to elaborate. All right, so what has happened here is that you have finished your presentation and sure enough, the prospect hits you with the same objection he hit you with earlier. Now, you know you have to handle it. He might say, for example, “Tom, I just really believe that it costs too much.” And so you will feed it back. Warmly say – using his name – “John, today most things do; can you tell me about how much too much you feel it is?”
Step Number 3 is called ‘Question It’. In this section, you simply question how important it is. Say, “Mr. Johnson, is this area of concern critical at arriving at a final decision?” This one question often eliminates the entire area of concern.
Step Number 4 is called ‘Answer It’. This means you are choosing the applicable closing technique. Let me give you an analogy. Most of us have visited a restaurant where we first walk in, sit down, and then they hand us a menu. We open the menu and choose the food we want for the meal. In most cases, we aren’t going to look up at the server and say, “I will have one of everything.” Closing is the same way. We choose the applicable closing technique for the situation. So, you must have many closing techniques on your menu.
Step Number 5 is called ‘Confirm the Answer’. When we have given our answer to the objection, we must then Confirm the Answer. That means you must now warmly say, “Now that settles that, doesn’t it?” Now, if you don’t do that, they will hit you with the same objection later on because you didn’t confirm the fact that you answered it.
Step Number 6 is called ‘Change Gears’. Change gears means when you handle an objection, you can’t stop or they will hit you with another one. So, we take them elsewhere with three words. The words are, “By … the … way.” Those three little