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Suggest You - Sales Process - The Secret to Closing More Sales
Building sound relationships with your customers is the one of the keys to making your business a success. Humans build relationships all their lives, be it with their friends, family, employers, colleagues or peers. As humans, we like to stick to what we know, and this behavior reflects in the choices people make regarding which business organizations to deal with. Building customer relationships is as important to your small business as the price and quality of what you are selling.A successful customer relationship management program revolves around building a network of loyal customers through a process of rewards, incentives, loyalty schemers and quality services.Sta
When you become an expert in business problems and related qualifying questions, your education will not be complete. You also need to learn the questions you can ask to quantify the impact of each business problem.
What is a Quantified Impact?
Quantified impacts are dollar values or percentages wit
The Financial Rewards Including a Company CarA career in pharmaceutical sales offers some of the best benefits and perks anyone can ask for in a job. Typical starting salaries are in the low $30,000s and established representatives can have base salaries in the $90,000s. Bonuses on top of that for high sales performers can easily push incomes into the six figure range. But in addition to the money, there are numerous other attractive perks in pharmaceutical sales.One of the nicest perks that pharmaceutical sales representatives enjoy is the use of recent model company cars. These are usually midsize sedans that are leased under a company fleet program. Some ph
What is a Business Problem?
A business problem is any activity or outcome that negatively impacts a business. Examples of negative impacts include reductions in revenue, profits, customer satisfaction, employee productivity, job satisfaction, etc.
Here is an example of a business problem description:
"Many mission-critical software applications (e-business, manufacturing, point-of-sale, etc.) need to access relational databases in order to function. If a database has problems (goes down or suffers data loss or corruption), application downtime can cost companies tens of thousands of dollars per minute in lost sales, lost customers, and lost opportunities."
In the above example, the business problem is a database that is not functioning properly.
What is the relationship between Business Problems and the Features and Benefits of a product or service?
Features are what actually solve business problems. Benefits are what customers enjoy when the business problem has been solved.
The only features prospects actually care about are the ones that will solve their own specific business problems. If we randomly spew long lists of features and benefits at prospects, in effect we are hoping they are already aware of their business problems, and they will somehow figure out which of our (product or service) features will solve their business problems. This is a very inefficient way to sell. Plus, we run the risk that our prospects will NOT figure out which features will solve their business problems. Or, they may become bored and "switch off" before we mention features that may actually be of interest to them!
If you are going to talk about features and benefits, discuss only those features that will solve your prospect's specific business problems! Of course, you need to identify your prospect's business problems if you want to have this kind of highly targeted discussion.
If your employer's product or service training programs do not specifically address business problems, you will need to do some digging to uncover them. Ask the question, "What problems does this product or service solve?" Another way to ask this question is, "What would motivate a prospect to make the investment required to buy this product/service?" Then, once you have made a list of the most important business problems, ask, "What questions can I ask that will help me figure out whether a prospect has any of these business problems?"
When you become an expert in business problems and related qualifying questions, your education will not be complete. You also need to learn the questions you can ask to quantify the impact of each business problem.
What is a Quantified Impact?
Quantified impacts are dollar values or percentages with
I've seen it happen time and again to programmers, network engineers and administrators, and other IT personnel. They get a solid IT position, a good-paying job, and they get comfortable. They stop keeping up with the latest technologies, they stop studying, they no longer keep their CCNA, MCSE, and other industry certifications up-to-date.... and then one day, their comfortable job is gone.Maybe they get laid off, maybe the company moves and they don't want to move with it... but for one reason or another, they're in the worst position possible. They have no job, and they have allowed their IT skills to deteriorate to the point where they are no longer employable.If
In the above example, the business problem is a database that is not functioning properly.
What is the relationship between Business Problems and the Features and Benefits of a product or service?
Features are what actually solve business problems. Benefits are what customers enjoy when the business problem has been solved.
The only features prospects actually care about are the ones that will solve their own specific business problems. If we randomly spew long lists of features and benefits at prospects, in effect we are hoping they are already aware of their business problems, and they will somehow figure out which of our (product or service) features will solve their business problems. This is a very inefficient way to sell. Plus, we run the risk that our prospects will NOT figure out which features will solve their business problems. Or, they may become bored and "switch off" before we mention features that may actually be of interest to them!
If you are going to talk about features and benefits, discuss only those features that will solve your prospect's specific business problems! Of course, you need to identify your prospect's business problems if you want to have this kind of highly targeted discussion.
If your employer's product or service training programs do not specifically address business problems, you will need to do some digging to uncover them. Ask the question, "What problems does this product or service solve?" Another way to ask this question is, "What would motivate a prospect to make the investment required to buy this product/service?" Then, once you have made a list of the most important business problems, ask, "What questions can I ask that will help me figure out whether a prospect has any of these business problems?"
When you become an expert in business problems and related qualifying questions, your education will not be complete. You also need to learn the questions you can ask to quantify the impact of each business problem.
What is a Quantified Impact?
Quantified impacts are dollar values or percentages wit
The number of web designers have increased in the past years mainly because more and more people have discovered the benefits of doing business online. If you look around, you will notice that the most successful web designers in the business are those who are very creative and original. The different software available in the market could never duplicate natural talent and skills. Many web designers today have chosen to be self-employed. It could be quite difficult at the beginning. But as soon as they have established themselves, customers would be pouring in.If you are considering establishing yourself as a freelancer, you should have both the talent and the equipment to be s
The only features prospects actually care about are the ones that will solve their own specific business problems. If we randomly spew long lists of features and benefits at prospects, in effect we are hoping they are already aware of their business problems, and they will somehow figure out which of our (product or service) features will solve their business problems. This is a very inefficient way to sell. Plus, we run the risk that our prospects will NOT figure out which features will solve their business problems. Or, they may become bored and "switch off" before we mention features that may actually be of interest to them!
If you are going to talk about features and benefits, discuss only those features that will solve your prospect's specific business problems! Of course, you need to identify your prospect's business problems if you want to have this kind of highly targeted discussion.
If your employer's product or service training programs do not specifically address business problems, you will need to do some digging to uncover them. Ask the question, "What problems does this product or service solve?" Another way to ask this question is, "What would motivate a prospect to make the investment required to buy this product/service?" Then, once you have made a list of the most important business problems, ask, "What questions can I ask that will help me figure out whether a prospect has any of these business problems?"
When you become an expert in business problems and related qualifying questions, your education will not be complete. You also need to learn the questions you can ask to quantify the impact of each business problem.
What is a Quantified Impact?
Quantified impacts are dollar values or percentages wit
If you’ve chosen a business career, you will inevitably experience some type of setback. And whether your pet project is canceled, your performance review is a bust, you get turned down for a promotion, or you’re asked to leave the company, setbacks hurt big time. Nevertheless, if you start thinking of yourself as a victim or allow yourself to lapse into prolonged negativity, you won’t be hurting anyone except yourself. Worrying until you get sick, abusing drugs or denying that you’ve reached an impasse won’t help either. The best strategy for making a comeback is to recognize the reality of the situation, acknowledge your feelings and find a way to cope productively. Here are som
If you are going to talk about features and benefits, discuss only those features that will solve your prospect's specific business problems! Of course, you need to identify your prospect's business problems if you want to have this kind of highly targeted discussion.
If your employer's product or service training programs do not specifically address business problems, you will need to do some digging to uncover them. Ask the question, "What problems does this product or service solve?" Another way to ask this question is, "What would motivate a prospect to make the investment required to buy this product/service?" Then, once you have made a list of the most important business problems, ask, "What questions can I ask that will help me figure out whether a prospect has any of these business problems?"
When you become an expert in business problems and related qualifying questions, your education will not be complete. You also need to learn the questions you can ask to quantify the impact of each business problem.
What is a Quantified Impact?
Quantified impacts are dollar values or percentages wit
If you’re like most publicity seekers, you probably think oneproject at a time. You’ve got a new product coming out in April,so you send out a release in March. You’ve hired a new executive,you’ll put out a release when she’s on board, etc. For hard-core publicity insiders, though, there’s a rhythm togenerating coverage, based upon the natural ebb and flow of theseasons. Such an approach can help you score publicity throughoutthe year, and will help keep your eye on the ball from Januarythrough December. Essentially, a yearlong approach consists of two strategies: - Timing your existing stories (new product introductions,oddball
When you become an expert in business problems and related qualifying questions, your education will not be complete. You also need to learn the questions you can ask to quantify the impact of each business problem.
What is a Quantified Impact?
Quantified impacts are dollar values or percentages with associated time frames that can be assigned to specific business problems. In the earlier business problem description, the quantified impact was "tens of thousands of dollars per minute".
Quantified impacts are an invaluable aid to closing sales. How? If the quantified impact of a business problem exceeds the investment required to fix the problem, a buying decision is easy to justify. The larger the difference between the quantified impact and the required investment, the easier it becomes to close the sale. If the quantified impact is a multiple of the required investment (for example, a quantified impact of millions of dollars versus a required investment of thousands of dollars), the buying decision becomes "a no-brainer".
IMPORTANT NOTE: In order for a quantified impact to add value to the sales process, your prospect must be the source of the numbers. Why? In general, prospects don't trust salespeople. Many have dealt with salespeople who were more interested in making sales than they were in providing value. Plus, prospects recognize that salespeople have a vested interest in creating a compelling business case that can be used to support a buying decision. This causes prospects to discount any quantified impact information that salespeople provide. However, if the prospect is the source of the quantified impact information, they perceive it as unquestioned truth. This makes learning how to ask quantifying questions a valuable skill indeed!
If you want to close more sales, invest some time and effort in identifying the business problems that can be solved by your products and services. If you become an expert in business problems and the questions you can ask to 1) determine whether a prospect has specific business problems, and 2) quantify the impact of those business problems, you will close more sales faster and with less effort.
Copyright 2005 -- Alan Rigg
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