Finding Answers

Are you prepared to close the sale?

Any sales book worth its salt will tell you that you have to prepare before you make the call.  Yeah, I know that.  We all know that.  Yet it is amazing how many sales people just wing it when comes to the sales call.  That attitude means leaving either money on the table or losing the sale.

What does simple preparation look like?

Researching Online

With the abundance of free information on the web, and there is a ton, you do not have to look far to prepare before the call.  If it is a business-to-business sales call you can find whom the key leaders of the company are.  Every company loves to brag about themselves so there are plenty of press releases out there as well.  Public traded companies have even more information just out there for you to stumble upon.  That is the simple technique that right now a majority of your competition does not even use.

To prepare even further and take yourself into the top 5% of sales people, you can use LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media outlets to get the pulse on what people think about your customer.  That is still simple and yet again not used by a majority of sales people.

What does the top 1% do to prepare?

They perform the above and then they take all that information and apply it to the sales call.   That does not mean that they “puke-up” all the data they have learned to impress the prospect or customer.  They use the information to anticipate objections, to give their presentation in the language of the customer, and they apply this data to find hidden needs that even the customer may not be aware about.  They use this information to formulate thoughtful and insightful questions.  They use this information to anticipate answers to these questions.

The top 1% also practice, practice, practice, practice, and practice their sales presentations and answers to objections.  Like the best athletes, the top 1% also visualize what they call will be like.  They visualize the close.

The sales call may only last five minutes, and yet the top 1% put all the effort in before the call.  That is why it looks so easy for them.

Are you prepared?

If not, what are you afraid of?  Winning a sale?