INTRODUCATION
Once upon a time, at the beginning of the World, God created salespeople. And the salespeople went forth and multiplied in abundance and they took on all different shapes and sizes and colors. The salespeople flourished and diversified into many different fields and backgrounds and into all walks of life. They took on the roles of executives, sales managers, franchisees, business people, shop-owners and the self-employed, agents, assistants, representatives, consultants, advisers and a special breed of commission only. In short salespeople. And God saw what he had done, and he was pleased.
One on one: The Secrets of professional Sales Closing is a book for all those salespeople, and for anyone in business who wants to succeed and grow and prosper. Anyone can sell, but it’s closing that makes the sale, and One on One will teach you how to do just that – close the sale, day in day out, year after year. This is not a storybook, but a detailed, comprehensive sales closing manual that will show you not just what you should do but exactly how you should do it. Inside these pages you will find time-kept secrets, and techniques, tricks and tacties which are proven and work, and everything is written in an easy pick-up-and-put-down format, with examples, simple illustrations and light-hearted exercises.
The intention on this book is to teach you how to become a PRO-CLO (a pro9fessional sales closer), an honest, caring and very successful indri dual, and also to give you the means that will make you rich in both wealth and happiness.
The contents of these pages include many lessons examples and closes that can easily be adapted to fit any sales situation, anywhere, and to anyone. In part One you will be taken on a staircase of thirty-nine steps, starting with sure-fire techniques and preparation, leading on to the art of successful selling, and finally culminating in asking for the order. In Part Two you will learn how to deal with objections and how to overcome the forty-two most common ones there are, Part Three is an arsenal of sixty proven closes for everyday use, your ammunition for becoming a superpower. And finally in part Four, you will discover how to get to the top and stay there.
The techniques and closes in this encyclopedia on sales have not evolved overnight, they have been accumulated over years of success and first hand experience in sales, in business and in training salespeople. The path of proven success is always the best one to follow, and many of the techniques and closes in this book are either from a bygone age or adapted from some of the world’s greatest sales trainers of today. These, together with the secrets of a proclo, are now combined to create a book of such magnitude that your sales figures are guaranteed to increase.
The key to learning from this book is to make it work for you. As you read through the pages you will find that it talks to you. I urge you to talk back to it, fill it full of your scribbles and use a highlighter pen to make any important pieces stand out. Make this book yours personally and it will work for you. Refer to it time and time again, and re-read it at regular intervals. Take on board the lessons and techniques and adapt them into your everyday life. If you will do as I ask, this book will indeed make you rich.
The purpose of my writing this book is my sincere desire to pass on the secret techniques of the pro-clo. In my selling career I have personally closed in excess of $20 million of sales one on one, and I have trained thousands of salespeople from all over the world. My reason for telling you this is not to blow my own horn, but to convince you as best as I can that the techniques and closes in this book have been tried and tested and proven to work. From my experience, the most sought-after information by salespeople everywhere is information on closing the sale, and that is exactly what this book provides. It is unique because it concentrates on closing, not just on selling.
And finally, before diving in I would like to explain that for simplicity and case of reading I have restricted myself to the use of “he” or ‘him’ rather than using literally hundreds of times ‘he/she’ or ‘him/her’. The use of the masculine pronoun is simply for convenience, and is in no way meant to be derogative or chauvinistic. Also for ease of reading, I refer to ‘a product’ rather than continuously writing ‘product’ goods, or services’. And one last thing…… As this is a positive book, I have assumed in the many examples that a sale will be made and therefore the purchaser will become a customer. There are many different names for a customer- a prospect, a client, an up, a lead, a buyer, a purchaser, a consumer, and so on. I prefer the name ‘customer’ because (a) it assumes a sales will be made and (b) it suggests that regular sales will be made.
There are no ifs, buts, or maybes about it, the techniques and closes in this book will, if you apply them, take you to the top, the best of the best, a true pro-clo.
Now it’s time to go to it and begin your climb of the thirty –nine steps to success. Good luck.
Ian Seymour
PS The first thing you should do with this book is stick your name on it.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Persistence conquers resistance
Persistence conquers resistance
As we take this first step together, I’d like to share with you the very first rule of closing –Persistence conquers resistance.
For an early age, children learn that if they persist and keep asking, they can and will overcome the resistance of parents. They learn that ‘no’ doesn’t really mean ‘NO ’it simply means that they haven’t convinced Mum and Dad enough yet. So they continue to put forward their case, they persist in asking until they get whatever it is they want.
This same principle applies in selling. If a pro-clo believes that his product or service will be beneficial to his customer then he will persist until his customer is also convinced. Very often a customer will say no, but a pro-clo doesn’t give up.Even when the going gets really tough, he will continue because he knows that eventually persistence will always conquer resistance and in the end both the pro-clo and the customer will benefit.
This profession called selling can be the best-paid, hardest job in the world or the worst-paid, easiest job in the world. The rewards are down to an individual’s ability and effort, and only the strongest survive. The profession of selling, of closing sales, has made more millionaires than any other. A pro-clo can make more money than the company chairman who runs the company, or more money than the prime minister who runs the country, simply because in the profession of selling there is no ceiling on what you can earn. What’s more, apart form achieving financial security, once you have proven yourself, once you become a pro-clo, you can benefit from working what I call Martini time- any time, any place, anywhere and for anyone, because your skills will always be in demand.
Professional closers have attributes such as enthusiasm, confidence, a positive mental attitude, and an appetite for success. Above all, they have continuity and persistence.
Calvin Coolidge wrote:
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not – nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with taient. Genius will not unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not – the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Remember, the brightest lights are always the first to fade. Don’t be a one-day wonder. Be consistent by being persistent.
As we take this first step together, I’d like to share with you the very first rule of closing –Persistence conquers resistance.
For an early age, children learn that if they persist and keep asking, they can and will overcome the resistance of parents. They learn that ‘no’ doesn’t really mean ‘NO ’it simply means that they haven’t convinced Mum and Dad enough yet. So they continue to put forward their case, they persist in asking until they get whatever it is they want.
This same principle applies in selling. If a pro-clo believes that his product or service will be beneficial to his customer then he will persist until his customer is also convinced. Very often a customer will say no, but a pro-clo doesn’t give up.Even when the going gets really tough, he will continue because he knows that eventually persistence will always conquer resistance and in the end both the pro-clo and the customer will benefit.
This profession called selling can be the best-paid, hardest job in the world or the worst-paid, easiest job in the world. The rewards are down to an individual’s ability and effort, and only the strongest survive. The profession of selling, of closing sales, has made more millionaires than any other. A pro-clo can make more money than the company chairman who runs the company, or more money than the prime minister who runs the country, simply because in the profession of selling there is no ceiling on what you can earn. What’s more, apart form achieving financial security, once you have proven yourself, once you become a pro-clo, you can benefit from working what I call Martini time- any time, any place, anywhere and for anyone, because your skills will always be in demand.
Professional closers have attributes such as enthusiasm, confidence, a positive mental attitude, and an appetite for success. Above all, they have continuity and persistence.
Calvin Coolidge wrote:
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not – nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with taient. Genius will not unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not – the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Remember, the brightest lights are always the first to fade. Don’t be a one-day wonder. Be consistent by being persistent.
Positive mental attitude (PMA)
Positive mental attitude (PMA)
Having looked at the importance of persistence, we will now look at another, equally important, attribute of the por-clo: a positive mental attitude (PMA).
Attitude comes form the heart and ends up in the mind. In other words, you must first have a burning desire or need to succeed before your mind will give you the positive attitude needed to accomplish the task and continue to do so.
I am now going to show you how, with a certain attitude you will succeed too per cent of the time. That’s right, succeed too per cent of the time, with every customer you meet. Here’s how If you have the attitude that you will fail with every customer you meet, I guarantee you will be right. You will succeed too per cent of the time. You will in fact, fail with every customer and never make a sale.
Attitude is all about belief – faith in yourself, and your ability to succeed. It has been said that only the persuaded are able to persuade. The best way to illustrate this is by way of examples. Here’s an old favorite
Thomas Edison was the inventor of the electric light bulb. Throughout the course of his experiments, try as he might, Edison couldn’t manage to make the filament last more than a few seconds. Eventually, after many hundreds of experiments, Edison was asked why he continued to persevere after failing so many times. Edison replied: I don’t consider that I have failed hundreds of time. I have in fact succeeded in finding hundreds of ways it won’t work. After many more hundred of experiment, Edison finally succeeded in inventing a light bulb where filament lasted months and months and months. What persistence, what a great attitude and what a passion for success!
One of the most positive people I know and also a very good friend of mind, luis Gonzalez, says:
The only difference between a loser and a winner is one of attitude. The loser’s attitude is, he never was, isn’t now, and never will be. The winner’s attitude is, he has been, still is, and never will be. The winner’s attitude is, he has been, still is, and will continue to be.
I remember when I was a sales manager having a problem with a sales called Adam. Now Adam had ability, he had proven himself in the past and was a likeable chap, but over the previous couple of months he had gone straight downhill.
I tried everything to lift him up again. I went over is presentation with a fine tooth comb. I gave him it tives until they were coming out of his ears. I tried to motivate him and teach him some new trice. I pushed some exceptionally good leads his in the hope that a sale would fix everything. Nothing worried so eventually, as a last straw, I put
Adma on notice. I gave him a final target: three sales out on the next ten leads, otherwise you’re out.
Adam didn’t want to be sackd, and I didn’t didn’t want to let him go- as I said, he was a
likeable chap. This is what happened.
I gave Adam the afternoon off, on condition that he would do what I was about to ask him to do, no matter how silly it might seem. After all there is no harm in trying. Then I said to him:
Adam I’m going to give you the afternoon off so you can go home. Whilst you’re going home, I want you to say to yourself, time and time again, I’m going to get a deal tomorrow”. Then when you get home, instead of doing whatever it is that you normally do, go into the garden, relax, and say to yourself over and over again, I’m going to get a deal tomorrow, I’m going to get a deal tomorrow. All through your shower and evening meal, drum it into yourself, I’m going to get a deal tomorrow. I’m going to “Instead of watching television, go for a long walk and repeat that statement to yourself thousands upon thousands of times until you’re almost brainwashed.
Go to bed early, and instead of reading or counting sheep, say to yourself, “I’m going to get a deal tomorrow…” Keep saying it until you drop asleep and if possible, say it in your sleep. In the morning as you get up, dressed and breakfasted, say to yourself over and over “I’m going to get a deal today” And say it all the way to work. I’m going to get a deal to say”- say it with emotion end convietion.
Adam did as I asked and repeated that statement literally thousands of times. In doing so he embedded the statement in his subconscious, where it started to become a belief.
He doubted at first whether this advice would work and ad he took his first appointment, his customer came up with a few negatives and minor objections. Adam wasn’t in the slightest surprised – his doubts were confirmed. It wasn’t going to work.
Then a strange phenomenon occurred. As well as negative points, the customer came up with a few positive points and buying signals. Adam’s subconscious mind jumped into action as if someone had kicked him, and his subconscious said: Adam, hang on a minute, maybe you will get a deal today after all’. For the first time in over two months. Adam started looking for and listening to positives. Needless to say, he made the sale and made his target, and today he is back on top again.
In the above exercise, Adam changed his attitude from negative to positive by persistently creating a desired thought-pattern. There have been many books on this subject, but for my reckoning the best is The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. You would be well –advice to get yourself a copy.
If you don’t have a PMA (Positive mental attitude) when you meet your customer, then you’re DOA (Dead on arrival). PMA creates persistence and enthusiasm and success.
Having looked at the importance of persistence, we will now look at another, equally important, attribute of the por-clo: a positive mental attitude (PMA).
Attitude comes form the heart and ends up in the mind. In other words, you must first have a burning desire or need to succeed before your mind will give you the positive attitude needed to accomplish the task and continue to do so.
I am now going to show you how, with a certain attitude you will succeed too per cent of the time. That’s right, succeed too per cent of the time, with every customer you meet. Here’s how If you have the attitude that you will fail with every customer you meet, I guarantee you will be right. You will succeed too per cent of the time. You will in fact, fail with every customer and never make a sale.
Attitude is all about belief – faith in yourself, and your ability to succeed. It has been said that only the persuaded are able to persuade. The best way to illustrate this is by way of examples. Here’s an old favorite
Thomas Edison was the inventor of the electric light bulb. Throughout the course of his experiments, try as he might, Edison couldn’t manage to make the filament last more than a few seconds. Eventually, after many hundreds of experiments, Edison was asked why he continued to persevere after failing so many times. Edison replied: I don’t consider that I have failed hundreds of time. I have in fact succeeded in finding hundreds of ways it won’t work. After many more hundred of experiment, Edison finally succeeded in inventing a light bulb where filament lasted months and months and months. What persistence, what a great attitude and what a passion for success!
One of the most positive people I know and also a very good friend of mind, luis Gonzalez, says:
The only difference between a loser and a winner is one of attitude. The loser’s attitude is, he never was, isn’t now, and never will be. The winner’s attitude is, he has been, still is, and never will be. The winner’s attitude is, he has been, still is, and will continue to be.
I remember when I was a sales manager having a problem with a sales called Adam. Now Adam had ability, he had proven himself in the past and was a likeable chap, but over the previous couple of months he had gone straight downhill.
I tried everything to lift him up again. I went over is presentation with a fine tooth comb. I gave him it tives until they were coming out of his ears. I tried to motivate him and teach him some new trice. I pushed some exceptionally good leads his in the hope that a sale would fix everything. Nothing worried so eventually, as a last straw, I put
Adma on notice. I gave him a final target: three sales out on the next ten leads, otherwise you’re out.
Adam didn’t want to be sackd, and I didn’t didn’t want to let him go- as I said, he was a
likeable chap. This is what happened.
I gave Adam the afternoon off, on condition that he would do what I was about to ask him to do, no matter how silly it might seem. After all there is no harm in trying. Then I said to him:
Adam I’m going to give you the afternoon off so you can go home. Whilst you’re going home, I want you to say to yourself, time and time again, I’m going to get a deal tomorrow”. Then when you get home, instead of doing whatever it is that you normally do, go into the garden, relax, and say to yourself over and over again, I’m going to get a deal tomorrow, I’m going to get a deal tomorrow. All through your shower and evening meal, drum it into yourself, I’m going to get a deal tomorrow. I’m going to “Instead of watching television, go for a long walk and repeat that statement to yourself thousands upon thousands of times until you’re almost brainwashed.
Go to bed early, and instead of reading or counting sheep, say to yourself, “I’m going to get a deal tomorrow…” Keep saying it until you drop asleep and if possible, say it in your sleep. In the morning as you get up, dressed and breakfasted, say to yourself over and over “I’m going to get a deal today” And say it all the way to work. I’m going to get a deal to say”- say it with emotion end convietion.
Adam did as I asked and repeated that statement literally thousands of times. In doing so he embedded the statement in his subconscious, where it started to become a belief.
He doubted at first whether this advice would work and ad he took his first appointment, his customer came up with a few negatives and minor objections. Adam wasn’t in the slightest surprised – his doubts were confirmed. It wasn’t going to work.
Then a strange phenomenon occurred. As well as negative points, the customer came up with a few positive points and buying signals. Adam’s subconscious mind jumped into action as if someone had kicked him, and his subconscious said: Adam, hang on a minute, maybe you will get a deal today after all’. For the first time in over two months. Adam started looking for and listening to positives. Needless to say, he made the sale and made his target, and today he is back on top again.
In the above exercise, Adam changed his attitude from negative to positive by persistently creating a desired thought-pattern. There have been many books on this subject, but for my reckoning the best is The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. You would be well –advice to get yourself a copy.
If you don’t have a PMA (Positive mental attitude) when you meet your customer, then you’re DOA (Dead on arrival). PMA creates persistence and enthusiasm and success.
c – to be or not to be
Enthusiasm – to be or not to be
The only things a contagious as enthusiasm is fear.
Later on, in part three (close 5), we shall be looking at how, if it’s necessary, a pro-clo will instill fear into his customer to help close the sale. For now, through, we will look at what is without question, the most important ingredient of any sale: enthusiasm, whether it’s market trader selling bric-a-brac, a sales rep servicing a regular account, a shop assistant selling clothes, or a commission only direct salesperson, enthusiasm creates sales.
I have read that experience and enthusiasm are rarely found together in any one individual, which gives weight to the saying ‘Familiarity breeds contempt’. Let’s thing about that for a moment.
Picture the new recruit, fresh out of training, wet behind the ears but eager and raring to go. His product knowledge is almost non-existent and his experience is no-existent, but blow me down if that guy doesn’t go out there and get sale after sale after sale. His enthusiasm sells to his customer because enthusiasm is contagious.
After a while (about three months), the new recruit becomes the old hand. He is learning more and more and has become more experienced. He now knows his product knowledge inside out, he is confident, he is knowledge and well-versed. The excitement of the new challenge begins to dwindle; the element of surprise disappears with expectancy the flame of enthusiasm flickers on the verge of becoming extinguished. The new hotshot recruit becomes a regular, run –of –the-mil, mediocre salesman. Another one for the pile.
This is an all too familiar story, isn’t it?
It’s been said that enthusiasm accounts for as much as 95 per cent of the sale, and product knowledge only 5 per cent. When you consider that a new recruit can sell and sell without knowing any closes, and only the very basic product knowledge, you appreciate just how important enthusiasm is!
Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to teach some one how to be enthusiastic. You see, a pro-clo is one of those rare individuals who has the experience and is also able to retain enthusiasm.
Here’s how, It all stems from the fact that a pro-clo is sold himself. That is to say, that he is sold on his product. So much so that when he sells to his customer he sells with enthusiasm, from the heart, not from the mouth. So the way to obtain and then retain enthusiasm is to sell yourself first. Once a pro-clo is sold, I mean really sold he develops an almost fanatical belief in his product and then woe betide anybody who doesn’t feel the same way.
Again, only the persuaded are able to persuade.
Remember: enthusiasm is contagious, so sell with enthusiasm, from the heart, and let it rub off on to your customers.
The only things a contagious as enthusiasm is fear.
Later on, in part three (close 5), we shall be looking at how, if it’s necessary, a pro-clo will instill fear into his customer to help close the sale. For now, through, we will look at what is without question, the most important ingredient of any sale: enthusiasm, whether it’s market trader selling bric-a-brac, a sales rep servicing a regular account, a shop assistant selling clothes, or a commission only direct salesperson, enthusiasm creates sales.
I have read that experience and enthusiasm are rarely found together in any one individual, which gives weight to the saying ‘Familiarity breeds contempt’. Let’s thing about that for a moment.
Picture the new recruit, fresh out of training, wet behind the ears but eager and raring to go. His product knowledge is almost non-existent and his experience is no-existent, but blow me down if that guy doesn’t go out there and get sale after sale after sale. His enthusiasm sells to his customer because enthusiasm is contagious.
After a while (about three months), the new recruit becomes the old hand. He is learning more and more and has become more experienced. He now knows his product knowledge inside out, he is confident, he is knowledge and well-versed. The excitement of the new challenge begins to dwindle; the element of surprise disappears with expectancy the flame of enthusiasm flickers on the verge of becoming extinguished. The new hotshot recruit becomes a regular, run –of –the-mil, mediocre salesman. Another one for the pile.
This is an all too familiar story, isn’t it?
It’s been said that enthusiasm accounts for as much as 95 per cent of the sale, and product knowledge only 5 per cent. When you consider that a new recruit can sell and sell without knowing any closes, and only the very basic product knowledge, you appreciate just how important enthusiasm is!
Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to teach some one how to be enthusiastic. You see, a pro-clo is one of those rare individuals who has the experience and is also able to retain enthusiasm.
Here’s how, It all stems from the fact that a pro-clo is sold himself. That is to say, that he is sold on his product. So much so that when he sells to his customer he sells with enthusiasm, from the heart, not from the mouth. So the way to obtain and then retain enthusiasm is to sell yourself first. Once a pro-clo is sold, I mean really sold he develops an almost fanatical belief in his product and then woe betide anybody who doesn’t feel the same way.
Again, only the persuaded are able to persuade.
Remember: enthusiasm is contagious, so sell with enthusiasm, from the heart, and let it rub off on to your customers.
Attributes of a professional closer(Pro-clo)
Attributes of a professional closer
(Pro-clo)
Professional closer have certain attributes that set them apart from everyday salesman. Most salesmen look the part and are professional in behavior and appearance and, like the pro-clo, they are punctual, well –groomed, courteous, reliable, smart and well -dressed. But I’m not talking about professional appearance or behavior here. I’m talking about something deeper, I’m talking about the force from within that makes the pro-clo shine and out-perform the rest. That inner confidence and absolute belief in himself. Here then, are the attributes that make the pro-clo the best of the best, an absolute out-and-out winner.
1. A pro-clo is ambitious for success. He has an insatiable hunger, a burning desire to achieve and succeed.
2. A pro-clo is always in command of the situation and always aware of what is happening around him. He is able to think on his feet and he demonstrates a lot of ingenuity when faced with an unexpected problem. A pro-clo is streetwise and shrewd. He is also honest and reliable, and always delivers what he promises.
3. A pro-clo is an excellent listener and a convincing persuader. He has an acute perception and instinctively knows what to do next. He is a natural leader- people listen to him, respect him and warm to him.
4. A pro-clo enjoys his own company as much as he enjoys others, and he often works alone because he prefers it that way. After saying that he is always there to help out his colleagues and train the new recruits, because a pro-clo loves what he does, he gets a real buzz from his work.
5. A pro-clo abounds with enthusiasm, he has masses of initiative and energy and he gives each call too per-cent effort. A pro-clo is the guy who after a long and difficult sale, when he is mentally sapped and drained of energy, is still somehow able to tap into his reserves and make that last call, when anyone else would have packed up and gone home.
6. A pro-clo never seems to get sick, and even when he feels under the weather he still turns in for work. He is eager and has a great attitude.
7. A pro-clo is well-organized, he is possessive about his tools and equipment, he is meticulous in his preparations, his records are bang up – to- date and he is forever updating his figures. A pro-clo always knows where he is at.
8. A pro-clo has an air of authority about him that radiates confidence to his potential customers- he becomes their shepherd and they his flock.
9. A pro-clo is a masterful actor who is superb at creating emotion and at expressing himself. He is also an artist who paints pictures that are so life-like they become real.
10. A pro-clo never knocks the competition. He isn’t in the slightest afraid of it, instead he welcomes competition, he enjoys the challenge. A pro-clo is too per cent sold, right down the line. In reality, if he thought the competition was better, that’s where he would be working.
11. A pro-clo is always learning new material, he is always trying to better himself and is constantly striving forward, towards his goals. He is a winner who constantly says to himself: I can, I will, I am.
12. A pro-clo motivates himself. He is a go-getter with determination, drive and a burning passion for success. When he pumps himself up ready for action, he radiates a glow, a force from within that creates a gut feeling, a surge of power in the pit of his belly that cases butterflies to flutter, sends tingles up his spine and puts goose bumps on his arms. Because he’s invincible, he’s going to win he knows it and he feels it, from the inside out!
Recap
So far we have looked at the importance of having persistence, a positive attitude, enthusiasm, and some of the many attributes of a pro-clo. Before we move on to find out exactly how a pro-clo sells his product and closes the sale, here are a few reminders.
Step 1 – Persistence always conquers resistance, eventually.
Step 2- Without a PMA (Positive mental attitude) you will always be
DOA (dead on arrival).
Step 3- Enthusiasm comes from the heart and it’s highly contagious, Enthusiasm sells.
Step 4- Take on board the attributes of a pro-clo
(Pro-clo)
Professional closer have certain attributes that set them apart from everyday salesman. Most salesmen look the part and are professional in behavior and appearance and, like the pro-clo, they are punctual, well –groomed, courteous, reliable, smart and well -dressed. But I’m not talking about professional appearance or behavior here. I’m talking about something deeper, I’m talking about the force from within that makes the pro-clo shine and out-perform the rest. That inner confidence and absolute belief in himself. Here then, are the attributes that make the pro-clo the best of the best, an absolute out-and-out winner.
1. A pro-clo is ambitious for success. He has an insatiable hunger, a burning desire to achieve and succeed.
2. A pro-clo is always in command of the situation and always aware of what is happening around him. He is able to think on his feet and he demonstrates a lot of ingenuity when faced with an unexpected problem. A pro-clo is streetwise and shrewd. He is also honest and reliable, and always delivers what he promises.
3. A pro-clo is an excellent listener and a convincing persuader. He has an acute perception and instinctively knows what to do next. He is a natural leader- people listen to him, respect him and warm to him.
4. A pro-clo enjoys his own company as much as he enjoys others, and he often works alone because he prefers it that way. After saying that he is always there to help out his colleagues and train the new recruits, because a pro-clo loves what he does, he gets a real buzz from his work.
5. A pro-clo abounds with enthusiasm, he has masses of initiative and energy and he gives each call too per-cent effort. A pro-clo is the guy who after a long and difficult sale, when he is mentally sapped and drained of energy, is still somehow able to tap into his reserves and make that last call, when anyone else would have packed up and gone home.
6. A pro-clo never seems to get sick, and even when he feels under the weather he still turns in for work. He is eager and has a great attitude.
7. A pro-clo is well-organized, he is possessive about his tools and equipment, he is meticulous in his preparations, his records are bang up – to- date and he is forever updating his figures. A pro-clo always knows where he is at.
8. A pro-clo has an air of authority about him that radiates confidence to his potential customers- he becomes their shepherd and they his flock.
9. A pro-clo is a masterful actor who is superb at creating emotion and at expressing himself. He is also an artist who paints pictures that are so life-like they become real.
10. A pro-clo never knocks the competition. He isn’t in the slightest afraid of it, instead he welcomes competition, he enjoys the challenge. A pro-clo is too per cent sold, right down the line. In reality, if he thought the competition was better, that’s where he would be working.
11. A pro-clo is always learning new material, he is always trying to better himself and is constantly striving forward, towards his goals. He is a winner who constantly says to himself: I can, I will, I am.
12. A pro-clo motivates himself. He is a go-getter with determination, drive and a burning passion for success. When he pumps himself up ready for action, he radiates a glow, a force from within that creates a gut feeling, a surge of power in the pit of his belly that cases butterflies to flutter, sends tingles up his spine and puts goose bumps on his arms. Because he’s invincible, he’s going to win he knows it and he feels it, from the inside out!
Recap
So far we have looked at the importance of having persistence, a positive attitude, enthusiasm, and some of the many attributes of a pro-clo. Before we move on to find out exactly how a pro-clo sells his product and closes the sale, here are a few reminders.
Step 1 – Persistence always conquers resistance, eventually.
Step 2- Without a PMA (Positive mental attitude) you will always be
DOA (dead on arrival).
Step 3- Enthusiasm comes from the heart and it’s highly contagious, Enthusiasm sells.
Step 4- Take on board the attributes of a pro-clo
Find a want or need
Find a want or need
When I was a 15-year-old schoolboy, I had a Saturday job working for a local businessman, David wood who owned a milk round and small chain of green grocer shops.
One Saturday morning David gave me a box of oranges and asked me to go outside the shop and build tow pyramids of oranges, one each side of the window. After completing the task, I was then asked to display price stickers by each stack of oranges. One price tag said 8 pence each, the other 12 pence each. I immediately said this couldn’t be right- as all the oranges were from the same box, they couldn’t be different prices! In reply I was told: ‘There is always more than one market for the same product.’
It was then that I first realized that customers don’t necessarily choose the cheapest options (more of this in step 6), and that a little daring can often pay big dividends. Here was a single product displayed in two stacks within a few feet of each other for different prices, and some people actually purchased the more expensive of the two! Why? The answer is, people see what they want to see. Some customers saw the 8 pence oranges as a better buy, because you got three oranges for the price of two of the more expensive ones. Other customers perceived the 12- pence oranges as the best buy because they must have been fresher and sweeter and they would probably last longer.
The moral of this little story is, you must learn to flow with the tide and gibe the customers what he wants. Ask your customer what he finds the most attractive, the most important, the most appealing, the most beneficial, and so on, and when he tells you, give it to him with both barrels.
Note:
Although, on the face of it, selling a product to different customers for different prices isn’t fair, this practice has been in existence since the year dot. One of the first rules of commerce is, wherever possible, cut your costs and increase your profits. That’s one of the reasons why David is such a successful businessman.
When I was a 15-year-old schoolboy, I had a Saturday job working for a local businessman, David wood who owned a milk round and small chain of green grocer shops.
One Saturday morning David gave me a box of oranges and asked me to go outside the shop and build tow pyramids of oranges, one each side of the window. After completing the task, I was then asked to display price stickers by each stack of oranges. One price tag said 8 pence each, the other 12 pence each. I immediately said this couldn’t be right- as all the oranges were from the same box, they couldn’t be different prices! In reply I was told: ‘There is always more than one market for the same product.’
It was then that I first realized that customers don’t necessarily choose the cheapest options (more of this in step 6), and that a little daring can often pay big dividends. Here was a single product displayed in two stacks within a few feet of each other for different prices, and some people actually purchased the more expensive of the two! Why? The answer is, people see what they want to see. Some customers saw the 8 pence oranges as a better buy, because you got three oranges for the price of two of the more expensive ones. Other customers perceived the 12- pence oranges as the best buy because they must have been fresher and sweeter and they would probably last longer.
The moral of this little story is, you must learn to flow with the tide and gibe the customers what he wants. Ask your customer what he finds the most attractive, the most important, the most appealing, the most beneficial, and so on, and when he tells you, give it to him with both barrels.
Note:
Although, on the face of it, selling a product to different customers for different prices isn’t fair, this practice has been in existence since the year dot. One of the first rules of commerce is, wherever possible, cut your costs and increase your profits. That’s one of the reasons why David is such a successful businessman.
Price
Price
Many salespeople believe that they lose sales because of price. But in reality, most of the time, it is not the price of a product that loses a sales but the salesperson’s fear of the price.
Remember, the only thing as contagious as enthusiasm is fear. If a salesperson is apprehensive about discussing price, or if a salesperson fears that a customers will say ‘It costs too much” then that fear will rub off on to the customers because fear is contagious.
A pro-clo understands that price will only be a problem when the customer feels that the product or service is not worth the risk, the asking price. In a nutshell, price is only a problem when someone doesn’t want something badly enough. You have to create that want, you have to build value into your product so that the customer is willing to pay the price to buy it.
In the initial stages of any sale, the customer’s fear of losing will be greater than his expectation of gaining. In other words, the customer will be more frightened about spending or losing his money than he will be excited about owning the product and benefiting form it. The pro-clo throughout his entire presentation builds value into his product by demonstrating how his product will satisfy the customer’s needs and how the customer will benefit from owning. So at the end of the presentation, when it’s time to talk money, the customer’s fear losing will no longer be greater than his expectation of gaining. In fact the complete opposite will occur. This is building value.
In his book supercharge your selling. Nigel Henzell Thomas suggests.
When a prospect or customer says you’re too expensive, ask whether he wants the cheapest solution or the best value for money.
I have found that they always opt for the best value for money. A pro-clo simply outweighs price with benefits and gibes the customer what he perceives is the best value for money.
Understand on more thing: it is never the price that stops people from buying (if they are sold), it’s always the terms of purchase.
Let me explain: few people can afford to buy the house of their dreams for cash. What they afford is the mortgage the terms of purchase. When the price is $100.000 the customers can’t afford it (cash), but when the mortgage works out a $500 a month they can. However, they will only buy the house if they are sold on it and if paying $500 a month is worth owning it.
If you build value into your product and you have the facility to negotiate terms of purchase, price will never be a problem.
But there are some customers who, even when sold will still till you that it’s expensive or it costs too much these customers want to buy be are trying to see if your price is flexible first. If price starts to become an which is best used when it is read aloud, so have it typed on to a piece of card.( Incidentally, this quotation is well over a hundred years old)
It’s not wise to pay too much but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money, but that’s all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.
The common law of business prohibits you from paying a little and receiving a lot- it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder it would be as well to add something for the risk you run and if you can do that then you can afford to pay for something better.
John Ruskin, 1819-1900
Remember: if you build value into your product and you have the facility to negotiate terms of purchases, price will never be a problem.
Many salespeople believe that they lose sales because of price. But in reality, most of the time, it is not the price of a product that loses a sales but the salesperson’s fear of the price.
Remember, the only thing as contagious as enthusiasm is fear. If a salesperson is apprehensive about discussing price, or if a salesperson fears that a customers will say ‘It costs too much” then that fear will rub off on to the customers because fear is contagious.
A pro-clo understands that price will only be a problem when the customer feels that the product or service is not worth the risk, the asking price. In a nutshell, price is only a problem when someone doesn’t want something badly enough. You have to create that want, you have to build value into your product so that the customer is willing to pay the price to buy it.
In the initial stages of any sale, the customer’s fear of losing will be greater than his expectation of gaining. In other words, the customer will be more frightened about spending or losing his money than he will be excited about owning the product and benefiting form it. The pro-clo throughout his entire presentation builds value into his product by demonstrating how his product will satisfy the customer’s needs and how the customer will benefit from owning. So at the end of the presentation, when it’s time to talk money, the customer’s fear losing will no longer be greater than his expectation of gaining. In fact the complete opposite will occur. This is building value.
In his book supercharge your selling. Nigel Henzell Thomas suggests.
When a prospect or customer says you’re too expensive, ask whether he wants the cheapest solution or the best value for money.
I have found that they always opt for the best value for money. A pro-clo simply outweighs price with benefits and gibes the customer what he perceives is the best value for money.
Understand on more thing: it is never the price that stops people from buying (if they are sold), it’s always the terms of purchase.
Let me explain: few people can afford to buy the house of their dreams for cash. What they afford is the mortgage the terms of purchase. When the price is $100.000 the customers can’t afford it (cash), but when the mortgage works out a $500 a month they can. However, they will only buy the house if they are sold on it and if paying $500 a month is worth owning it.
If you build value into your product and you have the facility to negotiate terms of purchase, price will never be a problem.
But there are some customers who, even when sold will still till you that it’s expensive or it costs too much these customers want to buy be are trying to see if your price is flexible first. If price starts to become an which is best used when it is read aloud, so have it typed on to a piece of card.( Incidentally, this quotation is well over a hundred years old)
It’s not wise to pay too much but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money, but that’s all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.
The common law of business prohibits you from paying a little and receiving a lot- it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder it would be as well to add something for the risk you run and if you can do that then you can afford to pay for something better.
John Ruskin, 1819-1900
Remember: if you build value into your product and you have the facility to negotiate terms of purchases, price will never be a problem.
Taking control
Taking control
A pro-clo takes control of his customers and he leads them. It is almost as if the pro-clo were the pied Piper with the magic flute wherever he goes, his customers follow. He simply leads them into making the only decision possible: the decision to buy.
After all my years in the selling profession, it still never ceases to amaze me just how much a pro-clo can take command and control of another person. Customers become like putty in his hands. He is able to warm them up and mould them towards the right decision.
The customer, be it joe Bloggs, a top executive, a company chairman, a powerful politician, or a multimillionaire, will do exactly what the pro0clo commands, within reason. When a pro-clo says sit, stand look at that, feel this, follow me, the customer does what he is told. This control is fantastic and the beauty of it is the pro-clo is so natural that customer is completely oblivious to what is happening.
This control, this air of confidence, this taking command of the situation or taking the initiative, is part of what makes a pro-clo what he is. The professional closer is not only in control of the sales situation, he is in control of his life.
So how, then can somebody learn to take control? The answer is, by having confidence. If you will learn this material, highlight the important passages and read them regularly- in other words, if you practice- you will become more conversant and competent. Then you will automatically be in control, because you will have confidence.
A good tip to control a customer’s attention throughout a presentation or demonstration is to use a pointer or a pen to emphasize specific features or to point out various things. To illustrate, try little exercise and see how easy it is to control somebody else’s attention.
Tell somebody (not a customer) that you are about to point to something really interesting and exciting with your pen. Ask him to deliberately concentrate on not looking. Then point to something, tap it with your pen and say:” just look at that’. He will do and when he does, move your pen and point to something else, tap it and say: ‘Look at that and that and that.’
That’s what I call taking control. In the above exercise we are obviously abusing that control to demonstrate a point, but in real-life selling the control is so discreet that the customer is not aware of what is happening. And a pro-clo would never do anything to abuse a customer.
A pro-clo takes control of his customers and he leads them. It is almost as if the pro-clo were the pied Piper with the magic flute wherever he goes, his customers follow. He simply leads them into making the only decision possible: the decision to buy.
After all my years in the selling profession, it still never ceases to amaze me just how much a pro-clo can take command and control of another person. Customers become like putty in his hands. He is able to warm them up and mould them towards the right decision.
The customer, be it joe Bloggs, a top executive, a company chairman, a powerful politician, or a multimillionaire, will do exactly what the pro0clo commands, within reason. When a pro-clo says sit, stand look at that, feel this, follow me, the customer does what he is told. This control is fantastic and the beauty of it is the pro-clo is so natural that customer is completely oblivious to what is happening.
This control, this air of confidence, this taking command of the situation or taking the initiative, is part of what makes a pro-clo what he is. The professional closer is not only in control of the sales situation, he is in control of his life.
So how, then can somebody learn to take control? The answer is, by having confidence. If you will learn this material, highlight the important passages and read them regularly- in other words, if you practice- you will become more conversant and competent. Then you will automatically be in control, because you will have confidence.
A good tip to control a customer’s attention throughout a presentation or demonstration is to use a pointer or a pen to emphasize specific features or to point out various things. To illustrate, try little exercise and see how easy it is to control somebody else’s attention.
Tell somebody (not a customer) that you are about to point to something really interesting and exciting with your pen. Ask him to deliberately concentrate on not looking. Then point to something, tap it with your pen and say:” just look at that’. He will do and when he does, move your pen and point to something else, tap it and say: ‘Look at that and that and that.’
That’s what I call taking control. In the above exercise we are obviously abusing that control to demonstrate a point, but in real-life selling the control is so discreet that the customer is not aware of what is happening. And a pro-clo would never do anything to abuse a customer.
Prejudging
Prejudging
This next step relates to a qualified prospect. For example, someone who has answered an advert, responded to a marketing campaign, looked at the competition, or walked into your shop, office, or showroom with a genuine interest. It does not relate to unqualified prospects or leads which we will look at in step 13.
The saying ‘you can’t judge a boo by its cover is never truer than in the sales industry. Regardless of where people live, what colour they are, how old or how young someone is, what a person does for a living, what religion or sex they are; regardless of appearance or dress, and regardless of whatever excuse or objection is voiced, nobody, and I mean no single person, is able to determine beforehand which prospects are buyers and which are not. If it were possible for a person to determine which prospective customers were going to buy, there would be no such thing as a pro-clo, simply because there would be no need for them.
At the end of the day, no salesperson alive can tell (and be too per cent sure) whether or not he has a sale until the money is on the table. To prejudge that customers aren’t going to buy before giving a full presentation is suicide. If your product were free, everyone would have one, wouldn’t they? Therefore, the only thing that stops people from buying is money, and until the price is on the table, you can never tell. For that reason the pro-clo always gives it his best shot he gives too per cent effort to each customer, and his sales figures speak for themselves.
The pro-clo knows that every customer or prospect he sees has been sold to before by someone. All he has to do is be as good as, or better than, that someone. The pro-clo also emphatically believes that each qualified client he sees should buy his product. The reason for this belief is that every pro-clo is that every pro-clo is completely sold himself.
Once again…………….. only the persuaded are able to persuade.
For my money, there isn’t a salesperson anywhere who hasn’t experienced the situation where he thought there was no chance of a sale, than lo and behold, from nowhere the client became a customer.
One more time- if you have a qualified client or customer, never assume that they’re not going to buy.
Let’s now look at an example of a salesperson prejudging his potential customers.
Supposing a couple respond to a marketing campaign from a timeshare company and they go along to have look. After a while the salesperson, who has now prejudged the couple, says: ‘ I can’t sell to this couple. He’s 45, she 20 and a different colour they’re not married, they don’t own a house and have only been in their rented accommodation for four months. He’s market trader with no accountant and she’s unemployed with bad debts, and to top it all off, they’ve seen the competition and didn’t buy because they couldn’t afford it. I just haven’t got a change with these people!
If you look for negatives, guess what you find? Obviously the above example is an extreme one, but let’s now look at how a pro-clo would handle the same situation.
First of all, the pro-clo listens to the information from his customers but what he hears is not negative, it’s positive. He knows that his customers have responded to an advert or marketing campaign.
Second, the pro-clo knows that a market trader with no accountant deals in cash and quite possible has black money (undeclared earnings/cash from under the table)
Third, the pro-clo knows that if his customers have seen the competition and didn’t buy, it was probably because the competition prejudged the customers and didn’t allow them the opportunity to buy. Instead of treating the customers like time-wasters, or outcasts the pro-clo treats them like a king and Queen.
Finally the pro-clo knows that where there is a will there is a way and with and with his special kind of treatment, he will find that way. After all, who is to say that the customers don’t have a nice little nest egg tucked away somewhere? Until the price is on the taste, you never know!
We have said before that customers come in all different shapes, sizes ages, colours, creeds, and so on but all human beings have certain characteristics in common. All our desires, needs and wants are very similar, and as emotions and we all think very similarly. Zig Ziglar, in his excellent book Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the sale, demonstrates this point superbly. The following exercise is an extract from his book, which I have added to and adapted slightly.
To prove how similarly we all think, answer the following questions as quickly as you can and don’t change your mind.
1. Think of a number between one and ten.
2. Think of a colour.
3. Think of a flower.
4. Using our writing hand, hold up three fingers.
5. Think of a fruit.
6. Think of a vegetable.
7. Think of an item of furniture.
8. Think of an animal.
Now let’s see how your answers compare.
1. Seven
2. Red
3. Rose
4. Held up all but your thumb and little finger.
5. Apple or orange
6. Carrot
7. Chair
8. Dog or cat.
It doesn’t matter how many answers you agreed with. I didn’t say we were all exactly alike. I said we were all very similar.
The point I am trying to hammer home is, all your prospects are similar too. So don’t prejudge because you never can tell!
Recap
It’s time we had a little refresher to make sure that you remember to use each step on the staircase, so that you don’t trip and fall over.
Step 5 Find a want or need and them satisfy it.
Step 6 Using customer benefits, build value into your product so that price will
never be a problem
Step 7 Radiate confidence and control.
Step 8 Never prejudge that a qualified prospect isn’t going to buy, because
then you will be right.
This next step relates to a qualified prospect. For example, someone who has answered an advert, responded to a marketing campaign, looked at the competition, or walked into your shop, office, or showroom with a genuine interest. It does not relate to unqualified prospects or leads which we will look at in step 13.
The saying ‘you can’t judge a boo by its cover is never truer than in the sales industry. Regardless of where people live, what colour they are, how old or how young someone is, what a person does for a living, what religion or sex they are; regardless of appearance or dress, and regardless of whatever excuse or objection is voiced, nobody, and I mean no single person, is able to determine beforehand which prospects are buyers and which are not. If it were possible for a person to determine which prospective customers were going to buy, there would be no such thing as a pro-clo, simply because there would be no need for them.
At the end of the day, no salesperson alive can tell (and be too per cent sure) whether or not he has a sale until the money is on the table. To prejudge that customers aren’t going to buy before giving a full presentation is suicide. If your product were free, everyone would have one, wouldn’t they? Therefore, the only thing that stops people from buying is money, and until the price is on the table, you can never tell. For that reason the pro-clo always gives it his best shot he gives too per cent effort to each customer, and his sales figures speak for themselves.
The pro-clo knows that every customer or prospect he sees has been sold to before by someone. All he has to do is be as good as, or better than, that someone. The pro-clo also emphatically believes that each qualified client he sees should buy his product. The reason for this belief is that every pro-clo is that every pro-clo is completely sold himself.
Once again…………….. only the persuaded are able to persuade.
For my money, there isn’t a salesperson anywhere who hasn’t experienced the situation where he thought there was no chance of a sale, than lo and behold, from nowhere the client became a customer.
One more time- if you have a qualified client or customer, never assume that they’re not going to buy.
Let’s now look at an example of a salesperson prejudging his potential customers.
Supposing a couple respond to a marketing campaign from a timeshare company and they go along to have look. After a while the salesperson, who has now prejudged the couple, says: ‘ I can’t sell to this couple. He’s 45, she 20 and a different colour they’re not married, they don’t own a house and have only been in their rented accommodation for four months. He’s market trader with no accountant and she’s unemployed with bad debts, and to top it all off, they’ve seen the competition and didn’t buy because they couldn’t afford it. I just haven’t got a change with these people!
If you look for negatives, guess what you find? Obviously the above example is an extreme one, but let’s now look at how a pro-clo would handle the same situation.
First of all, the pro-clo listens to the information from his customers but what he hears is not negative, it’s positive. He knows that his customers have responded to an advert or marketing campaign.
Second, the pro-clo knows that a market trader with no accountant deals in cash and quite possible has black money (undeclared earnings/cash from under the table)
Third, the pro-clo knows that if his customers have seen the competition and didn’t buy, it was probably because the competition prejudged the customers and didn’t allow them the opportunity to buy. Instead of treating the customers like time-wasters, or outcasts the pro-clo treats them like a king and Queen.
Finally the pro-clo knows that where there is a will there is a way and with and with his special kind of treatment, he will find that way. After all, who is to say that the customers don’t have a nice little nest egg tucked away somewhere? Until the price is on the taste, you never know!
We have said before that customers come in all different shapes, sizes ages, colours, creeds, and so on but all human beings have certain characteristics in common. All our desires, needs and wants are very similar, and as emotions and we all think very similarly. Zig Ziglar, in his excellent book Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the sale, demonstrates this point superbly. The following exercise is an extract from his book, which I have added to and adapted slightly.
To prove how similarly we all think, answer the following questions as quickly as you can and don’t change your mind.
1. Think of a number between one and ten.
2. Think of a colour.
3. Think of a flower.
4. Using our writing hand, hold up three fingers.
5. Think of a fruit.
6. Think of a vegetable.
7. Think of an item of furniture.
8. Think of an animal.
Now let’s see how your answers compare.
1. Seven
2. Red
3. Rose
4. Held up all but your thumb and little finger.
5. Apple or orange
6. Carrot
7. Chair
8. Dog or cat.
It doesn’t matter how many answers you agreed with. I didn’t say we were all exactly alike. I said we were all very similar.
The point I am trying to hammer home is, all your prospects are similar too. So don’t prejudge because you never can tell!
Recap
It’s time we had a little refresher to make sure that you remember to use each step on the staircase, so that you don’t trip and fall over.
Step 5 Find a want or need and them satisfy it.
Step 6 Using customer benefits, build value into your product so that price will
never be a problem
Step 7 Radiate confidence and control.
Step 8 Never prejudge that a qualified prospect isn’t going to buy, because
then you will be right.
Ten do’s to ten don’ts
Ten do’s to ten don’tsA book on Sales wouldn’t be complete without some guidelines, some do’s and don’ts to follow. In our industry there are literally thousands of these rules, many of them unwritten. Some are just plain common sense, and others nothing more than common decency but there are some that really do make a difference.
Ask anyone who is successful, and they will tell you that they adopt the teachings of other successful people and then adapt those teachings of their own lives. This in itself is plain common sense because the path of proven success is always the best and easiest to follow.
Here then, are some important do’s and don’ts that really do make a difference. I urge you to take them on board and adapt them to your own life.
Ask anyone who is successful, and they will tell you that they adopt the teachings of other successful people and then adapt those teachings of their own lives. This in itself is plain common sense because the path of proven success is always the best and easiest to follow.
Here then, are some important do’s and don’ts that really do make a difference. I urge you to take them on board and adapt them to your own life.
The Do’s
The Do’s
1. Leave your work at work
Don’t take work home with you. Every pro-clo needs to relax and recharge his batteries, so that he is at his best for the following day. No matter how much we enjoy our work, the rule is: ‘We work to live, not live to work’. Spending quality time and relaxing with our family is the key to real happiness and prosperity. A true pro-clo knows how and when to turn off.
2. Take regular exercise.
It is a well-known fact that a healthy body leads to a healthy mind. If you read this and say to yourself ‘I really must do some exercise. And then end up doing nothing about it, you haven’t got what it takes to be a true pro-clo. On the other hand, if you don’t feel you should take regular exercise, I urge you to consider the following.
Regular exercise increases your stamina, and makes you sharper and more alert. Regular exercise makes you healthier. It makes you less prone to common ailments such as colds or influenza as well as major illnesses such as diabetes or heart conditions. Regular exercise makes you feel good about yourself. It makes you feel fit and alive and it keeps you younger than your years. Regular exercise increases your metabolism, which burns up calories and thus keeps your weight down. Most important of all, regular exercise increases your chances of a longer, healthier life which means you will have more time to enjoy your blessings and your spoils.
I’m not saying you should become a health freak or a fanatical athlete, but a minimum exercise programmer should be 30+ minutes three times a week. Obviously, if you have any doubts about taking exercise, you should seek medical advice first. The rule is don’t not do it, just don’t overdo it.
3. Create list of things to do.
In order of importance, and as you complete each task, cross that item off the list. This is an ‘oldie’ and do9wadays you can even buy pads with ‘Things to do’ pre-printed on them. When his mind is buzzing in a confused state, trying to remember all the things that he must do, a pro-clo doesn’t get into a flutter. He simply creates his “Things to Do’ list and relieves himself from the pressure to remember. He can them concentrate on tackling his work in order of importance. In doing so the pro-clo is able to see, in black and white, just where he is going and what he has accomplished. It also gives him a great sense of achievement when he gets to cross off the last item.
4. Do what you don’t want to do.
If you are scared of something (maybe cold calling or a specific objection), you become insecure and lack confidence. This causes procrastination, so that you’re indecisive about what you should do. Always do whatever you are scared of , whatever you dislike, whatever you fear, and you will eventually learn to overcome it because ‘Familiarity breeds contempt’. There is only one sure way of never failing, and that in never to try. If you don’t try, you won’t lose, but you won’t win either. Winners do what they fear to do.
5. Dress like a professional
Here, I am not just talking about dress in the clothes sense, but everything from personal hygiene to the wearing of jewellery, even to the condition and appearance of your sales aids. A pro-clo knows that appearance is of paramount importance to portray a confident, successful and professional image. Ask yourself, am I dressed like somebody I would want to do business with?
6. Be courteous and smile
Suffice it for me to say ‘Actions speak louder than words’. Here’s a little poem I wrote about being courteous, followed by another from an unknown author explaining the wonders of smile.
Courtesy
Always be there when you say you will,
Don’t move around when you should be still
Open a door, Pull out a chair,
Say please and think you, and show that you care,
Offer help whenever you can,
Never offend a no-smoking ban,
Ask if they’re comfortable, offer a drink,
Little things mean more than you think.
Do this, and respect their point of view,
And success will always come to you.
(R.I.S)
A Smile
A smile costs nothing, but gives you much
It enriches those who receive
Without making poorer those who give
It takes but a moment, but the memory of it lasts forever
None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it.
And none is so poor but that he can be made rich by it.
A smile creates happiness in the home,
Fosters good will in business
And is the countersign of friendship.
It brings rest to weary,
Cheer to the discouraged
Sunshine to the sad
And is nature’s best antidote for trouble
Yet, it cannot be brought, begged, borrowed or stolen
For it is something of No value until it is Given Away
Some people are too tried to give you a smile.
Give them one of yours, as none needs as smile so much
As he who has no more to give!
(Author unknown)
7. Accept when you’re wrong
When you make a mistake or you’re in the wrong, don’t shy away from it. Instead, accept it and learn from it. A pro-clo will always admit when he is wrong. He knows that no-one ever choked swallowing their pride.
8. Motivate yourself
Each morning and before each call, motivate yourself, give yourself that edge that buzz, that force from within that tells you you’re good, you’re very good. Let the confidence ooze out of every pore, let the butterflies fly in your stomach and the tingles run up your spine. The pro-clo switches himself on, he psyches himself up, and it,s easy, because he instinctively knows ‘he’s gonna win’.
Professional closers motivate themselves, they don’t need others to do it for them. They listen to great motivational music or inspirational tapes, they psych themselves up in front of a mirror, they pace up and down drumming positive thoughts into their subconscious minds and they read good motivational material, just as you are down now with this book.
Motivation stimulates excitement and enthusiasm and the winning attitude needed to succeed.
9. Set yourself goals
It is important to have something to strive for. Otherwise you end up wandering around without a destination, like a piece of driftwood on the ocean. People become state when their goals and dreams equal their present being. They lack desire and ambition, and end up existing instead of thriving. A pro-clo sets himself goals end, as he nears or attains them, he sets himself new desires, new goals, and off he goes again. Always thriving (This is discussed in depth in step 39)
10. Give more then you need to
Always give the customer more than is expected, that little extra, that complimentary add-on, or going the extra mile when it comes to service. Not only does this solidify a deal, but it gives you repeat business, referral business and a reputation that will create new business.
1. Leave your work at work
Don’t take work home with you. Every pro-clo needs to relax and recharge his batteries, so that he is at his best for the following day. No matter how much we enjoy our work, the rule is: ‘We work to live, not live to work’. Spending quality time and relaxing with our family is the key to real happiness and prosperity. A true pro-clo knows how and when to turn off.
2. Take regular exercise.
It is a well-known fact that a healthy body leads to a healthy mind. If you read this and say to yourself ‘I really must do some exercise. And then end up doing nothing about it, you haven’t got what it takes to be a true pro-clo. On the other hand, if you don’t feel you should take regular exercise, I urge you to consider the following.
Regular exercise increases your stamina, and makes you sharper and more alert. Regular exercise makes you healthier. It makes you less prone to common ailments such as colds or influenza as well as major illnesses such as diabetes or heart conditions. Regular exercise makes you feel good about yourself. It makes you feel fit and alive and it keeps you younger than your years. Regular exercise increases your metabolism, which burns up calories and thus keeps your weight down. Most important of all, regular exercise increases your chances of a longer, healthier life which means you will have more time to enjoy your blessings and your spoils.
I’m not saying you should become a health freak or a fanatical athlete, but a minimum exercise programmer should be 30+ minutes three times a week. Obviously, if you have any doubts about taking exercise, you should seek medical advice first. The rule is don’t not do it, just don’t overdo it.
3. Create list of things to do.
In order of importance, and as you complete each task, cross that item off the list. This is an ‘oldie’ and do9wadays you can even buy pads with ‘Things to do’ pre-printed on them. When his mind is buzzing in a confused state, trying to remember all the things that he must do, a pro-clo doesn’t get into a flutter. He simply creates his “Things to Do’ list and relieves himself from the pressure to remember. He can them concentrate on tackling his work in order of importance. In doing so the pro-clo is able to see, in black and white, just where he is going and what he has accomplished. It also gives him a great sense of achievement when he gets to cross off the last item.
4. Do what you don’t want to do.
If you are scared of something (maybe cold calling or a specific objection), you become insecure and lack confidence. This causes procrastination, so that you’re indecisive about what you should do. Always do whatever you are scared of , whatever you dislike, whatever you fear, and you will eventually learn to overcome it because ‘Familiarity breeds contempt’. There is only one sure way of never failing, and that in never to try. If you don’t try, you won’t lose, but you won’t win either. Winners do what they fear to do.
5. Dress like a professional
Here, I am not just talking about dress in the clothes sense, but everything from personal hygiene to the wearing of jewellery, even to the condition and appearance of your sales aids. A pro-clo knows that appearance is of paramount importance to portray a confident, successful and professional image. Ask yourself, am I dressed like somebody I would want to do business with?
6. Be courteous and smile
Suffice it for me to say ‘Actions speak louder than words’. Here’s a little poem I wrote about being courteous, followed by another from an unknown author explaining the wonders of smile.
Courtesy
Always be there when you say you will,
Don’t move around when you should be still
Open a door, Pull out a chair,
Say please and think you, and show that you care,
Offer help whenever you can,
Never offend a no-smoking ban,
Ask if they’re comfortable, offer a drink,
Little things mean more than you think.
Do this, and respect their point of view,
And success will always come to you.
(R.I.S)
A Smile
A smile costs nothing, but gives you much
It enriches those who receive
Without making poorer those who give
It takes but a moment, but the memory of it lasts forever
None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it.
And none is so poor but that he can be made rich by it.
A smile creates happiness in the home,
Fosters good will in business
And is the countersign of friendship.
It brings rest to weary,
Cheer to the discouraged
Sunshine to the sad
And is nature’s best antidote for trouble
Yet, it cannot be brought, begged, borrowed or stolen
For it is something of No value until it is Given Away
Some people are too tried to give you a smile.
Give them one of yours, as none needs as smile so much
As he who has no more to give!
(Author unknown)
7. Accept when you’re wrong
When you make a mistake or you’re in the wrong, don’t shy away from it. Instead, accept it and learn from it. A pro-clo will always admit when he is wrong. He knows that no-one ever choked swallowing their pride.
8. Motivate yourself
Each morning and before each call, motivate yourself, give yourself that edge that buzz, that force from within that tells you you’re good, you’re very good. Let the confidence ooze out of every pore, let the butterflies fly in your stomach and the tingles run up your spine. The pro-clo switches himself on, he psyches himself up, and it,s easy, because he instinctively knows ‘he’s gonna win’.
Professional closers motivate themselves, they don’t need others to do it for them. They listen to great motivational music or inspirational tapes, they psych themselves up in front of a mirror, they pace up and down drumming positive thoughts into their subconscious minds and they read good motivational material, just as you are down now with this book.
Motivation stimulates excitement and enthusiasm and the winning attitude needed to succeed.
9. Set yourself goals
It is important to have something to strive for. Otherwise you end up wandering around without a destination, like a piece of driftwood on the ocean. People become state when their goals and dreams equal their present being. They lack desire and ambition, and end up existing instead of thriving. A pro-clo sets himself goals end, as he nears or attains them, he sets himself new desires, new goals, and off he goes again. Always thriving (This is discussed in depth in step 39)
10. Give more then you need to
Always give the customer more than is expected, that little extra, that complimentary add-on, or going the extra mile when it comes to service. Not only does this solidify a deal, but it gives you repeat business, referral business and a reputation that will create new business.
The Don’ts
The Don’ts
1. Don’t use red.
Never write with a red pen, or wear a red shirt/ dress/blouse when you are with a customer. Subconsciously red signifies danger, stop beware, anger, red alert. Although these negative thoughts are not in the forefront of the customer’s mind, they are nevertheless there, warning the customer to be wary.
You wouldn’t wave a red rag at a bull to win favour, so don’t do it to a customer.
2. Don’t wear dark sunglasses when you are with a customer.
This gives the impression that you have something to hide, that you are a shady character who cannot be trusted. Eye contact is a must for the pro –clo.
By the same token, it’s impossible to read a customer wearing dark glasses, and you should ask him politely to remove them. I find a little hum our works best. Try saying ‘Mr Jones, what colour are your eyes?’ When he answers, say ‘would you mind proving it to me? (Raise your eyebrows and give him a knowing smile.) Works every time!
3. Don’t ask certain questions.
Never ask a customer if he understands. Not wanting to appear stupid, he will always answer ‘yes’ even when he wants to say ‘No’ Never say to a customer ‘ Your know what I mean’ or ‘Do you get my drift?’ Again, he will always answer ‘Yes’ when he might mean ‘No’ Instead, ask ‘Are you happy with that?’ Do you have any questions?’ Did you follow that or shall I go over it again?’
Also, never say to a customer ‘Let me be honest’ or ‘To tell you the truth, because it implies that you weren’t before. When someone says they’ll be honest with you, it generally means the opposite!
4. Don’t knock the competition
This has an adverse effect. The customer will think that you are trying to hide behind the competition or that you are trying to justify an inadequacy in your product. A pro-clo doesn’t knock the competition, he welcomes it, and sometimes he will even compare the competition’s product with his own in front of a customer. Remember what we said earlier. The pro-clo is sold on his product too per cent. If he thought the competition was better, he would be working for them. It is this belief, this conviction that makes the customer buy.
5. Don’t live in the past
Reminiscing can be fun and enjoyable, but only to the person doing the reminiscing. It’s the ‘also-rans’ in life who live off past performance and an old worn-out reputation. There is nothing worng with looking back, now and again-but remember, being in reverse won’t you forward.
6. Don’t fight change, welcome it.
Change has always caused, and always will cause, insecurity, doubt, unfamiliarity and fear. A pro-clo knows this but he understands that change is necessary. Without it we would all still be in the Stone Age living in caves. A pro-clo knows that change is good, it keeps people on their toes, it demonstrates a will to progress and to improve. Above all else, change creates a new challenge and every pro-clo loves a good challenge. So he doesn’t fight change, he encourages it.
7. Don’t stop learning
A pro-clo is forever reading new material, listening to cassettes and gaining new information. He is always updating his portfolio of techniques and closes and gathering new tools. A pro-clo has a relentless desire, a burning passion for knowledge and he soaks up all positive material like a sponge.
A pro-clo knows that the key to continuous success is continuous learning. If you stop learning you will eventually begin to decline. It’s like traveling in a hot air balloon. To ascend to greater heights you need to continuously supply fuel. If you shut off the fuel supply(stop learning) you will hang in suspension for a while, but inevitably you will begin to descend.
I wrote this book in such a way that it is easy to pick up and put down, because I know it is impossible to absorb all the lessons in one go. I implore you again to keep reading this book at regular intervals, use it as your personal sales manual, and keep learning. Don’t ever stop, don’t become content with mediocrity don’t remain stationary because if you do you will start to decline. Let me put it this way:
To discover how to be a true pro-clo
Continue to learn and continue to grow.
8. Don’t waste time
Time is the most precious thing in the world, and life is too short to waste it. A pro-clo makes full use of his time, he plans how to use it to give optimum benefit. However, things don’t always go according to plan, and when a pro-clo finds he has time on his hands, he doesn’t loaf around. Instead, he asks himself: ‘what is the most worthwhile thing I could be doing right now?’ When he comes up with the answer, he gets straight to it!
Remember to plan time for recreation and with your family and don’t get side-tracked. A pro-clo plans his time and times his plan.
9. Don’t give losers the time of day
In every sales organization there is always a group or negative salespeople that you should avoid like the plague. These losers are so easy to spot- They’re the ones that take an hour over a gallon of coffee before they start work in the morning, the ones that are forever hanging around the office or canteen and the ones that congregate in the pub after work to drown their sorrows. All these losers seem to do is complain, make up excuse, spread gossip and start rum ours.
All losers are sinking, and they are so afraid of going under that they try to pull everyone else down with them, thinking that they will find safety in numbers. When all is said and done, these birds of a feather will always flock together and there is very little you or I can do to change that. In this instance, the old saying ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’ is wrong’. A pro-clo says ‘If you can’t beat them, avoid them –but do it politely, there is no point in adding fuel to their fire.
In staying away from the losers ‘ pro-clo often alienates himself, but that doesn’t really bother him. He knows that sometimes ‘it’s tough at the top’, but it’s always tougher at the bottom.
10. Don’t ever give up
Fight the good fight, and when all else fails, when you’re in dire straits, when there is no hope whatsoever, admit defeat. There is no shame in it- but before you do, try another close.
1. Don’t use red.
Never write with a red pen, or wear a red shirt/ dress/blouse when you are with a customer. Subconsciously red signifies danger, stop beware, anger, red alert. Although these negative thoughts are not in the forefront of the customer’s mind, they are nevertheless there, warning the customer to be wary.
You wouldn’t wave a red rag at a bull to win favour, so don’t do it to a customer.
2. Don’t wear dark sunglasses when you are with a customer.
This gives the impression that you have something to hide, that you are a shady character who cannot be trusted. Eye contact is a must for the pro –clo.
By the same token, it’s impossible to read a customer wearing dark glasses, and you should ask him politely to remove them. I find a little hum our works best. Try saying ‘Mr Jones, what colour are your eyes?’ When he answers, say ‘would you mind proving it to me? (Raise your eyebrows and give him a knowing smile.) Works every time!
3. Don’t ask certain questions.
Never ask a customer if he understands. Not wanting to appear stupid, he will always answer ‘yes’ even when he wants to say ‘No’ Never say to a customer ‘ Your know what I mean’ or ‘Do you get my drift?’ Again, he will always answer ‘Yes’ when he might mean ‘No’ Instead, ask ‘Are you happy with that?’ Do you have any questions?’ Did you follow that or shall I go over it again?’
Also, never say to a customer ‘Let me be honest’ or ‘To tell you the truth, because it implies that you weren’t before. When someone says they’ll be honest with you, it generally means the opposite!
4. Don’t knock the competition
This has an adverse effect. The customer will think that you are trying to hide behind the competition or that you are trying to justify an inadequacy in your product. A pro-clo doesn’t knock the competition, he welcomes it, and sometimes he will even compare the competition’s product with his own in front of a customer. Remember what we said earlier. The pro-clo is sold on his product too per cent. If he thought the competition was better, he would be working for them. It is this belief, this conviction that makes the customer buy.
5. Don’t live in the past
Reminiscing can be fun and enjoyable, but only to the person doing the reminiscing. It’s the ‘also-rans’ in life who live off past performance and an old worn-out reputation. There is nothing worng with looking back, now and again-but remember, being in reverse won’t you forward.
6. Don’t fight change, welcome it.
Change has always caused, and always will cause, insecurity, doubt, unfamiliarity and fear. A pro-clo knows this but he understands that change is necessary. Without it we would all still be in the Stone Age living in caves. A pro-clo knows that change is good, it keeps people on their toes, it demonstrates a will to progress and to improve. Above all else, change creates a new challenge and every pro-clo loves a good challenge. So he doesn’t fight change, he encourages it.
7. Don’t stop learning
A pro-clo is forever reading new material, listening to cassettes and gaining new information. He is always updating his portfolio of techniques and closes and gathering new tools. A pro-clo has a relentless desire, a burning passion for knowledge and he soaks up all positive material like a sponge.
A pro-clo knows that the key to continuous success is continuous learning. If you stop learning you will eventually begin to decline. It’s like traveling in a hot air balloon. To ascend to greater heights you need to continuously supply fuel. If you shut off the fuel supply(stop learning) you will hang in suspension for a while, but inevitably you will begin to descend.
I wrote this book in such a way that it is easy to pick up and put down, because I know it is impossible to absorb all the lessons in one go. I implore you again to keep reading this book at regular intervals, use it as your personal sales manual, and keep learning. Don’t ever stop, don’t become content with mediocrity don’t remain stationary because if you do you will start to decline. Let me put it this way:
To discover how to be a true pro-clo
Continue to learn and continue to grow.
8. Don’t waste time
Time is the most precious thing in the world, and life is too short to waste it. A pro-clo makes full use of his time, he plans how to use it to give optimum benefit. However, things don’t always go according to plan, and when a pro-clo finds he has time on his hands, he doesn’t loaf around. Instead, he asks himself: ‘what is the most worthwhile thing I could be doing right now?’ When he comes up with the answer, he gets straight to it!
Remember to plan time for recreation and with your family and don’t get side-tracked. A pro-clo plans his time and times his plan.
9. Don’t give losers the time of day
In every sales organization there is always a group or negative salespeople that you should avoid like the plague. These losers are so easy to spot- They’re the ones that take an hour over a gallon of coffee before they start work in the morning, the ones that are forever hanging around the office or canteen and the ones that congregate in the pub after work to drown their sorrows. All these losers seem to do is complain, make up excuse, spread gossip and start rum ours.
All losers are sinking, and they are so afraid of going under that they try to pull everyone else down with them, thinking that they will find safety in numbers. When all is said and done, these birds of a feather will always flock together and there is very little you or I can do to change that. In this instance, the old saying ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’ is wrong’. A pro-clo says ‘If you can’t beat them, avoid them –but do it politely, there is no point in adding fuel to their fire.
In staying away from the losers ‘ pro-clo often alienates himself, but that doesn’t really bother him. He knows that sometimes ‘it’s tough at the top’, but it’s always tougher at the bottom.
10. Don’t ever give up
Fight the good fight, and when all else fails, when you’re in dire straits, when there is no hope whatsoever, admit defeat. There is no shame in it- but before you do, try another close.
Don’t Quit
Don’t Quit
When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit
Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint in the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit,
It’s when things go wrong that you mustn’t quit.
When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit
Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint in the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit,
It’s when things go wrong that you mustn’t quit.
Recap: Step
Recap: Step
The do’s The Don’ts
1. Leave your work at work 1. Don’t use red
2. Take regular exercise 2. Don’t wear dark sunglasses
3. Create a things to do list 3.Don’t ask certain questions
4. Do what you don’t want to do 4. Don’t knock the competition
5. Dress like a professional 5. Don’t live in the past
6. Be courteous and smile 6. Don’t fight change, welcome it
7. Accept when you’re wrong 7. Don’t stop learning
8. Motivate yourself 8. Don’t waste time
9. Set yourself goals 9. Don’t give losers the time of day
10. Give more than you need to 10. Don’t ever give up
The do’s The Don’ts
1. Leave your work at work 1. Don’t use red
2. Take regular exercise 2. Don’t wear dark sunglasses
3. Create a things to do list 3.Don’t ask certain questions
4. Do what you don’t want to do 4. Don’t knock the competition
5. Dress like a professional 5. Don’t live in the past
6. Be courteous and smile 6. Don’t fight change, welcome it
7. Accept when you’re wrong 7. Don’t stop learning
8. Motivate yourself 8. Don’t waste time
9. Set yourself goals 9. Don’t give losers the time of day
10. Give more than you need to 10. Don’t ever give up
Tips for selling on the customer’s home turf
Tips for selling on the customer’s home turf
The following tips are directed at selling on the customer’s home base, that is, his house or place of work. However, as with all lessons in this book, these tips can and should be adapted to fit any sales situation, anywhere.
1. If a call of nature is imminent, relieve yourself prior to meeting your customer! Now, before you drop this book in surprise at this tip, let me explain why.
If possible you should stick to your customers like glue, from the first moment you meet them until it’s time to wave goodbye. You should marry them, stay with them and don’t give them an opportunity to scheme up ways of saying no when you’re not around.
2. Don’t be late for an appointment, not even by a minute. A first impression is a lasting impression, so make a good start by being punctual. If you are held up, or a delay is unavoidable, always phone your customer before the pre-arranged time to apologize and reschedule.
3. Never park your car in a reserved snace it might belong to the MD! If you are in any doubt, ask where you can park. Alternatively park at the far end of the car park, the end that is farthest away from the building. (One of the status symbols of anybody who is anybody is that they get to park nearest the building.)
This same principle applies at the customer’s home. Appreciate that there are certain places the customer reserves for his own parking or that of his family. To avoid any possible irritation, don’t park on the customer’s drive, don’t block the driveway and don’t park in front of the window or garage. Not only is this being courteous but it means that you won’t be disturbed during your presentation (or closing) when the customer’s son arrives and wants to put his car away.
4. Leave all your Sales equipment in the car and be empty-handed when you
Greet your customer. If you are carrying all your sales material, samples and equipment, apart from the fact it will be difficult to shake hands, you will appear too impersonal and too ready for action. Think how you would feel, if immediately upon opening the door of a tailor’s shop, the sales assistant said hello and began measuring you with his tape.
(Once you have greet your customer you should then excuse yourself whilst you go and get your things.)
5. When you greet your customers, always shake hands with them- you might
As well get them used to it from the start.
6. As you enter the customer’s domain, make an exaggerated effort in wiping
Your feet. The customer will notice this mark of respect and will warm to you more easily.
7. Always ask wait to be seated. Remember a man’s home (or his office for
That matter) is his castle. If you are invited into his castle you are a guest, so make sure you act like a guest, not an intruder.
8. If we invite someone round to our home, most of us make an effort to make
Ourselves and our home more presentable. We dust and polish and tidy round, we spray a little air freshener, put flowers into a vase and bring out the best chinaware.
If you notice, tidy, clean home, then mention it- compliment your customers sincerely and they will love you for it- because that effort was made on your behalf. Likewise you should compliment a tidy and well –organized office.
9. Don’t jump in with both feet. Don’t move straight into your sales
Presentation. Instead, settle things down and induce a receptive atmosphere. (This subject will be discussed in more detail in step 18)
10 If you come from a different ethnic or cultural background from your
customer, always accept and consume and offer of food or drink. This will
put your customer at ease and show him that you are not prejudiced.
11. Look around and you will see photographs, paintings, certificates, trophies,
Books, plants, record collections, cats ,dogs, model planes, musical instruments ………the list goes on and on. These items are memorabilia or passions to your customer, so mention them. Ask and be sincerely inquisitive and your customers will love you for it. Let them go on and on about the things they have a passion for and they will feel so appreciative – because they’re enjoying themselves and it’s very rare that they get the chance to show off to a willing audience. That appreciation will turn to obligation and they will end up saying: ‘Well enough of that –show me what you’ve got-how much is it? OK, I’ll have one,’
11 .Never ignores the customer’s children. Instead recruit them to your side and they’ll be your biggest ally (In an office you might not recruit the spectator but you should never ignore him.)
12 Don’t invade a customer’s desk with your ‘things’ without asking first. Likewise don’t use a customer’s furniture or floor (as in carpet) without asking. This is especially pertinent when it comes to glasses, cups or plates. Many customer’s are too polite to ask you to move something but the offending object remains on their mind and it festers. When this happens they won’t be giving you their undivided attention – so always ask first.
13 Always get the customer involved in the presentation, not just verbally but physically. Get the customer to help set up your demonstration, get him to compare colour co-ordination or help you measure up. Get the customer to look, touch, smell, taste and listen. (This subject is discussed in depend in step26.) The more involved he is, the more enthusiastic he becomes, because he starts to envisage what it would be like to own your product. Take him, as it were, for a test drive and let him feel what it’s really like to be behind the wheel!
14When you are in the customer’s home or office you are less in control of outside events. Such as an interruption by another member of the family, a knock at the door, or a telephone call. When this happens, stop your presentation and make small talk until everyone returns-then backtrack slightly to refresh their memories.
15It is always a good idea to leave something (of no intrinsic value) behind when you leave. For example you could accidentally on propose forget your folder, which must have fallen under the table, or maybe your calculator, that slipped down the side of your chair. This little trick gives you a legitimate excuse to call back again tomorrow. At the same time you can consolidate the deal or sell them some more, or if you failed the first time, have another go!
Reap Step 10
1. Stick to your customers like glue. Marry them
2. Don’t be late. If it’s unavoidable, phone before your appointment time
3. Park your car with care
4. Leave your equipment in the car until after the greeting
5. Shake hands- get them used to it.
6. Wipe your feet well
7. Ask or wait to be seated
8. Compliment a tidy abode
9. Don’t jump in with both feet
10. Accept an offer of tea or coffee.
11. Encourage talk about passions
12. Don’t ignore the spectators.
13. Ask before you put down your things.
14. Involve your customers, physically.
15. Wait out any interruptions.
16. Leave an object so that they can’t object to a second visit.
The following tips are directed at selling on the customer’s home base, that is, his house or place of work. However, as with all lessons in this book, these tips can and should be adapted to fit any sales situation, anywhere.
1. If a call of nature is imminent, relieve yourself prior to meeting your customer! Now, before you drop this book in surprise at this tip, let me explain why.
If possible you should stick to your customers like glue, from the first moment you meet them until it’s time to wave goodbye. You should marry them, stay with them and don’t give them an opportunity to scheme up ways of saying no when you’re not around.
2. Don’t be late for an appointment, not even by a minute. A first impression is a lasting impression, so make a good start by being punctual. If you are held up, or a delay is unavoidable, always phone your customer before the pre-arranged time to apologize and reschedule.
3. Never park your car in a reserved snace it might belong to the MD! If you are in any doubt, ask where you can park. Alternatively park at the far end of the car park, the end that is farthest away from the building. (One of the status symbols of anybody who is anybody is that they get to park nearest the building.)
This same principle applies at the customer’s home. Appreciate that there are certain places the customer reserves for his own parking or that of his family. To avoid any possible irritation, don’t park on the customer’s drive, don’t block the driveway and don’t park in front of the window or garage. Not only is this being courteous but it means that you won’t be disturbed during your presentation (or closing) when the customer’s son arrives and wants to put his car away.
4. Leave all your Sales equipment in the car and be empty-handed when you
Greet your customer. If you are carrying all your sales material, samples and equipment, apart from the fact it will be difficult to shake hands, you will appear too impersonal and too ready for action. Think how you would feel, if immediately upon opening the door of a tailor’s shop, the sales assistant said hello and began measuring you with his tape.
(Once you have greet your customer you should then excuse yourself whilst you go and get your things.)
5. When you greet your customers, always shake hands with them- you might
As well get them used to it from the start.
6. As you enter the customer’s domain, make an exaggerated effort in wiping
Your feet. The customer will notice this mark of respect and will warm to you more easily.
7. Always ask wait to be seated. Remember a man’s home (or his office for
That matter) is his castle. If you are invited into his castle you are a guest, so make sure you act like a guest, not an intruder.
8. If we invite someone round to our home, most of us make an effort to make
Ourselves and our home more presentable. We dust and polish and tidy round, we spray a little air freshener, put flowers into a vase and bring out the best chinaware.
If you notice, tidy, clean home, then mention it- compliment your customers sincerely and they will love you for it- because that effort was made on your behalf. Likewise you should compliment a tidy and well –organized office.
9. Don’t jump in with both feet. Don’t move straight into your sales
Presentation. Instead, settle things down and induce a receptive atmosphere. (This subject will be discussed in more detail in step 18)
10 If you come from a different ethnic or cultural background from your
customer, always accept and consume and offer of food or drink. This will
put your customer at ease and show him that you are not prejudiced.
11. Look around and you will see photographs, paintings, certificates, trophies,
Books, plants, record collections, cats ,dogs, model planes, musical instruments ………the list goes on and on. These items are memorabilia or passions to your customer, so mention them. Ask and be sincerely inquisitive and your customers will love you for it. Let them go on and on about the things they have a passion for and they will feel so appreciative – because they’re enjoying themselves and it’s very rare that they get the chance to show off to a willing audience. That appreciation will turn to obligation and they will end up saying: ‘Well enough of that –show me what you’ve got-how much is it? OK, I’ll have one,’
11 .Never ignores the customer’s children. Instead recruit them to your side and they’ll be your biggest ally (In an office you might not recruit the spectator but you should never ignore him.)
12 Don’t invade a customer’s desk with your ‘things’ without asking first. Likewise don’t use a customer’s furniture or floor (as in carpet) without asking. This is especially pertinent when it comes to glasses, cups or plates. Many customer’s are too polite to ask you to move something but the offending object remains on their mind and it festers. When this happens they won’t be giving you their undivided attention – so always ask first.
13 Always get the customer involved in the presentation, not just verbally but physically. Get the customer to help set up your demonstration, get him to compare colour co-ordination or help you measure up. Get the customer to look, touch, smell, taste and listen. (This subject is discussed in depend in step26.) The more involved he is, the more enthusiastic he becomes, because he starts to envisage what it would be like to own your product. Take him, as it were, for a test drive and let him feel what it’s really like to be behind the wheel!
14When you are in the customer’s home or office you are less in control of outside events. Such as an interruption by another member of the family, a knock at the door, or a telephone call. When this happens, stop your presentation and make small talk until everyone returns-then backtrack slightly to refresh their memories.
15It is always a good idea to leave something (of no intrinsic value) behind when you leave. For example you could accidentally on propose forget your folder, which must have fallen under the table, or maybe your calculator, that slipped down the side of your chair. This little trick gives you a legitimate excuse to call back again tomorrow. At the same time you can consolidate the deal or sell them some more, or if you failed the first time, have another go!
Reap Step 10
1. Stick to your customers like glue. Marry them
2. Don’t be late. If it’s unavoidable, phone before your appointment time
3. Park your car with care
4. Leave your equipment in the car until after the greeting
5. Shake hands- get them used to it.
6. Wipe your feet well
7. Ask or wait to be seated
8. Compliment a tidy abode
9. Don’t jump in with both feet
10. Accept an offer of tea or coffee.
11. Encourage talk about passions
12. Don’t ignore the spectators.
13. Ask before you put down your things.
14. Involve your customers, physically.
15. Wait out any interruptions.
16. Leave an object so that they can’t object to a second visit.
A dozen little tricks of the trade
A dozen little tricks of the trade
Before you jump into this ‘fun’ section, I would like to make one point absolutely clear. Never burn your customers. A pro-clo would never do anything detrimental to a customer – it’s not in his nature. If you cheat, lie, misrepresent, or mislead to hurt or harm a customer for your own gain, then you are a con-man. Make no mistake about it, there is a world of difference between the ‘honorable’ intentions and ploys of a pro-clo and the ‘dishonorable’ conduct and seams of a con-man. When a pro-clo uses a little pressure or some sort of ploy, he does so because he believes it’s in his customer’s (and his own) best interest. On the other hand, when the con-man is in action, there is only one person’s interest on his mind!
I can’t really put my finger on it, maybe it’s the power from above, but con-men don’t seem to enjoy health, wealth, happiness, or security for very long. I hope this point sinks in: DON’T BURN THEM.
Here, then are a dozen little ticks of the trade and how to apply them.
1.How to stop the rot.
If a customer loses interest. If he starts to wander or to lean away from the table and sits back in his chair, to lean away from the table and sits back in his chair, don’t inch forward, don’t climb up on to the table and push your material under his nose. If you do he will back in your chair and continue talking……… but so quietly that it’s impossible for the customer to hear you… the customer will instinctively come forward, back into position again.
If it happens a second time, then lower your voice, pull your material towards you and, pointing to something, enthusiastically say to the customer: ‘Just read that’. This will bring the customer back into action again.
If it should happen a third time, stop in your tracks become concerned and say to the customer: Was I talking too loudly for you?’ The customer will become uncomfortable and deny it, but from now on he will pay a lot more attention.
2.Taking immediate control
Always move your customer as soon as possible after the preliminary greeting. This technique puts the pro-clo in charge immediately because it allows him to choose the turf, rather than the customer. This changing of positions makes the customer somewhat disorientated and subrnissive, which automatically puts the instigator, the pro-clo control.
Changing the position or the turf must be done in an affable manner and there are various ways of accomplishing this. For example, changing rooms for more peace and quiet, changing chairs because this on is more comfortable, or changing to a different position for more light, heat, breeze, and so on. If you are in the customer’s home or office you might suggest that you move from the lounge to the kitchen table. Or ask if the customer wouldn’t mind sitting here instead of there, as you are slightly deaf in one ear and are finding it difficult to hear him. Just how of where you move your customer isn’t important, as long as he moves from where he chooses to be to where you choose him to be.
3.One way to overcome procrastination
I once heard of a salesman who used melodramatics to overcome customer procrastination. He would set the alarm on his watch to go off ten minutes after he met his customers. When the alarm activated, he would apologize and explain to his customers that it was imperative that he take his tables. He would even request a glass of water. He then went on to explain that he suffered from a serious complaint and that the pills ( vitamin tablets in an old prescription bottle) stopped him from becoming overstressed or excited and allowed him to lead as normal a life as possible.
Of course, throughout the presentation, the salesman’s ‘illness’ was completely forgotten, and it was never mentioned again unless the customers began to procrastinate. The salesman would be enthusiastic and excited when attempting to actually close the sale, and if he ever encountered any real indecisiveness, he would stop suddenly, frown and tap his chest once or twice, then continue a if nothing had happened. Apparently, his customers always decided very quickly after that!
This salesman’s antics may be controversial and I don’t wholly recommend them, but I was told that his intentions were always honorable and he always got more referrals than of his colleagues.
4.An ‘oldie’ to create urgency
Although this one has been over-used the years, and many customers are now skeptical, the impending price increase can still be very effective in creating urgency. Here is an example which demonstrates just how effective this closing tool can be.
My neighbor recently purchased some replacement windows. He had originally intended to shop around and compare prices but he ended up buying on the first quote. Afterwards he explained to me that the reason he had been so impulsive was because he was getting such a good deal. Amongst other things the salesperson had produced a price list, dated two days before, showing a to per cent increase in prices with immediate effect. The salesperson offered to backdate my neighbor’s quote by three days if he decided there and then to go ahead.
My neighbor in now the proud owner of some beautiful double-glazed windows, a new front door and new patio doors!
5.Customer guidance from above
When it’s time to close, if possible, sit higher than the customer so that they have to look up to you. (Use a different chair or a cushion or simply straighten your posture.) By sitting slightly higher than the customer you become dominant- the customer looks up to you, he respects your knowledge and becomes a little submissive, he looks to you for reassurance and guidance. From this position the pro-clo simply guides him home. (This is the same reason why a bank manager or a sales manager’s chair is often higher than the other chairs in the office so they can dominate their captives.)
6.The deliberate mistake
A beautiful little ploy to test the water, to find out how the customer feels about the product and to see if he is thinking ownership thoughts yet, is to use a deliberate mistake. For example, the customer has said earlier that he didn’t like the large one, it was too bulky. When the pro-clo feels the time is right, he makes a deliberate mistake to see if his customer corrects him. For example.
PRO-CLO: ‘ I personally prefer the smaller unit, but you said earlier that you thought the larger one would best suit your needs.
Customer: ‘No, I’m sorry- so it’s the smaller unit you’d like to have?’
If the customer says ‘Yes’, get out the order form and start writing it up. If the customer says ‘I haven’t decided anything yet,’ you carry on from where you left off.
7.Trick or treat with the wrong price
Here’s another adaptation of the deliberate mistake. This one is best used with the pushy customer.
Give the customer the correct price, then after a minute or two, apologize and tell the customer you’ve made a mistake, you’ve used an old price list. The prices have gone up since then and now it should be . The customer will object and say ‘I’m not paying that for it……. You made the mistake; I want it for the old price.’ (I think your sales manager might just give in!) Be very careful with this one, you don’t want the customer to think you’re incompetent, or that you’re trying to pull the wool over his eyes.
8.Make a spectacle of yourself when you mean business
This technique belongs to a very successful closer and an old colleague, Barbara.
Now Barbara is the sort of salesperson who really befriends her customers, she has a great personality and she gets very close to the people she is selling to. However, this presents Barbara with a rather unique problem. You see she gets so close to her customers, that it can be and very often is, difficult to get down to business, without being rude or abrupt. To overcome this dilemma, Barbara doesn’t say a thing; she simply takes out a pair of spectacles and puts them on. Her customers immediately feel the tactful change and respond accordingly.
This ‘putting on the spectacles’ trick works every time because it forces the customer to look at things in a different perspective.
9.Win the wife and you’ll win the husband
If your customers are a married couple, concentrate the most effort in selling to the wife, because 99 per cent of the time if she’s sold the husband will follow suit.
Most men follow their wives, decisions and they will do almost anything to please them, so win the wife and you’ll win the husband.
10.An ace up your sleeve called obligation.
Giving the occasional gift is a gesture which often produces excellent results. This practice is sometimes known as gifting, and the art of making it work is to offer a plausible explanation of why you are giving the gift. Every customer knows that ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch,’ so don’t be obvious about it. The customer should never feel you are trying to bribe him or buy his business. Generally speaking, the gift should be inexpensive, and if possible it should be a personal gift – it is not the cost but the thought that counts. For example, the gift could be a box of cigars which were given to you for Christmas (but you don’t smoke cigars); two tickets for the match on Saturday (you’ve now got to go to a wedding); a case of wine that a customer gave to you (you’ve tee-total but didn’t have the heart to tell him); or even a couple of t-shirts with your company logo on them, for his kids.
Some of the big companies really go to town when it comes to gifting established accounts and would be customers. Crates of booze at Christmas, private boxes at the races, conferences and dinners at the call it expenses or perks that go on their entertainment allowance. But in reality it’s ‘speculate to accumulate’, and the companies recoup these expenses many times over.
Gifting creates gratitude, but when it’s time to close that gratitude turns into obligation. A pro-clo firmly believes that every penny spent on a customer is worth a pound, so don’t be afraid of putting your hand in your pocket.
11.The best little ringer in town
The telephone is one of the best closing tools around, and more sales have been closed through pretend telephone conversations than through bona fide calls. A telephone can be used quite genuinely to check inventory, receive authorization, check delivery schedules and so on –and when the need arises, a little invented call can work wonders at creating urgency.
Here are a few examples.
Is it still available?
‘What do we have left, if anything, in this range?
‘What do you mean, it’s sold? When? Is the other one still there?’
‘So you would need to know now for delivery next Thursday?’
‘Could we possibly see our way to allow them……..?
‘Ok, I understand the answer is no……… but what if?
‘By the way, can you send six more to Johnson’s for tomorrow morning?’
‘Listen, Jim, I was wondering if I could call in that favour……’
12.The deal of the decade
The ‘golden oldie’ is to build the extra discount into your price, so that you can offer added incentives and entice the customer to buy without deviating from the original price, or making a loss. A gentleman I know (now a multi-millionaire) used to own a second –hand car lot. In his younger days, his customers would snap his hands off because he would offer up to 1,000 more on the trade-in value of their old car.(He simply used to add 1,000 on to his asking price.)
The reason he is now a millionaire is because he always gave the customer the extra 1,000 trade –in value, even when he knew he didn’t have to. As a result, Jack always had more referrals than all the local competition put together.
If the cause is just, a pro-clo is definitely not fainthearted about using ploys or pressure to convince his customers of the right decision –but he never pushes his customers, he pulls them.
Before reaching this section, I have already shared with you some of the many tips, tactical moves of the pro-clo, and throughout the remainder of the book you will find literally hundreds more. However, before we move on I would like to reiterate my opening remarks to this section. Never burn your customer and never do anything detrimental to a customer.
Before you jump into this ‘fun’ section, I would like to make one point absolutely clear. Never burn your customers. A pro-clo would never do anything detrimental to a customer – it’s not in his nature. If you cheat, lie, misrepresent, or mislead to hurt or harm a customer for your own gain, then you are a con-man. Make no mistake about it, there is a world of difference between the ‘honorable’ intentions and ploys of a pro-clo and the ‘dishonorable’ conduct and seams of a con-man. When a pro-clo uses a little pressure or some sort of ploy, he does so because he believes it’s in his customer’s (and his own) best interest. On the other hand, when the con-man is in action, there is only one person’s interest on his mind!
I can’t really put my finger on it, maybe it’s the power from above, but con-men don’t seem to enjoy health, wealth, happiness, or security for very long. I hope this point sinks in: DON’T BURN THEM.
Here, then are a dozen little ticks of the trade and how to apply them.
1.How to stop the rot.
If a customer loses interest. If he starts to wander or to lean away from the table and sits back in his chair, to lean away from the table and sits back in his chair, don’t inch forward, don’t climb up on to the table and push your material under his nose. If you do he will back in your chair and continue talking……… but so quietly that it’s impossible for the customer to hear you… the customer will instinctively come forward, back into position again.
If it happens a second time, then lower your voice, pull your material towards you and, pointing to something, enthusiastically say to the customer: ‘Just read that’. This will bring the customer back into action again.
If it should happen a third time, stop in your tracks become concerned and say to the customer: Was I talking too loudly for you?’ The customer will become uncomfortable and deny it, but from now on he will pay a lot more attention.
2.Taking immediate control
Always move your customer as soon as possible after the preliminary greeting. This technique puts the pro-clo in charge immediately because it allows him to choose the turf, rather than the customer. This changing of positions makes the customer somewhat disorientated and subrnissive, which automatically puts the instigator, the pro-clo control.
Changing the position or the turf must be done in an affable manner and there are various ways of accomplishing this. For example, changing rooms for more peace and quiet, changing chairs because this on is more comfortable, or changing to a different position for more light, heat, breeze, and so on. If you are in the customer’s home or office you might suggest that you move from the lounge to the kitchen table. Or ask if the customer wouldn’t mind sitting here instead of there, as you are slightly deaf in one ear and are finding it difficult to hear him. Just how of where you move your customer isn’t important, as long as he moves from where he chooses to be to where you choose him to be.
3.One way to overcome procrastination
I once heard of a salesman who used melodramatics to overcome customer procrastination. He would set the alarm on his watch to go off ten minutes after he met his customers. When the alarm activated, he would apologize and explain to his customers that it was imperative that he take his tables. He would even request a glass of water. He then went on to explain that he suffered from a serious complaint and that the pills ( vitamin tablets in an old prescription bottle) stopped him from becoming overstressed or excited and allowed him to lead as normal a life as possible.
Of course, throughout the presentation, the salesman’s ‘illness’ was completely forgotten, and it was never mentioned again unless the customers began to procrastinate. The salesman would be enthusiastic and excited when attempting to actually close the sale, and if he ever encountered any real indecisiveness, he would stop suddenly, frown and tap his chest once or twice, then continue a if nothing had happened. Apparently, his customers always decided very quickly after that!
This salesman’s antics may be controversial and I don’t wholly recommend them, but I was told that his intentions were always honorable and he always got more referrals than of his colleagues.
4.An ‘oldie’ to create urgency
Although this one has been over-used the years, and many customers are now skeptical, the impending price increase can still be very effective in creating urgency. Here is an example which demonstrates just how effective this closing tool can be.
My neighbor recently purchased some replacement windows. He had originally intended to shop around and compare prices but he ended up buying on the first quote. Afterwards he explained to me that the reason he had been so impulsive was because he was getting such a good deal. Amongst other things the salesperson had produced a price list, dated two days before, showing a to per cent increase in prices with immediate effect. The salesperson offered to backdate my neighbor’s quote by three days if he decided there and then to go ahead.
My neighbor in now the proud owner of some beautiful double-glazed windows, a new front door and new patio doors!
5.Customer guidance from above
When it’s time to close, if possible, sit higher than the customer so that they have to look up to you. (Use a different chair or a cushion or simply straighten your posture.) By sitting slightly higher than the customer you become dominant- the customer looks up to you, he respects your knowledge and becomes a little submissive, he looks to you for reassurance and guidance. From this position the pro-clo simply guides him home. (This is the same reason why a bank manager or a sales manager’s chair is often higher than the other chairs in the office so they can dominate their captives.)
6.The deliberate mistake
A beautiful little ploy to test the water, to find out how the customer feels about the product and to see if he is thinking ownership thoughts yet, is to use a deliberate mistake. For example, the customer has said earlier that he didn’t like the large one, it was too bulky. When the pro-clo feels the time is right, he makes a deliberate mistake to see if his customer corrects him. For example.
PRO-CLO: ‘ I personally prefer the smaller unit, but you said earlier that you thought the larger one would best suit your needs.
Customer: ‘No, I’m sorry- so it’s the smaller unit you’d like to have?’
If the customer says ‘Yes’, get out the order form and start writing it up. If the customer says ‘I haven’t decided anything yet,’ you carry on from where you left off.
7.Trick or treat with the wrong price
Here’s another adaptation of the deliberate mistake. This one is best used with the pushy customer.
Give the customer the correct price, then after a minute or two, apologize and tell the customer you’ve made a mistake, you’ve used an old price list. The prices have gone up since then and now it should be . The customer will object and say ‘I’m not paying that for it……. You made the mistake; I want it for the old price.’ (I think your sales manager might just give in!) Be very careful with this one, you don’t want the customer to think you’re incompetent, or that you’re trying to pull the wool over his eyes.
8.Make a spectacle of yourself when you mean business
This technique belongs to a very successful closer and an old colleague, Barbara.
Now Barbara is the sort of salesperson who really befriends her customers, she has a great personality and she gets very close to the people she is selling to. However, this presents Barbara with a rather unique problem. You see she gets so close to her customers, that it can be and very often is, difficult to get down to business, without being rude or abrupt. To overcome this dilemma, Barbara doesn’t say a thing; she simply takes out a pair of spectacles and puts them on. Her customers immediately feel the tactful change and respond accordingly.
This ‘putting on the spectacles’ trick works every time because it forces the customer to look at things in a different perspective.
9.Win the wife and you’ll win the husband
If your customers are a married couple, concentrate the most effort in selling to the wife, because 99 per cent of the time if she’s sold the husband will follow suit.
Most men follow their wives, decisions and they will do almost anything to please them, so win the wife and you’ll win the husband.
10.An ace up your sleeve called obligation.
Giving the occasional gift is a gesture which often produces excellent results. This practice is sometimes known as gifting, and the art of making it work is to offer a plausible explanation of why you are giving the gift. Every customer knows that ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch,’ so don’t be obvious about it. The customer should never feel you are trying to bribe him or buy his business. Generally speaking, the gift should be inexpensive, and if possible it should be a personal gift – it is not the cost but the thought that counts. For example, the gift could be a box of cigars which were given to you for Christmas (but you don’t smoke cigars); two tickets for the match on Saturday (you’ve now got to go to a wedding); a case of wine that a customer gave to you (you’ve tee-total but didn’t have the heart to tell him); or even a couple of t-shirts with your company logo on them, for his kids.
Some of the big companies really go to town when it comes to gifting established accounts and would be customers. Crates of booze at Christmas, private boxes at the races, conferences and dinners at the call it expenses or perks that go on their entertainment allowance. But in reality it’s ‘speculate to accumulate’, and the companies recoup these expenses many times over.
Gifting creates gratitude, but when it’s time to close that gratitude turns into obligation. A pro-clo firmly believes that every penny spent on a customer is worth a pound, so don’t be afraid of putting your hand in your pocket.
11.The best little ringer in town
The telephone is one of the best closing tools around, and more sales have been closed through pretend telephone conversations than through bona fide calls. A telephone can be used quite genuinely to check inventory, receive authorization, check delivery schedules and so on –and when the need arises, a little invented call can work wonders at creating urgency.
Here are a few examples.
Is it still available?
‘What do we have left, if anything, in this range?
‘What do you mean, it’s sold? When? Is the other one still there?’
‘So you would need to know now for delivery next Thursday?’
‘Could we possibly see our way to allow them……..?
‘Ok, I understand the answer is no……… but what if?
‘By the way, can you send six more to Johnson’s for tomorrow morning?’
‘Listen, Jim, I was wondering if I could call in that favour……’
12.The deal of the decade
The ‘golden oldie’ is to build the extra discount into your price, so that you can offer added incentives and entice the customer to buy without deviating from the original price, or making a loss. A gentleman I know (now a multi-millionaire) used to own a second –hand car lot. In his younger days, his customers would snap his hands off because he would offer up to 1,000 more on the trade-in value of their old car.(He simply used to add 1,000 on to his asking price.)
The reason he is now a millionaire is because he always gave the customer the extra 1,000 trade –in value, even when he knew he didn’t have to. As a result, Jack always had more referrals than all the local competition put together.
If the cause is just, a pro-clo is definitely not fainthearted about using ploys or pressure to convince his customers of the right decision –but he never pushes his customers, he pulls them.
Before reaching this section, I have already shared with you some of the many tips, tactical moves of the pro-clo, and throughout the remainder of the book you will find literally hundreds more. However, before we move on I would like to reiterate my opening remarks to this section. Never burn your customer and never do anything detrimental to a customer.
Do your homework for succes in sales
Do your homework
As we continue our climb up ‘The thirty –Nine step to success’ We shall look in depth at how a pro-clo actually sells to his customers. Now we are going to look at how he prepares for the encounter.
Nowadays, especially in direct selling, many companies provide their salespeople with qualified leads obtained through various advertising and marketing campaigns. In such situations a great deal of homework can be done before the pro-clo even meets the customer. Apart from the obvious qualifications and information that the customers give the marketing department, there are a number of other telltale signs that the pro-clo searches for and picks up on. We will look at some examples of this in a moment.
A pro-clo always does his homework before making a presentation. Even on a cold call, he doesn’t just knock on doors for the sake of knocking on doors- he does his research and knocks on the right doors. Depending upon the product or service, this homework or groundwork can be very comprehensive and time-consuming, but it is work that must be done. A pro-clo finds out as much as possible about his potential customer, he finds out about his lifestyle, his family, his concerns, interests, hobbies, wants, needs, aspirations, likes, dislikes and whatever else he can find out that is pertinent. Armed with this ammunition, the pro-clo is able to licate the customer’s hot –button, the thing that is going to switch him on. When he moves into his presentation the pro-clo (because he has done his homework) shows the customer that he has a problem, an itch, a want, a need, a hurt, and then offers the customer a solution, a medicine that will cure everything. When a pro-clo does his homework effectively, the customer is so relieved to be offered a solution that he doesn’t need to be closed, he offered a solution that he doesn’t need to be closed, he eagerly buys without any hesitation. These are the best kind of sales, the ones that lie down and roll over for you. They are also the kind of sales that provide excellent testimonials and great referrals.
Here, then, are a few of the telltale signs that a pro-clo will pick up on when he is doing his homework. (Although a pro-clo picks up on this information, he does not prejudge-he is simply aware. Forewarned is forearmed.) Let’s take the customer’s name, address and telephone number as a typical example of how seemingly trivial information can provide the pro-clo with crucial clues about his customer, without ever having met him.
Forenames can give you a clue to age……. If the customer’s forenames are Arthur, Harold, Percival, Wilbur, or Alice, Edith, Gladys, Lilian, etc. the chances are, with these types of old-fashioned name, they are getting on in years. (I know that old-fashioned names have, over recent years, become fashionable again, but it is unlikely that today’s youth are going to be potential customers for at lest another 15-20 years.)
Surnames can reveal things about class and attitude…. If the customer has a double –barrel surname, e.g. Foster –smith, or Freedman –Jones, it might suggest that the customer is a little flamboyant or loud. It could be that he wants to be noticed and stand out from the crowd. These types of customer have a big ego.(take them on a trip.) the same normally applies to a customer who offers his/her middle name or initial without being asked for it.
Title and marital status …... Look carefully at what information titles reveal about marital status. For instance, if a couple have tow surnames and, Say a Mr. Smith is living with a Mis Jones, they are obviously not married don’t have children, and may have two incomes. If on the other hand, Mr. Smith is living with a Mrs Jones, she at least will have been married and there may be more than one set of children. They could be living together and not divorced, so money might be tight and of fering finance could be a problem.
And address can tell you a lot about a prospective customer…….. If someone gives a house name in their address, such as Beabers Lodge or Rose Cottage, etc, then the more often than not very houseproud and have a lovely home. They also like to flaunt it.
If the house number is very high, e.g. No 363 or no. 1247, it normally indicates that the people live in block of flats, a very large busy road, or on a massive estate. Such people tend to be honest and hard-working, they tend to be very down-earth, and are not frightened to spend money. That’s why they are now a lead.
If the address reads Something Road, or Something Street, than the property is usually quite old and normally a terrace, which means it will probably have two or three bedrooms. A little research of the area will give you an idea of property values, so you can get a general idea of their likely income and outgoings.
If the address reads No.3 The Dingle, or Bluebell Close, Bearswood –or how about Avenue. Lane, etc, this gives the impression of a rather big house in a nice area.
Also pay attention to telephone numbers……. If a customer gives his telephone number as Bearswood 1234 instead of giving his area code, he’s being snobbish, he wants to let people know he lives in an affluent area. Easy to sell to!
This is straight forward stuff, yet the average salesperson doesn’t see it and doesn’t think to look, Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg and a pro-clo would gather much more information than name, address and phone number-but the above examples will give you a feel for what I am trying to get across.
Doing your homework is a very necessary step on the staircase and if you try to jump over it, you will almost certainly fall down. It is also, very often, a painful step, but as they saying goes: ‘If there is no pain there’s no gain.’ Remember a pro-clo is AWARE forewarned in forearmed.
As we continue our climb up ‘The thirty –Nine step to success’ We shall look in depth at how a pro-clo actually sells to his customers. Now we are going to look at how he prepares for the encounter.
Nowadays, especially in direct selling, many companies provide their salespeople with qualified leads obtained through various advertising and marketing campaigns. In such situations a great deal of homework can be done before the pro-clo even meets the customer. Apart from the obvious qualifications and information that the customers give the marketing department, there are a number of other telltale signs that the pro-clo searches for and picks up on. We will look at some examples of this in a moment.
A pro-clo always does his homework before making a presentation. Even on a cold call, he doesn’t just knock on doors for the sake of knocking on doors- he does his research and knocks on the right doors. Depending upon the product or service, this homework or groundwork can be very comprehensive and time-consuming, but it is work that must be done. A pro-clo finds out as much as possible about his potential customer, he finds out about his lifestyle, his family, his concerns, interests, hobbies, wants, needs, aspirations, likes, dislikes and whatever else he can find out that is pertinent. Armed with this ammunition, the pro-clo is able to licate the customer’s hot –button, the thing that is going to switch him on. When he moves into his presentation the pro-clo (because he has done his homework) shows the customer that he has a problem, an itch, a want, a need, a hurt, and then offers the customer a solution, a medicine that will cure everything. When a pro-clo does his homework effectively, the customer is so relieved to be offered a solution that he doesn’t need to be closed, he offered a solution that he doesn’t need to be closed, he eagerly buys without any hesitation. These are the best kind of sales, the ones that lie down and roll over for you. They are also the kind of sales that provide excellent testimonials and great referrals.
Here, then, are a few of the telltale signs that a pro-clo will pick up on when he is doing his homework. (Although a pro-clo picks up on this information, he does not prejudge-he is simply aware. Forewarned is forearmed.) Let’s take the customer’s name, address and telephone number as a typical example of how seemingly trivial information can provide the pro-clo with crucial clues about his customer, without ever having met him.
Forenames can give you a clue to age……. If the customer’s forenames are Arthur, Harold, Percival, Wilbur, or Alice, Edith, Gladys, Lilian, etc. the chances are, with these types of old-fashioned name, they are getting on in years. (I know that old-fashioned names have, over recent years, become fashionable again, but it is unlikely that today’s youth are going to be potential customers for at lest another 15-20 years.)
Surnames can reveal things about class and attitude…. If the customer has a double –barrel surname, e.g. Foster –smith, or Freedman –Jones, it might suggest that the customer is a little flamboyant or loud. It could be that he wants to be noticed and stand out from the crowd. These types of customer have a big ego.(take them on a trip.) the same normally applies to a customer who offers his/her middle name or initial without being asked for it.
Title and marital status …... Look carefully at what information titles reveal about marital status. For instance, if a couple have tow surnames and, Say a Mr. Smith is living with a Mis Jones, they are obviously not married don’t have children, and may have two incomes. If on the other hand, Mr. Smith is living with a Mrs Jones, she at least will have been married and there may be more than one set of children. They could be living together and not divorced, so money might be tight and of fering finance could be a problem.
And address can tell you a lot about a prospective customer…….. If someone gives a house name in their address, such as Beabers Lodge or Rose Cottage, etc, then the more often than not very houseproud and have a lovely home. They also like to flaunt it.
If the house number is very high, e.g. No 363 or no. 1247, it normally indicates that the people live in block of flats, a very large busy road, or on a massive estate. Such people tend to be honest and hard-working, they tend to be very down-earth, and are not frightened to spend money. That’s why they are now a lead.
If the address reads Something Road, or Something Street, than the property is usually quite old and normally a terrace, which means it will probably have two or three bedrooms. A little research of the area will give you an idea of property values, so you can get a general idea of their likely income and outgoings.
If the address reads No.3 The Dingle, or Bluebell Close, Bearswood –or how about Avenue. Lane, etc, this gives the impression of a rather big house in a nice area.
Also pay attention to telephone numbers……. If a customer gives his telephone number as Bearswood 1234 instead of giving his area code, he’s being snobbish, he wants to let people know he lives in an affluent area. Easy to sell to!
This is straight forward stuff, yet the average salesperson doesn’t see it and doesn’t think to look, Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg and a pro-clo would gather much more information than name, address and phone number-but the above examples will give you a feel for what I am trying to get across.
Doing your homework is a very necessary step on the staircase and if you try to jump over it, you will almost certainly fall down. It is also, very often, a painful step, but as they saying goes: ‘If there is no pain there’s no gain.’ Remember a pro-clo is AWARE forewarned in forearmed.
Canvassing for business
Canvassing for business
Some pro-clo benefit from quality leads through their company marketing departments, some do not. Whichever is the case, a pro-clo is always on the hunt for leads which could generate new business. Here are some ideas that I have always found rewarding.
Hit’ em again Sam
The best source of new business is repeat business from existing customers, so let’s start first of all concentrating on the existing customers/owners list.
1.Seek out referral business from existing customers. Simply pick up the phone and say something on the lines of: ‘Listen, Jim, things are a little slow around here and I was wondering if you might be able to help me out. Can you think of anybody who might be interested in……? They’ll help you!
2.Market survey existing customers. Find out if they are happy, what if anything would they change and, most important, how long they anticipate it will be before they renew or replace. Every product or service has a lifespan – once you determine what it is, for example, three years, contact all customers who are approaching the three-year mark.
3.Contact existing customers whenever you have something new, e.g. new brochure, new price list, new product, new discount or sale, new data, new advanced formula, whatever.
4.Almost every business has an after-sales department that deals with customer complaints, replacement, parts, repairs and services. Your own service or complaints department can provide you with some excellent leads. Customers with problems are worth their weight in gold!
5.Contact the used to be customers the once that all the other salespeople give up on as no-hopers, even if they’re not in your area.
6.Take on any customer that another salesperson doesn’t want. There are always some that the losers want to get rid of, or give away.
The one that got away
As your customer list continues to grow, so will your repeat business. The next avenue for thought and then ground work is the list of the nearly was or could have beens.’
7.Contact all the old enquiries, the ‘could have beens’. These folk obviously had some sparks of interest once. Why not try to rekindle that interest?
8.Get hold off all the company’s cancellations, the nearly was list. Most of these ex-customers bought and wobbled because they didn’t have a pro-clo like you to service them and to consolidate the deal.
9.Swap your dead leads with those of a colleague or competitor.
From a gentle stream to a mighty flowing river
Then there are endless different lead sources right on your doorstep. They are like ripe fruit on a tree at harvest-time –one gentle little tug and they are yours for the talking.
10.Advertise in every newsagent’s window in your area. If you figure conservatively that each newsagent has 1,000 customers per week and there are 50 newsagents in your area- That’s a potential 50,000 prospects reading your advert for around 10 per week. Don’t just use your business card or a normal postcard; use something that is eye-catching like a testimonial letter from an existing customer.
11. Do the same with each post office window, your local garages, video store and the corner shop.
12.Browse through your local newspaper regularly, there are always hundreds of potential leads looking you in the face. For example, when Mr. John Johnson from the street in Any town raises 1,000 for charity by parachuting from a plane- find his address from the telephone book. Write congratulating him on his performance and enclose your business card, should he ever be interested in medical or life insurance. Get the idea?
13.Canvass potential customers from your Yellow pages or Thomson Local.
14.Every public library in the land has on its shelves trade magazines and publications, business directories and company names / addresses, etc, offering a wealth of possibilities. There are also guides to almost everything imaginable. For example, if you sell salt and pepper pots, than you’ll find guides to hotels, restaurants, public houses, nursing homes, youth hostels, bed and breakfast outlets – the list is endless.
15. Advertise on the notice boards of the local council offices, community centers, town hall, health and leisure club, the golf club, and so on.
16. Do some cold calling. There is nothing like knocking on a few doors to get the adrenalin pumping. Yes, you get a lot of rejection but you also get success around to per cent of the time. If you tell the ‘cold calls’ that you’re in the area and will be calling on such a day or a certain evening (drop a leaflet or brochure through the door), your success rate will be lot higher than to per cent. Ask the Avon lady.
17. Organize an exchange programmed with another business (not a competitor) who sells to the same kind of customers you do. As an example, let’s take the home improvements industry. Here there is a huge mass of potentially compatible customers from companies of potentially compatible customers form companies that sell such things as double glazing, kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, conservatories, security systems water purifiers, cable television, driveways, patios, textured wall –coating, and so on. You should contact a likely company and arrange to exchange leads or customer lists, like for like.
18. Arrange a direct mail shot or a leaflet drop.
19. Your local estate agents know the names and addresses of hundreds of people who have just moved into new homes. If you sell windows or carpets or water filters or paint, if you sell kitchens or bathrooms or bedrooms or conservatories etc. – maybe it might be worth your while to cross the estate agent’s palm with silver, if business should be generated form any leads he gives you.
It doesn’t stop with estate agents-plumbers know people who need a new washing machine, mechanics know customers who are talking about a new car and vest know of people who are in the market for a new dog. Be creative!
20. Don’t send Christmas cards, send calendars. They don’t have to be
expensive or have to be expensive or have a different picture for each
month as long as they are attractive and presentable. Every calendar should
have your name, your company and your telephone numbers on display in
a prominent position. It will be a constant daily reminder, for the next
twelve months, that you are there for them should they want to upgrade
add on replace, or send referrals. For the best impact and the best results,
make your calendar a personal gift.
There are many other ways of canvassing to generate new business, but to be effective, and be prepared to put in lots of hard work and determined effort. Here is a little story that demonstrates being creative, talking the initiative and making a determined effort to canvass my business.
Although I wasn’t in any hurry, I‘d been considering for some time making a small conversion to a part of our home and so I applied for planning permission. My intention was to save time when I eventually decided to go ahead and have the work done. I didn’t realize that my application went on public display at the council offices, but over the next few weeks I received a total of seventeen letters from builders offering their services, builder’s merchants pushing their wares, a couple of money-lenders selling finance and even a letter from a company who sold drapery.
At first I was impressed at the imitative these companies had shown in an attempt to canvass my business, but when I looked more closely. I saw a different picture. Only four of the seventeen letters had been signed by their author. The rest were either photocopied signatures informing me it was a standard letter, or they weren’t signed at all, or they had been signed ‘pp’ followed by an illegible scribble. Fifteen of the letters were addressed to Dear Sir, Dear Occupier, or Dear (Space) and six of them said ‘date as postmark’.
Only two of the seventeen had bothered to write to me personally, dated their letter and signed it with ink, of those two only one letter was from a builder, the other was from the draper.
I couldn’t help but wonder how many of those seventeen companies would give me the service that I would want. My guess was, only two. As I have explained, I wasn’t in any hurry, so I didn’t respond to any of the letters. Instead, I just sat on them.
Of those original seventeen, only one bothered to contact me again. Guess which builder it was, and guess who my business.
The moral of this story is, you must be professional and be personal and you must follow up to follow through we are now about to move on and look at the actual sales process, but before we do let’s have a quick refresher.
Step 11 Use ingenuity to pull your customer, not push him.
Step 12 Do your homework and you’ll reap the rewards
Step 13 Canvass, canvass, canvass then follow up to follow through.
Some pro-clo benefit from quality leads through their company marketing departments, some do not. Whichever is the case, a pro-clo is always on the hunt for leads which could generate new business. Here are some ideas that I have always found rewarding.
Hit’ em again Sam
The best source of new business is repeat business from existing customers, so let’s start first of all concentrating on the existing customers/owners list.
1.Seek out referral business from existing customers. Simply pick up the phone and say something on the lines of: ‘Listen, Jim, things are a little slow around here and I was wondering if you might be able to help me out. Can you think of anybody who might be interested in……? They’ll help you!
2.Market survey existing customers. Find out if they are happy, what if anything would they change and, most important, how long they anticipate it will be before they renew or replace. Every product or service has a lifespan – once you determine what it is, for example, three years, contact all customers who are approaching the three-year mark.
3.Contact existing customers whenever you have something new, e.g. new brochure, new price list, new product, new discount or sale, new data, new advanced formula, whatever.
4.Almost every business has an after-sales department that deals with customer complaints, replacement, parts, repairs and services. Your own service or complaints department can provide you with some excellent leads. Customers with problems are worth their weight in gold!
5.Contact the used to be customers the once that all the other salespeople give up on as no-hopers, even if they’re not in your area.
6.Take on any customer that another salesperson doesn’t want. There are always some that the losers want to get rid of, or give away.
The one that got away
As your customer list continues to grow, so will your repeat business. The next avenue for thought and then ground work is the list of the nearly was or could have beens.’
7.Contact all the old enquiries, the ‘could have beens’. These folk obviously had some sparks of interest once. Why not try to rekindle that interest?
8.Get hold off all the company’s cancellations, the nearly was list. Most of these ex-customers bought and wobbled because they didn’t have a pro-clo like you to service them and to consolidate the deal.
9.Swap your dead leads with those of a colleague or competitor.
From a gentle stream to a mighty flowing river
Then there are endless different lead sources right on your doorstep. They are like ripe fruit on a tree at harvest-time –one gentle little tug and they are yours for the talking.
10.Advertise in every newsagent’s window in your area. If you figure conservatively that each newsagent has 1,000 customers per week and there are 50 newsagents in your area- That’s a potential 50,000 prospects reading your advert for around 10 per week. Don’t just use your business card or a normal postcard; use something that is eye-catching like a testimonial letter from an existing customer.
11. Do the same with each post office window, your local garages, video store and the corner shop.
12.Browse through your local newspaper regularly, there are always hundreds of potential leads looking you in the face. For example, when Mr. John Johnson from the street in Any town raises 1,000 for charity by parachuting from a plane- find his address from the telephone book. Write congratulating him on his performance and enclose your business card, should he ever be interested in medical or life insurance. Get the idea?
13.Canvass potential customers from your Yellow pages or Thomson Local.
14.Every public library in the land has on its shelves trade magazines and publications, business directories and company names / addresses, etc, offering a wealth of possibilities. There are also guides to almost everything imaginable. For example, if you sell salt and pepper pots, than you’ll find guides to hotels, restaurants, public houses, nursing homes, youth hostels, bed and breakfast outlets – the list is endless.
15. Advertise on the notice boards of the local council offices, community centers, town hall, health and leisure club, the golf club, and so on.
16. Do some cold calling. There is nothing like knocking on a few doors to get the adrenalin pumping. Yes, you get a lot of rejection but you also get success around to per cent of the time. If you tell the ‘cold calls’ that you’re in the area and will be calling on such a day or a certain evening (drop a leaflet or brochure through the door), your success rate will be lot higher than to per cent. Ask the Avon lady.
17. Organize an exchange programmed with another business (not a competitor) who sells to the same kind of customers you do. As an example, let’s take the home improvements industry. Here there is a huge mass of potentially compatible customers from companies of potentially compatible customers form companies that sell such things as double glazing, kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, conservatories, security systems water purifiers, cable television, driveways, patios, textured wall –coating, and so on. You should contact a likely company and arrange to exchange leads or customer lists, like for like.
18. Arrange a direct mail shot or a leaflet drop.
19. Your local estate agents know the names and addresses of hundreds of people who have just moved into new homes. If you sell windows or carpets or water filters or paint, if you sell kitchens or bathrooms or bedrooms or conservatories etc. – maybe it might be worth your while to cross the estate agent’s palm with silver, if business should be generated form any leads he gives you.
It doesn’t stop with estate agents-plumbers know people who need a new washing machine, mechanics know customers who are talking about a new car and vest know of people who are in the market for a new dog. Be creative!
20. Don’t send Christmas cards, send calendars. They don’t have to be
expensive or have to be expensive or have a different picture for each
month as long as they are attractive and presentable. Every calendar should
have your name, your company and your telephone numbers on display in
a prominent position. It will be a constant daily reminder, for the next
twelve months, that you are there for them should they want to upgrade
add on replace, or send referrals. For the best impact and the best results,
make your calendar a personal gift.
There are many other ways of canvassing to generate new business, but to be effective, and be prepared to put in lots of hard work and determined effort. Here is a little story that demonstrates being creative, talking the initiative and making a determined effort to canvass my business.
Although I wasn’t in any hurry, I‘d been considering for some time making a small conversion to a part of our home and so I applied for planning permission. My intention was to save time when I eventually decided to go ahead and have the work done. I didn’t realize that my application went on public display at the council offices, but over the next few weeks I received a total of seventeen letters from builders offering their services, builder’s merchants pushing their wares, a couple of money-lenders selling finance and even a letter from a company who sold drapery.
At first I was impressed at the imitative these companies had shown in an attempt to canvass my business, but when I looked more closely. I saw a different picture. Only four of the seventeen letters had been signed by their author. The rest were either photocopied signatures informing me it was a standard letter, or they weren’t signed at all, or they had been signed ‘pp’ followed by an illegible scribble. Fifteen of the letters were addressed to Dear Sir, Dear Occupier, or Dear (Space) and six of them said ‘date as postmark’.
Only two of the seventeen had bothered to write to me personally, dated their letter and signed it with ink, of those two only one letter was from a builder, the other was from the draper.
I couldn’t help but wonder how many of those seventeen companies would give me the service that I would want. My guess was, only two. As I have explained, I wasn’t in any hurry, so I didn’t respond to any of the letters. Instead, I just sat on them.
Of those original seventeen, only one bothered to contact me again. Guess which builder it was, and guess who my business.
The moral of this story is, you must be professional and be personal and you must follow up to follow through we are now about to move on and look at the actual sales process, but before we do let’s have a quick refresher.
Step 11 Use ingenuity to pull your customer, not push him.
Step 12 Do your homework and you’ll reap the rewards
Step 13 Canvass, canvass, canvass then follow up to follow through.
The plan of action for Sales
The plan of action
A pro-clo always works to a plan action. He has a strategy, a sequence of events, a proven formula that he follows with each presentation.
Depending upon the product or service there are many adaptations of this plan of action, but a typical sequence of events will run something like this (assuming the appointment has been made.)
1.Meeting/ greeting
I think it is enough for me to say that nobody gets a second chance to make a first impression. Smile, be friendly, be polite and courteous. Shake hands- get the customer used to it. Remember to take control as soon as possible. Ask the customer to do something: ‘Would you come this way?, ‘Would you mind turning the television off, ‘ Is it all right if I sit here?’ and so on.
ii. Setting the scene
When you first meet a customer, his defense shield, that protective
Barrier, will be in place to product him form being sold, to protect
him from the unknown. The pro-clo chips away at this barrier until
it eventually comes down, until the customer is relaxed and
receptive. The best way to start this process is to put your cards on
the table and tell the customer what you are going to do. Once you
have done this the customer will no longer be afraid of the unknown
You will have made him aware of what is going to happen, and he
will start to relax.
If you give the customer an escape route, if you tell him in so many words that you’re not going to try and sell him anything and it’s OK if he doesn’t buy, he will relax that much quicker. I’m not suggesting you let the customer off the hook, I’m suggesting that you imply to the customer that this is what will happen if whatever it is you are selling is not for him. The pro-clo always makes the customer want the product, but the customer doesn’t know that. The technique of setting the stage will be covered in more detail later in this section (Step 16).
2.Building rapport
Warm the customer up before moving in to pitch him (Step 18, covered in depth on page 84). This is the crucial stage, the time when the sale can make or break even before the actual presentation. Here, through relaxed conversation (usually with a tea or coffee), the pro-clo builds common bonds, friendship, trust, credibility, warmth and makes the customer receptive.
3.Presentation
Short and simple (covered in step 20)
4.Recap
Once you have made your presentation, recap before you close to make sure your customer understands everything and to make sure there are no last-minute doubts or questions. First, we tell them what we are going to do, then we do it, then we tell them what we’ve just done.
5. price /close
If you don’t work from a published price list, hold back the price until the end. Sell them on what they are going to get first, then tell them the price. When you go into a shop to buy a pair of shoes you don’t walk in and ask ‘How much are your shoes?’
A pro-clo always works to a plan action. He has a strategy, a sequence of events, a proven formula that he follows with each presentation.
Depending upon the product or service there are many adaptations of this plan of action, but a typical sequence of events will run something like this (assuming the appointment has been made.)
1.Meeting/ greeting
I think it is enough for me to say that nobody gets a second chance to make a first impression. Smile, be friendly, be polite and courteous. Shake hands- get the customer used to it. Remember to take control as soon as possible. Ask the customer to do something: ‘Would you come this way?, ‘Would you mind turning the television off, ‘ Is it all right if I sit here?’ and so on.
ii. Setting the scene
When you first meet a customer, his defense shield, that protective
Barrier, will be in place to product him form being sold, to protect
him from the unknown. The pro-clo chips away at this barrier until
it eventually comes down, until the customer is relaxed and
receptive. The best way to start this process is to put your cards on
the table and tell the customer what you are going to do. Once you
have done this the customer will no longer be afraid of the unknown
You will have made him aware of what is going to happen, and he
will start to relax.
If you give the customer an escape route, if you tell him in so many words that you’re not going to try and sell him anything and it’s OK if he doesn’t buy, he will relax that much quicker. I’m not suggesting you let the customer off the hook, I’m suggesting that you imply to the customer that this is what will happen if whatever it is you are selling is not for him. The pro-clo always makes the customer want the product, but the customer doesn’t know that. The technique of setting the stage will be covered in more detail later in this section (Step 16).
2.Building rapport
Warm the customer up before moving in to pitch him (Step 18, covered in depth on page 84). This is the crucial stage, the time when the sale can make or break even before the actual presentation. Here, through relaxed conversation (usually with a tea or coffee), the pro-clo builds common bonds, friendship, trust, credibility, warmth and makes the customer receptive.
3.Presentation
Short and simple (covered in step 20)
4.Recap
Once you have made your presentation, recap before you close to make sure your customer understands everything and to make sure there are no last-minute doubts or questions. First, we tell them what we are going to do, then we do it, then we tell them what we’ve just done.
5. price /close
If you don’t work from a published price list, hold back the price until the end. Sell them on what they are going to get first, then tell them the price. When you go into a shop to buy a pair of shoes you don’t walk in and ask ‘How much are your shoes?’
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