Let’s face it…All bets are off. What used to work in sales doesn’t work any more. You can’t just make an appointment, show your wares, highlight the benefits and overcome objections to sell.
What’s the best way to sell right now? Find a legitimate, painful, real need … and fill it.
Stop and honestly evaluate your company’s offerings. Ask these questions:
- Do we currently fill a legitimate, painful, real need that people have?
- If not, how can our offerings be retooled, repackaged or re-communicated to do so?
- If so, identify and articulate specifically how you fill that need.
- How do we approach a sales opportunity now?
- Are we still touting our offerings and talking about how wonderful our company and offerings are? Do you only see $$ signs when you look at your prospects?
- Or are we starting from a position of “what are your needs right now in this area?” and asking questions honestly designed to help our prospects? Do you provide solutions to your needs?
- What are the objections we are getting right now?
- If so, what are they and how can our offerings be retooled, repackaged or re-communicated to address, reduce or remove the objections?
- Are you backing up your claims with proof?
I can tell you that in this economy so many companies are struggling just to make ends meet.
One of the biggest needs (if not the biggest) right now is money – making money and saving money.
Can you prove and quantify how your offering makes your clients money or saves them money?
If you can, your job is easy. You might just need to tweak your approach, message and language to make sure that is your emphasis.
If you can’t, you have some work to do. Go back to the questions above and ask yourself those questions honestly in light of that need.
Need more proof? Read this study of Fortune 500 companies and note the trend.
- Of the Fortune 500 Companies – 35% had started their business in a recession
- Of the Fortune 100 – 46% had started their business in a recession
- Of the Fortune 50 – 52% had started their business in a recession
- Of the Fortune 25 – 64% had started their business in a recession
- Of the Fortune 10 – 70% had started their business in a recession
In our next article, we’ll explore proving and quantifying more in depth. Here are the elements of proving and quantifying your offering:
- Increasing sales numbers
- Lowering costs of doing business
- Low risks of doing business with you
Consider that all CEOs ask 3 questions directly or indirectly.
- How Much?
- How Soon?
- How Risky?
Want more? Contact us. We’ve spent years analyzing sales and marketing practices, helping clients maximize their sales and marketing and building systems to help companies squeeze results from their sales and marketing operations. That’s why we are called the “Sales and Marketing Experts”. And we are delighted to share that wealth of information with you.
Genesis Global Technologies, authors of
Sales Advantage: www.Sales-Advantage.net
Developers Advantage: www.DevelopersAdvantage.net
Medical Advantage: www.Medical-Advantage.net
239-337-2667
