to drop by and visit to see how I may serve you in the future.
Sincerely,
Your Name
If you send that letter to everyone you know, they will be ready when you call and arrange time to come by and visit with them. This is a wonderful way to start the process of activity and talking to more people about your product or service.
Many of you also will be assigned a territory where you are to go out into the community, meet businesses, and meet people working in the area, and you may want to establish a game plan for handling or sending an introductory letter to them. In fact, you might say something like this:
Good Morning Mr. Smith,
My name is Tom Hopkins, a representative of ABC Company. Upper management of my firm has given me an assignment....
Now I want you to notice the words I chose closely. By saying the words, “upper management has given me an assignment,” you are almost blaming the company for the fact that you have to make this contact, thus the person you are contacting will have empathy for you and be more open when you call to set the time to visit. Then, you continue with the letter:
They have asked that I contact companies in this area to conduct a quick, two-question survey to enhance our ability to give better service to the clients we intend to serve. Thank you in advance for your help. I will be calling you in the next few weeks to set a time when we can visit.
By sending that letter, you will be amazed at how much warmer they are when you call and introduce yourself and mention to them that you have to come by to ask those two quick survey questions.
Another challenge we have is getting past the receptionists and secretaries, or otherwise known as the gatekeepers. In to4day’s economy, gatekeepers are told with no uncertain terms to keep sales professionals like you and me away from the decision maker. The next time you run across a gatekeeper, I would love you to try this phraseology when you are attempting to get in to meet the decision maker. “Hello, my name is Tom Hopkins. I am in business in the community.” Now, do not give the name of your company when you are making this type of call. You would then say, “I am calling regarding your (and you would state what your product or service does for the company. I am calling regarding your business machines, your copiers, your insurance programs, your employee benefits, what ever). Who in your company is responsible for that?” But, and this is very important, do not wait for their answer. I would like you then to insert the words, “by the way, who am I speaking with please?” When the receptionist gives his or her name, use this name and say “thank you for your help.” You might even, if they do a very nice job on the phone, tell them what a nice job they do. Many receptionists and secretaries do not get a lot of recognition. I always tried to make anyone in any company that I was working with an ally by giving them recognition.
The second piece in the puzzle is called Original Contact. This is a process of meeting a person in such a way that something happens. It is the foundation of great selling, and remember, when you meet a person, you must radiate the goal of helping him/her want to like you, trust you, and want to listen to you. If you make that happen, you are on your way to great selling. Now, when you meet a person, there is a process called establishing rapport, which is fundamentally a way to get him/her to feel that you have something in common. Now, there are ways to do this. There are fundamentals. First of all, always use their name the way that they give it to you. Don’t change their name; that can offend some people. Work on good eye contact, look them in the eyes, and yes, when people first see you, they should see you as a happy person. Give them a nice smile. I have also found it successful if you can find a way to give a sincere compliment, such as complementing the loveliness of their home or their offices. You can also compliment the job they do with their services, which creates value for the community.
Some of you may have a challenge remembering names; I know I did, so I started a habit and I would like to share it with you. When people give you their name, make a conscious effort to repeat their name in your mind four times. If their name is Bob Brown, as soon as they give it to you, repeat, Bob Brown, Bob Brown, Bob Brown, Bob Brown.
Another element to remember is the handshake. If you meet someone for the first time, then in my opinion, reaching out to shake his/her hand is too aggressive. I have a rule of thumb on the handshake – don’t reach out unless it is a pre-planned visit, meaning they know who you are and why you are there; then there is nothing wrong with reaching out. Please, the business handshake for both men and women today is a deep firm handshake. People judge you often times by the way you come across in the very beginning with the handshake.
Next, we move on to the third piece in the puzzle, which is Qualification. The term qualification means we qualify them before we start asking/telling them about a future decision. We have created an acronym that will help you learn this concept. It is using the word “needs” spelled “n.e.a.d.s,” meaning we are not going to talk about a future buying decision until we find out what their n.e.a.d.s. are. Now, this will make you unique in the profession of selling. Most salespeople right from the beginning tell the prospect that they know what they need, why they should buy it, and so forth. The problem with that is it is too pushy today. So, we are going to use the acronym, and each letter triggers one of the concepts of questioning and qualifying. The ‘N’ stands for the word ‘now’, meaning, what do they have now? Here is a key point. Their past buying experience somewhat dictates their future buying decisions. If you show me your past, I can tell you a lot about your future.
Once I know what you have now, or what your past experience is, I then want to probe with questions about what you ‘enjoy’, and that is what the ‘E’ stands for. What do they enjoy about what they have now? Why are they enjoying it? The reason why this is important is that they will want that same feature or an improvement of that feature in a new product.
The ‘A’ in N.E.A.D. stands for what they would like to ‘alter’. That means what would the prospect like to do different or what would they like to change in the product or service?
The ‘D’ stands for ‘decision maker’. It is vitally important that we as sales professionals find out who the real decision maker is for our prospect. You can do that with one wonderful little sentence. You can smile at the decision maker and say, “If we are fortunate to satisfy your needs, who other than yourself will be involved in the final decision?” That is a wonderful sentence for you to write down and start using.
The ‘S’ stands for ‘solution’. As sales professionals, we are the solution to their need. We find out what that need is, and then we become the solution for it.
The fourth in the puzzle is called Presentation. Presentation, or demonstration, is the way that you show the benefits of your product. Never forget this: people do not invest in your product. They primarily invest in what it will do for them after they own it. In other words, my product is not what it is; my product is what it does and that is how the entire presentation must be structured.
There are fundamentals of a good presentation. First of all, presenting is not a spectator sport; it must be an involvement process where you involve the prospect in the presentation. Remember, the more senses that you get involved, the better. To do this, you must master the art of questioning. When you ask the prospect questions, you not only are building rapport, but you are also learning what their needs and concerns are. You are involving them in the presentation.
The presentation covers three basic fundamentals:
1 Who we are
2 What
