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Value-Added Selling – Part 4 of 5
Getting engaged with your Prospect
Last month in “got sales?” I discussed
“Relationship Selling” as the second part of this
5 part series on Value-Added Selling (click
HERE
to see Parts 1 through 3). In this issue I’ll
discuss how to engage yourself in your
prospect/customer’s business.
As I had previously mentioned, Value-Added selling
means becoming more than a sales rep trying to
sell something. It means being truly concerned
about the prospect’s needs and becoming more of a
partner than a vendor. For instance, there are
many things you can do to become more engaged with
the prospect’s company than just working with the
one contact (person) you have.
First of all, you should always try to call at the
highest level of management as possible. If you
sell too low in the organization, you probably
won’t be talking to the decision maker. Sometimes
this is unavoidable since the manager might have
delegated the research and recommendation phases
to one of his direct reports. If this is the case,
then you’ll have a more difficult time reaching
higher levels until you’ve convinced this
lower-level individual to recommend your product.
But that doesn’t mean you don’t try.
Also, you should try to get to higher levels of
decision makers as soon as you can. Otherwise you
could be wasting your time. You see, what often
happens is a sales rep finds someone in the
prospect’s organization who is interested in what
they have to say, or sell. Now this person may not
be a decision maker, but the sales rep still likes
talking to him because at least they found someone
who appears interested. This could be a huge waste
of time since this person may not be in a position
to recommend you to his management or doesn’t have
any authority to make a decision and is just
enjoying himself learning about your offerings.
Getting to higher levels of management, early on,
is important so you can speak with people who
understand and need the value of what you are
offering and can make the purchasing decision.
You should also expand your sphere of influence by
involving as many people in the prospect’s company
as possible, both vertically and horizontally.
Vertically means meeting people who are up and
down the management chain. For instance, you may
be speaking to a department head, but you also
want to include the IT manager who reports to him
because he will be critical in the implementation
phase and you’ll need to get his buy-in on the
technical issues when the time comes. You could
also try to meet this department head’s boss to
ensure that he is aware of what this project is
all about and that you have his buy-in as well.
Involving horizontal people means meeting your
prospect’s counterparts in their company. If
you’re selling to the Sales Manager, then also
meet the Marketing Manager, IT Manager and
Purchasing Agent, all at the same organizational
level as your prospect. If you are selling
insurance or financial services and are meeting
with the husband, meet with the wife as well. Why?
Because each of these people may be part of the
decision making process, or users of your system,
and they’ll somehow be involved in the decision or
the purchase. You’ll want to make sure that you
get the opportunity to listen to their unique
requirements and address their needs. This is much
better than expecting your prospect to “sell” your
product to other department heads, managers or
users on your behalf. That’s your job and only you
should do this.
What you’re doing is building a customer-based
team. You’re getting buy-in from various areas of
the company and showing each involved party that
you offer a value to them and their specific
needs. If you only deal with one person, then that
will be the person trying to sell your wares
internally to other parties, which you must always
try to avoid. Also, what if the one person you’re
working with leaves the company? Then you’re stuck
and have to start all over again. If you engaged
several other people and departments in your sales
process, you can more easily continue with your
efforts with little or no additional effect.
Involving your customer is important to ensure you
are working with a team instead of just one
person, which allows you to become more of a value
to as many areas of their company as possible.
The team approach works the other way as well. You
should present a “selling team” that is comprised
of different areas of your company. In other
words, unless you are a very small company and you
wear all the hats, don’t go solo. Use your
company’s resources. You’ll want to get different
people from your company to actively participate
in the sales effort. Each member of your team
should establish a relationship with their
appropriate counterpart at the prospect’s company.
This way, each person or department at the
prospect’s company will be comfortable with your
company since they will have a relationship with
someone in which they can “speak the same
language”.
Your team could include your top management to
show they value this prospect’s business. It could
include your Customer Service person to show how
they can address their service needs. It could
include your Contracts person who can help with
streamlining the negotiations, thus making it
easier to do business with your company. It could
include your technical person who can speak the
same language as the prospect’s IT person, thus
getting through any technical issues. Basically,
you should have as many people in your company
meet and work with your prospect’s company as
possible to build one-on-one relationships and
share their appropriate expertise and assistance.
Your team will fill any gaps that you can’t
address, they’ll add expertise where you cannot,
and they will cover for you when you are not
available.
Let’s face it, there’s no way you can know
everything across all departments and help the
customer with all their needs. So use your team to
do this. It will build enormous trust and comfort
by your prospect. It will also make you a
value-added sales professional.
Another thing you can do to engage yourself with
your customer’s business is to focus on their
bottom line, and not just yours. Relate all your
activities to the customer’s bottom line and what
will reduce their costs or make them money or
improve their situation. You can do this by using
the consultative or solution-oriented approach. In
other words, don’t sell products or features.
Focus on the benefits to the customer and sell
that instead. By fully understanding their
requirements, which is established in the earlier
qualification stage of the sale cycle, you’ll be
able to consult with them on the benefits of the
best solutions for them, instead of just trying to
sell them something. This approach works much
better when the prospect feels they are buying
what they need instead of you selling them what
you want.
Value-added selling boils down to a few simple,
yet critical, points. Be a strategic partner who
consults, not sells. Be easy to do business with
by being creative and flexible and by making other
resources in your company available to them. Help
them to make the right decisions by showing them
how your product or service will address their
needs. Also, be viewed as a value-added problem
solver in which the prospect actually will want to
work with and, therefore, purchase from. What this
all means is that you should be part of their
team, as someone who genuinely cares about their
well-being and what’s best for them. When you
engage yourself in your customer’s business,
you’ll stand a much better chance of making the
sale. When that happens, you’ll make your money.
So focus on the customer and your money will
follow.
Good
luck and good selling!
Russ
Lombardo
PEAK
Sales Consulting
russ@peaksalesconsulting.com
(702)
655-5652
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