So let's start today’s blog off with the main purpose behind what we do. Now some of you may be thinking, “Gee Bauer, what’s that got to do with converting our leads into revenue generating business?”
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Trust me, this will all tie in quite nicely ;)
Ok so when it boils to the demo we provide our prospects, there leaves one main purpose; to give the right amount
of the right data
to the right prospective client.
You see these three main areas of any business demonstration will help you determine what makes the best business sense for your business. Often times I hear sales calls when the prospect is clearly not a good fit for the product being sold, however the “professional” on the other end somehow forgets what their business qualifications are……..hmmm wonder how those calls end up going.
Let's take a moment to take a step back, shall we?
Ok, so here’s the thing, we can’t just throw our morals out the window every time we get excited to close a deal down. We have an ethical business to run, right?
Ok so here’s a few pointers to help keep us all on track.
1. Put together your company core values: This is super important when designing a brand that speaks most true your ultimate vision in being of service to your clients. Consider the following:
a) know what you stand for as a conscious being
b) align your company core values off of that
2. Get a list together of your top 5 qualifications: this will consist of the most important data that’s important to you and your business. You may wanna add in the below:
a) your ideal client (pssst, make sure you’re speaking to right person here)
b) the budget you prefer they have to play with
c) a set of problems that nicely match up with the solutions you offer
d) a timeline that aligns with your schedule to service them
3. Have a strategic plan in place to help manage your excitement/stress with some logic:
a) put on relaxing music in your workspace
b) have a stress ball handy in case you need it
c) keep a journal around to jot down ideas on how you can improve as you go
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Just like any other skill, the art of persuasion and in converting business consciously really comes down to a series of attributes, discipline, ethics and the desire to constantly improve.
Often times, I hear about high performing entrepreneurs like yourself struggling to get their sales in order and not know why the conversions within their business is as low as it is.
But today is your lucky day, because we are going to break down my step by step go to guide on how to consciously crush your demos moving forward.
…oh n bring your lists from above with you, we’ll need those
Assuming you’ve already qualified the prospect with your new client questionnaire:
1. Go into the call with genuine excitement + provide a quick agenda: this will give everyone on the call an idea of what type of energy is expected in terms of the communication between both parties and it also provides a clear schedule to follow.
2. Qualify the client once again: yep thats right, you want to cover all your bases and the best way to do that would be to confirm your basic knowledge of all the following. You can use assumptive language here to confirm that you and your prospect are on the same page and that the (1) decision maker(s), (2) timeline, (3) budget and (4) need all match up.
3. Get started with your demo: you got this! Focus all your effort on what you will do to solve the problem for the client. Remember you are putting yourself in a position to serve this prospect and you want to make sure you make it all about them, their needs, their wants and everything else in between! This will make them feel like you will take care of them and their business and do so in the upmost ethical and conscious manner possible.
4. Act as if: thats right, act like this deal is yours and there is no way that it wont be (assuming you’ve already checked off all the boxes on how they meet your business requirements as well as how you meet theirs). Throughout your call, you’ll want to use assumptive language as it will really help you here, but again make sure that you are doing so with the best intentions of both your client and your business’s at heart.
5. Once its clear this will be a great business fit, go in for the close: yes go right into it. But again, only do this once it feels that what you’ve shown and spoke about with your prospect meets their needs and that what you are doing for them will solve a real problem within their business. Mindful tip: get their buy in throughout the call, so it comes to no shock towards end of the call when you discuss pricing again(make sure this is certainly not the first time pricing is brought up).
6. Wrap it up: get going with whatever it is that you need to take care of right now in order to get the deal started. Send over your docusign agreements(for legality purposes), your invoice, calendar invites/emails for future tasks/meetings and anything else you need to get the ball rolling. You want the sign-up process to be the easiest piece to the pie. End the call with the same genuine excitement you had going into it and make sure that both of you feel and know that the best decision for both parties was made.
(Make sure to reference my freebie attached down below to help guide you in implementing the above into your next call ;)
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Now when it comes to the timing that we expect to close this business deal or others down, we want to consider whether or not on the spot deals or also known as, one call closes are acceptable within our business, industry, line of work and so forth. I say this to say that you only want to consider these sort of calls if the sales cycle within your business allows for a shorter turn around time. So if thats the case with your business, let's chat about this some more. Now if you feel your sales cycle is much longer and thats most appropriate for you and your business, stay tuned for a future sales blog on how I’d recommend you go about this.
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For shorter sales cycle based businesses, lets chat some more on how we can consciously shorten your sales cycle….. just a tad bit more ;)
1. Stay on top of your qualifications(hard core): I mean this in the most serious manner possible. So what you wanna do here is confirm the qualifications at least twice(once in your questionnaire, in which they should fill out prior to the call and once again during the first five minutes of your first call with them). To take this one step further, triple confirm(yes triple confirm) these same qualifications throughout your call. How would you do this? Great question: every time you bring up a product or feature that is relevant to one or any of these qualifications, bring it up again. Remember these cover the four main and most important areas of your sales call (1) decision maker(s), (2) timeline, (3) budget and (4) need.
2. Get SUPER comfortable with silence: Im very very serious here. Often times you’ll notice that when people are speaking too much on business calls, its from their own nervousness and fears. Little do they know, the conscious business folks that we are, can easily pick up on that within just a matter of seconds. What do you wanna do here? Practice being quiet and stopping any and all talking once you’ve dropped a gem or made a tremendous point during your sales call. This silence will emphasis the significance behind what you just said
3. Feel out the vibes: Every time you bring up a feature or success story, stop and gauge the vibe their giving you. What are they saying? Do they genuinely sound convincing or do you feel they are scared or “just not ready” to start doing business with you.
4. Call it out like a boss: do yourself and your business a favor and don’t ignore the obvious. Listen to your intuition here, it could really give you some wisdom that will come in handy once you know how to use it. Having trouble coming up with the courage to do this? No worries, just remind yourself of all the times you had to “chase” a previous lead down after they told you for the millionth time that they’d buy from you but never do. Not sure how to say this in the most polite, conscious and considerate manner possible without sounding desperate(but just professional and respectful of your time)?
“Hey (state name), so earlier in the call you sounded really excited about solving (x, y, z) problem but Im getting the feeling that you might’ve lost interest along the way. Did I say something that might’ve rubbed you the wrong way?”
(what you’re doing here is just stating the obvious and following that up with just ONE question-too many questions will help you here)
*another alternative here would be to “play dumb” a bit....
“So tell me, what are your thoughts on what we covered so far?”
OR
“How do you see this helping solve (x, y, z) problem in your business?
5. Close it down: this should be the easiest part of your call, given you’ve done all the
above and them some. Keep in mind the best way to stay on top of the close is to check in
with your prospect consistently and do the above four over and over and over
again(consciously), until you’ve confirmed that deal is yours and theres no telling that its not.
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Until next time my friends, keep your head up and know that whatever “obstacle” that comes your way throughout your business journey, its really just a blessing in disguise.
XO
-Bauer
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