Maximizing Your Potential!

Let’s face it, sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we are going to fail to close a prospect.

There is a way to make sure that all that effort was not in vain! That tool is the Sales Debug Checklist.

The best way to use it is to get with your sales manager, a business partner or a friend and have them ask you the questions listed below so that you can use a failed opportunity to be stronger at the close in the future.
If you can’t find someone else to do this with you, you can also ask the questions of yourself.

Sales Debug Checklist

1. Did you talk to the decision maker?

2. Was the prospect well qualified?

3. Was the meeting well prepared?

4. What was your/my emotional tone level before the meeting?

5. What was the prospects emotional tone level at the start of the meeting?

6. What exactly was the prospects final decision?

7. Which objection did you/I fail to handle?

8. How did you/I try to handle it?

9. Did you attempt to handle with ACCORD?

10. What was the prospects reaction when you attempted to close?

11. When did you/I start to lose control?

12. Did you like the prospect? Have something in common with him/her? Have a willingness to communication with him/her?

13. Was the prospect closed on you/me? My company? My product/service? The price? The timing?

14. Did you/I have strong agreement from the prospect on why he needed my product/service?

15. Was the prospect convinced by my arguments as to why this was best for him/her?

16. What was the prospects emotional tone level during your/my attempts to close? At the end of the meeting?

17. Why did you/I fail to close the prospect?

Drill the situation with your friend/colleague until you have found the optimum way to deal with the same situation in the future. Your sales WILL increase as a result.

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The 3 ‘W’s’ of Prospecting are:
1. Who – is the person you should be talking with?
2. What – does he want? (notice it does NOT say what do I have to sell him that he may want!)
3. When – is he going to buy?

You must make sure that you are talking with the decision maker, that he is in the market for what you offer and that he needs it pretty quickly!

We will take it a step further with AIDA.
1. Who is Asking?
2. Who is Influencing?
3. Who is Deciding?
4. Who is Actually using?

You must make sure that you know who is asking and if he/she is the one who will be using the product, as well as, being the decision maker, or not. Who will help in the decision making process and make sure that all of these people, be it 4 different entities or all rolled in to one, when you make your presentation. Otherwise, it is a waste of time.

The 10 GOLDEN RULES of Prospecting:
1. Quantify your efforts. Collect lots of names. The amount of sales you make depends in large part on the amount of prospects you contact.
2. Qualify your efforts. BEFORE you meet a prospect collect enough data to be able to judge whether you can get a close NOW.
3. Direct your efforts. Select first those who will give you big sales. Find out what public is ideal for your product or service. Do surveys.
4. Never stop prospecting. Leave your card everywhere!
5. Use all of your available existing contacts; friends, colleagues, etc. Propose an exchange for each name given, who is qualified to purchase.
6. A bad prospect can give you a good one. Take advantage of being there or on the phone to ask him/her for a few good people to contact. What do you lose? If you don’t ask, you don’t get! You would be surprised at how much people are willing to help.
7. Be organized. Keep track of every prospecting cycle. Build up a prospect file, make it as big as possible. Top sales people try to increase their database by 20% each month!
8. A small prospect can become a big one. Communicate with your prospects on a regular basis. Allow them to communicate back as much as possible.
9. Don’t ever give up. Persistence is a major quality. If you start working on a prospect, don’t stop. Consider he is yours!
10. Your attitude with a prospect is what may have him becoming a customer. It is not a matter of coincidence, YOU make the difference. The art of serving starts with prospecting.

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1. The power of Images: use your prospects imagination, which will have him reacting emotionally. Show pictures and graphs rather then facts and figures. Remember, 1 images is worth a 1000 words.
2. The power of stories: tell a TRUE story to support your answer to an objection. This will help the prospect ’see’ better what could happen…
3. The power of reference letters: your happy customers will sell you much better than you can. Use success stories and testimonials which address as specifically as possible what the client is concerned about!
4. The power of demonstrations:more than 75%of your prospects decide to buy (or not) during a demo of your product or service. 1 good demo = 10,000 words!

5 key elements in doing a demo:
Remember this acronym…. D.E.M.O’.S.
1. Let the prospect D iscover
2. Push E motions
3. Keep it M otivating
4. O rient the demo towards a close
5. Be S pecific and S imple

You must be sure to control your prospect from beginning to end.

CONTROL = INCOME

As soon as you lose control of the sales cycle, the prospect controls you. The fact of the matter is you have never closed a deal where the prospect was controlling the sales cycle.

The GOLDEN RULE OF SELLING: Know Why

You do not lose your morale from failing to sell. You lost it because you don’t know WHY you did not close the prospect. As soon as you feel you are losing control of the sales cycle you must stop while the prospect is still interested and find out what is going on. If you wait too long, and the prospect loses interest, it will be next to impossible to get the prospect willing to tell you exactly what is going on.

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