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Dear Professional:
Suppose you had a sales system that boosted your success rate not only for formal customer calls but any time you were in the vicinity of a potential customer. How valuable would that be?
It so happens that you already have such a system. If you use Action Selling only to plan and execute calls on customers, you are missing opportunities. Let`s talk about what can happen when you expand your horizons.
If you have a question about how to use Action Selling in any context, click on "Ask the eCoach."
We are committed to your professional success.
Duane Sparks
Author of Action Selling
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Think Bigger
If you have learned and practiced the Action Selling system, you know how wonderfully effective it is in planning and conducting sales calls on customers. But how well have you applied the system in other situations where you ought to be building momentum toward sales and not just spinning your wheels?
After all, building momentum is what Action Selling does. It is a systematic process for developing relationships, creating trust, and gaining agreement from customers. Agreement on what? Agreement to take the next logical step toward a sale, whatever that step might be. In a word: momentum.
Momentum: It’s not just for sales calls anymore.
But who ever said that a sales call is the only time and place in which momentum needs to be built? What would happen if you applied Action Selling to every sales-related activity?
Trade shows are a perfect example. What is your game plan when your company attends a conference, trade show, or other industry event? Do you even have a real plan? Or do you just stand in a booth, collect some business cards, and generally try to "network"?
Suppose you began your trade show planning the same way Action Selling begins: with a Commitment Objective. Given the way your company`s sales cycle works, what is the first commitment you would like to gain from prospects at the show? That is, what "next step" could they agree to take that would begin to build momentum and move you closer to a possible sale?
Maybe you`d like prospects to agree to meet with you after the show for a needs analysis conversation. If so, that`s the Commitment Objective for you and for every member of your sales team who attends the event. This is now your top priority. It anchors your planning. You can attach numbers to it in the form of goals, and measure your success: How many meeting commitments should each of your salespeople gain? If you know that some particularly good prospects will be at the show, you can rank-order them and assign special priorities.
Notice that the Commitment Objective is only Act 1 of the 9-Act Action Selling system, but with Act 1 alone you can revolutionize your approach to industry events—and the benefits you gain from attending them.
Or, of course, you can go right on standing in a booth.
Discover ALL the possibilities of a genuinely systematic approach to sales.
The Action Selling Complete Book Series
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Action Selling in ACTION!
Orange Tree Employment Screening of Minneapolis is in a highly competitive and price-driven business: background screening and drug testing for job candidates. All of Orange Tree`s salespeople have certified on Action Selling. As they prepared to attend a recent conference for human resources professionals—their core customers—sales vice president Steve Mihalik issued a challenge.
"Instead of a grab-some-business-cards-and-go approach, I challenged them to use Action Selling to create a real strategy for the show," he says.
The sales team began with a Commitment Objective: locate decision makers and gain their agreement for needs analysis appointments after the conference. The original team goal was to secure a total of 15 appointments per sales person. But thanks to the questioning and people skills they had learned from Action Selling, Mihalik says, each of his salespeople came away with 18 confirmed appointments.
"The competition just watched us in amazement," he says.
To Sell the Salesperson (Act 2) and remove the FUD Factor (Fear, Uncertainly, and Doubt), each salesperson had a basket of fresh oranges delivered to the hotel room of everyone who agreed to an appointment. It was a nice touch that made Orange Tree even more memorable.
For once, the return on investment from attending an industry conference promises to be spectacular, Mihalik says. "This is what happens when Action Selling is used not just in key sales calls but in every sales activity."
© 2010 TheSalesBoard,Inc.
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MAKE POSITIVE
CHANGES IN
HOW YOU SELL!
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The Action Selling
Complete Book Series
Action Selling:
Discover the nine "Acts" of selling to revolutionize your selling success.
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