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Forget an interactive board, PowerPoint, a laptop, a mobile phone or a tablet. Forget about pen and paper. Coaching a telephone sales person in a real call situation is the most effective way to improve sales performance.

All you need is an additional headset (or speaker phone) and a set of cue cards.

Each cue card holds one key point/question.

Start the call and simply hold up the first cue card. For example, cue card 1 “Introduction”, cue card 2 “Agree agenda” and so on.

Low tech sales coaching like this works because:

• Both the sales person and coach are heavily engaged in getting a sale,
• Results are real and often immediate,
• The coach can decide his/her involvement according to progress,
• It can be done at any time without much preparation,
• It is fun!

No matter how complex or simple the call is, there is a cue card for every situation. I use laminated ones and keep them in a box for anyone in the team to use.

The basic idea behind Needs Based Selling is asking your customers relevant questions before making a product recommendation. These questions should be designed to uncover rational and emotional conditions that, once met, enable a successful deal for all.

Below are 4 simple pointers which will help you achieve more sales, regardless of size or audience.

1) AGREE AN AGENDA

After rapport building, it is essential that any sales call begins with an agreed agenda. Whether it is an existing customer or a potential one, the sales professional should agree an agenda with the customer. Be brave, take the initiative and start along these lines:

“Mr. customer, may I propose we talk about you – your organisation and what challenges you see. From there we can explore what we can do to support you”. How does that sound?” “Is there anything or anyone you would like to add to our conversation today”?

The smart money is on having the agenda agreed prior to your meeting.

2) ASK RELEVANT QUESTIONS

Asking relevant questions about the customer’s business should be a conversation where the customer talks more than the sales person. Good listening skills are important in any sales call, but especially in this part of the process where the customer is revealing information about themselves and their business. Here are the main key phrases to listen for:

• Our issue is …
• I need …
• I’d like to …
• It is critical we …
• We are looking for …
• We are interested in …
• We want …
• I wish …
• I hope …
• What matters is …
• It’s important to …
• We must …

These indicate emotional and rational needs and also indicate a growing level of trust and relevance between both parties.

Resisting the urge to sell may be difficult for some sales people, yet the agenda that was set at the beginning should be followed. Jumping in with a solution half way through the customer’s story is risky as not all of their needs may have been articulated. Ask questions that help the customer to prioritise, discover, and state their issues in the most concise way. Be brave and stop selling. Keep that bag of wonderful solutions firmly closed at this stage. Instead great fact-finding should reveal:

• Rational and emotional needs,
• Budget availability,
• The decision making process,
• Time frames for purchase

3) SUMMARISE

Once the customer’s needs have been clearly established, it is wise to summarise key findings. It gains agreement from the customer and you can begin to plan a perfect recommendation to solve the problem(s).

4) MAKE PERSUASIVE RECOMMENDATIONS

Your recommendation should be presented in a logical and persuasive, credible order linking back to the customer needs. Gain agreement as you proceed, overcome objections and agree a great deal for all.

I think the most important aspect of the sales process is PLANNING. ‘Boring’ I hear you say….

Understanding your prospective customer and his/her company, industry as well as the challenges they face, gives you all you need to close a great deal. Of course you need a good product/service you truly believe in. And you need social skills, to look the part and to be credible. A good dose of objection handling techniques, negotiation and closing skills will certainly help and so will creativity. Yet planning a call so you have plenty of customer knowledge prior to the meeting is, in my view, the most critical skill to sell more.

If you are one of the happy go lucky types that “just go in and enjoy the ride” you don’t know what you are missing…… in fact you are short changing your customer too.

7 short tips to build rapport before you start the content of your customer sales meeting:

1. Be genuine.
2. Be warm and friendly.
3. Show deep interest in your prospect and their business.
4. Don’t seem too needy.
5. Give genuine relevant compliments.
6. Calibrate the rapport to “just right.”
7. Read the organisational culture and respond appropriately.

You can make a first impression only once so get this right to start well.

his blog suggests big sales questions you can use to get more sales.

When meeting successful sales people it strikes me they ask big questions rather than make big statements about their products or solutions. I think their sales success is related to asking these big questions. Their prospects are challenged and engaged by those big sales questions. Succesful sales people aim to qualify need, timing, budget, decision makers/processes and competitor activity when they ask questions

Here are some of the big questions:

Big question 1: (needs and budget qualification)

How does xxxxxxxxxx feature in your business and its goals?

Big question 2: (needs, budget and timing qualification)

What are the main priorities when choosing xxxxxxxxxx ?

Big question 3: (timing qualification)

What time frames are you working towards with regard to having xxxxxxxxxxxxx up and running?

Big question 4: (needs qualification, competitor information)

What expectations do you have from your existing vendor relationships?

Big question 5: (needs qualification)

How are you addressing xxxxxxxxxxxx at the moment and what do you and don’t like about these?

Big question 6: (decision and authority qualification)

As you move forward in your decision making process, what would I need to do to help you?

Big question 7: (commitment)

Where do we go from here?

Admittedly the above questions may look a little stilted and the actual wording used depends on the sales context of course.

I’d be interested to know what other big questions are out there?