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.
