Ever Thought of Mastering Sales? – How Professionals Sell - Ravin S. Papiah

SALES MASTERY WITH RAVIN PAPIAH

Show 1 – Ever Thought of Mastering Sales?
Theme – How Professionals Sell

Talking Points – Action Selling in Action

Welcome to the First show of Season 4 Sales Mastery with….Ravin Papiah!

Introduction

Can Selling Be a genuine profession, like engineering or medicine? Or is it just an occupation, its success subject to so many buyer whims and depending so heavily on the innate personality traits of the salesperson that it cannot be classified as a profession?

Segment 1
Professions have rules, they have recognized patterns, they have organised bodies of knowledge that can be taught and then put to use proactively, with predictable results.

Selling Skills, on the other hand, are usually presented as collections of reactive tips and tricks that are merely responses to various things a prospect might say or do: If a Customer happens to say X, you reply with Y. That is, if you’re nimble enough to remember 50 different Xs and Ys!

As for building personal relationships that grease the wheels of the sales process, most sales-training programs offer only wishy-washy human-relations techniques that lead mainly to dead ends. Salespeople get some sketchy information about personality types, and then are supposed to modify their language or their personas according to their guess about whether a particular customer is a ‘sensor’ or a ‘feeler’. 

I know people who are fascinated by personality typologies in principle. I also know people who are fascinated by astrology. But I have never met any TOP salespeople who attribute their success to an uncanny ability to classify a customer quickly as an ‘intuitive’ rather than a ‘thinker’ (or a ‘Scorpio’ instead of a Taurus) and then brilliantly adjust their own behaviour to match. I’ll bet you’ve never met one either!

Selling CAN be approached as a bona-fide profession. This is possible because research shows that for every major purchase, buyers follow a consistent, predictable pattern in making a series of decisions that lead up to the final purchasing choice. All buyers, regardless of their temperaments, make the same decisions in the same order. If you start with that predictable pattern, and build a body of knowledge and skills upon it, you have the makings of professionalism. 

That is what Action Selling does. Action Selling is a system based upon the proven conviction that the entire sales process can, indeed, be approached as a profession. When it is, the results are nothing short of revolutionary.

In this show, we will explain how Action Selling works. 

Why Action Selling Is Unique:

1. Action Selling is a Full Scale proactive Communication process for planning, conducting, closing and Following up on a sale. It is not just a collection of reactive and manipulative tricks or techniques. It treats the buyer with respect, leading to lasting relationships and repeat business
2. Action Selling provides a research-proven conceptual framework, skills, and knowledge that turn selling from an occupation into a profession
3. Action Selling recognizes and follows the documented sequence of buying decisions that every customer makes during the purchasing process.
4. Action Selling applies not only to a company’s formal sales force but to virtually any customer-contact situation. Thus, it offers a structure, a skill-set and a common language that have the potential to transform the entire sales-and service culture of an organization.
5. For a degree unmatched by any other program or method, Action Selling merges relationship skills with selling skills. And it addresses both skill sets in a way that is useful, productive and easy to apply.
6. Action Selling asks you to learn a few key skills. If you learn them, and practice them, your results will improve. You will develop stronger, longer-lasting relationships with customers. You will make more sales. And of course, you will make MORE money! 

Listen to the live/podcast to learn more…..

ACT 1 – The COMMITMENT OBJECTIVE
    IF you aren’t moving ahead, you’re backing up!

Let’s see if this looks familiar to you:

You’ve made an initial appointment with a great prospect, let’s call him Mr. Right. You’ve heard his company has had some problems with its current vendor, and you figure they're ready to make a change. You’re pumped. You’re confident. You’re going to walk into this guy’s office and wow him. You feel GOOD about this one!

So, you introduce yourself to Mr. Right, and right off the bat, he asks you – Tell me what you can do for me? This is terrific, you think, because it lets you go right into your product pitch. Which you do. You cover your features, your service, and your technical support – the whole nine yards. Mr. Right is taking it all in. He seems receptive. He gives you 20 minutes before he tells you he has another meeting. (1023 words) He asks you to leave your product brochures. And you walk out thinking – Hey that went well. I’ve got this one for sure!

Well, Where did you leave things with Mr. Right? What did you agree on as the NEXT step?

Listen to the live/podcast to learn more…..

Segment 2 
So, coming back to our meeting with Mr. Right, what could you have said when Mr. Right told you he had to attend another meeting and asked you to leave your brochures ?

You could have said: As a NEXT step, I would like to present a proposal detailing our offering and the investment involved. Could we schedule something for next week? 

This would have given you a process to move forward with a Commitment Objective without having you to call back again for another appointment because your NEXT call would have already been scheduled!

Every sale is a series of steps, a progression of milestones. And every milestone demands a Commitment Objective.

An example of some major Milestones in a Sales Cycle is:

Milestone                 Commitment Objective
Phone Call                Schedule Needs Analysis
Needs Analysis Meeting        Set Presentation Meeting (with D-Makers)
Meet w/ D-Makers –             Schedule Proposal Meeting
Present Product    
Proposal Meeting             GAIN SALE!

Defining Milestones in the Sales Cycle and setting Commitment Objectives for them will speed things up. This alone can shave 25% off your sell cycle time. That’s like getting you an EXTRA 3 months of Selling time every year!

Listen to the live/podcast to learn more…..

ACT 2 – PEOPLE SKILLS 
You can’t sell the product BEFORE you sell Yourself
The 5 (FIVE) Buying Decisions Every Customer makes in the course of any major purchase:

1. The Salesperson
2. The Company
3. The Product
4. The Price
5. Time to Buy

1. The Salesperson
First the buyer makes a decision about the salesperson. The verdict hinges on questions such as: (1) Do I like you? (2) Do I trust you? Are you honest, credible, and knowledgeable?

2. The Company
Second the Buyer considers the salesperson’s Company.  Is  your company a good match for mine? Is it known for the kinds of things I expect from a supplier? Are your policies acceptable?
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3. The Product
The third decision is about the product. Which of my problems will it solve? Will it create any new opportunities? Does it match my needs? How does its quality stack up against the competition?

4. The Price
Fourth, the buyer considers price. Is it a good value compared with competitive offerings? What must I invest – in terms of money, time, training, and hassle – to gain the benefits I want from the product? Is it worth the investment?

5. The Time to Buy
The fifth and final decision concerns the time to buy: How soon do I need to make up my mind? When do I need the results that the product will deliver? Should I stall? 

Listen to the live/podcast to learn more…..

SEGMENT 3 
ACT 3 – ASK the BEST QUESTIONS!
It’s Not what you say, It’s what you ask!

Whenever a Professional Salesperson engages with a prospect, the salesperson has two fundamental decisions to make: what to sell, and how to sell it!

Most salespeople think that the first decision – what to sell - is obvious. This is because most salespeople think that they sell their company’s products or services – that is whatever they make or do. They also believe that they have to find out WHICH of the products and services the customer is likely to buy.

But if we think about the Commitment Objectives we discussed previously, Sometimes we sell a product, but other times we sell an appointment or a meeting, don’t we?

Salespeople don’t see appointments as ‘products’ but they sell them all the time!  Salespeople  don’t uncover needs for an appointment, they are focused on uncovering needs for their products or services. 

Action Selling prescribes that your Commitment Objectives would drive the questioning process. This is what Action Selling has to say about finding what to sell and how to sell:

You do it by ASKING questions – the BEST questions! In fact, Action Selling says that two-thirds of the ‘selling’ you are going to do occurs right here in the ACT 3 of the Sales Drama – Asking the BEST questions!

And you are going to do all that selling not by TELLING the customer about your products BUT by ASKING the customer about his situation. Two thirds of he Selling occurs BEFORE you even present your products/Services!

ACT 3 QUESTIONS

HOW TO SELL                 WHAT TO SELL

• COMPETITION            NEEDS
  • PROBLEMS
  • OPPORTUNITIES
• TIME FRAME            ISSUES
  • COMPANY
  • PERSONAL 
  • MONEY
• BUYING INFLUENCE
• COMMITMENT OBJECTIVE

 
Listen to the live/podcast to learn more…..

SEGMENT 4 
ACT 4 – AGREE ON NEED
Don’t just be a solution, BE the BEST Solution

To ‘Agree on Need’, the salesperson is going to say -  ‘As I understand it, you are looking for…’ and then repeat back the most important things you have learned about the prospect’s situation – the high-yield needs you uncovered through questioning. Then the salesperson would say – Is that correct? – If the prospect says YES, you have then agreed on NEEDS and ACT 4 is OVER!

But of course, Life is NOT quite that simple? Right?

Everything depends on whether you asked the BEST questions beforehand. There is a little more to it than what I have shared with you so far!

Listen to the live/podcast to learn more…..

So, to sum up:

• Find out some good Act 2 questions
• Plan HOW you are going to Back-Track Benefits to surface at least two more high-yield needs you want your customer to AGREE on
• Contingency plan for where to take the questioning in case you are wrong about where the customer’s high-yield will be
• Some ‘How-to-Sell’ questions for ACT 3 about the competition you are facing, his time-frame, and whether you are RIGHT that there are no other significant buying influences
• What to do if you have to change your Commitment Objective

Happy New Year 2021

CONTACT DETAILS :

Name of Host : Ravin Souvendra Papiah
E-mail : plcjmleadership@gmail.com

1. Websites :  https://plcleadership.com
2. Websites : http://www.johncmaxwellgroup.com/ravinsouvendrapapiah/

Facebook Groups:

1. Life Defining Leadership: https://www.facebook.com/groups/542566133066245
2. The Mighty Public Speaker: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3350098431711678
3. Network Marketing Inspired: https://www.facebook.com/groups/369570674191112
4. Entrepreneurs Empowerment Academy:https://www.facebook.com/groups/293769725194787

See you Next Week where we will go through Act 5 to Act 9 of the Action Selling process – How to Sell like a PRO!

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