Business Monitor Close that sale
I am socially distanced from my readers. They in turn are equally distanced from their customers, who in turn have the same problem. It is therefore little wonder that everybody is struggling through the COVID crisis to develop and maintain personal relations with customers. Marketing expert, Paul Clapham, reports.
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ales staff are in theory best placed to deal with this situation – they are used to working from home, they are self-starters who would be offended by a manager leaning over them telling them what to do and what not 24/7. The salesperson sees it rather differently – much closer to I’ll tell you what input I want.
Sales people are mostly social animals. More than others they are gregarious and have a need for warm bodies around them. Sales people often find it difficult to use technology to fulfil the key elements of a sale. Expressing charisma, enthusiasm and a personable character as part of a Zoom call is difficult. This is why you need to trial the system you like, ideally at length. The salesman who habitually spends a high proportion of his time visiting prospects at their offices has more than one problem. Doing what comes naturally and has made them a success isn’t a going concern while COVID-19 still informs everybody’s thinking.
Closing a sale
But although there have been changes the key to success will remain with empathy. Understanding clients’ needs is essential but it can be learned. Seek out the problems clients face and come up with a solution and you are a long way towards closing a sale. In essence you cease to be just a sales rep looking for a signature and become a partner in helping this person achieve their aims. I recall seeing one guy saying ‘I’m not interested in my target; I want to help you meet your targets’. I thought ‘bloody hell that’s a good line’. How many people have the credibility to use it I don’t know, but if you can, do. Not everybody may know the term printwear. But they know what it is for how it works, if they have any involvement in sales or marketing. So to explain your overall concept is not complex. Does it, indeed, make sense to say ‘This starts basic and can get complicated’. Don’t overdo the simplicity – your customer doubtless thinks he’s an expert; so he needs to believe you are too. You could go with LinkedIn that says that building relationships is key. I think they are talking about ‘empathy plus’.
| 22 | November 2020
You can see immediately that this is neither brain surgery nor rocket science. What it is, is a steady flow of good results. In research 60% of sales teams are keen to keep using remote sales more permanently. Both the technology and associated sales techniques have proved popular and are here for the long term. Virtual tours are a good example. The customer wants to see the product in use, so here it is! Estate agents would not be my idea of a sector using the latest technology, but I am wrong. They find that it starts the sales process very effectively. What is more this is new. Before the pandemic they weren’t using it but it is now firmly part of the sales process. Selling to all the relevant parties in an organisation is very important. You as an individual might aim to sell to the head of marketing, giving him or her the most time possible. He or she is unlikely to be entirely wrong but consider the following: does the sales manager have to present your idea? Does the personnel manager or whatever he calls himself get involved since this is clothing? The head of finance could well decide to poke his or her nose in, since everybody thinks they know the subject and they will have to sign off on your invoice. That’s a lot of different ‘I wants’ jostling for top spot and it’s well ahead of a bolshie union leader who insists that this is exclusively the decision of ‘her members’.
The personalised touch What people really, really want is easy to state but tougher to deliver. They want a personalised product (or at least package). Mostly they don’t actually say it, just think it at 30 decibels: I want to be treated as special. How reasonable! They are spending their own money or their company’s and hence helping you to keep your interesting job.
Give me the human touch. That starts by knowing just what floats their boat today and whether that is what will keep it afloat for the long term because that’s where you can help best. Salesmen increasingly take to using technology because they perceive that it gives them control and the potential to sell to multiple customers, virus notwithstanding. Bird flu, MERS and Ebola suggest that this is a sequence and the next one is coming.
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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