The Secret to Mastering Sales: Take Control of the Process

Welcome to this week's episode The secret to controlling the sales process .

Here's the thing When you're in a selling situation if you as the salesperson are not controlling The process, then by definition, you are out of control. And the most successful sales are made by salespeople who take their prospect through a clearly defined set of steps that actually identify what the customer's problems are, explain the features of your product or service, outline the benefits, build value, create an emotional connection so that you can ultimately close the deal and have that person come as a happy customer.

So taking control is incredibly But you mustn't be authoritarian. You have to allow the customer to cede control to you, to give you control willingly. When people are coming into sales situation, think about it when you, when you go and try and buy something, you're a little, you're a little fretful.

So as people, we're very, very concerned when we go into purchase something, go buy something, go, look at something. And People have these inbuilt fears, some of them have been built on past experiences, they've had poor experiences of buying something, or they imagine they have these fears about the process, right?

They don't trust you to tell the truth, they feel they might get ripped off.

Here are some of the common... Fears that buyers have, and they don't really express them, but they're, they're hidden beneath the surface.

 Number one's a big one. People have a fear of making decisions. They shy away from momentous decisions. They procrastinate, number one.

Number two, they have a fear of getting ripped off.

Number three, they have financial... Insecurity. Will I be able to afford this product or offer?

Number four, I'm going to feel pressured. They're going to pressure me in this sales process. They're going to strong arm me.

Number five, it's going to take too much time. I mean, have you ever bought a car? It takes hours and hours and hours if you go into the dealership and you just dread it's going to take a long, long time.

Number six, I'm gonna feel obligated if I sit through their demo or you know, their walkthrough, or I invite them to my house to take a look so that they can, you know, give me a detailed quote, I'm gonna feel obligated to them.

 Number seven, people have this amazing fear of saying no. We've talked about this on, on other podcasts is when people won't call you back, you know, you've run a sales campaign and your client ghosts you, they won't call you back because often they just don't want to tell you that they're going with somebody else or they've chosen a different route.

25 years of being in the, in the U. S. and selling consulting projects, I think only two. Two or three of the hundreds of deals that I've done, the executive call me up and tell me no, we're not going to go ahead with this. They just kind of disappear. So people just don't like to say no. So these are not objections, right?

We've talked about... Objection handling.

These are not true objections. These are just, these are just subliminal reactions, automatic responses that people put up as a defensive mechanism. You've done this. I'm sure you'll do it sometime this week. You'll walk into a store and somebody will come up and say, can I help you?

And you go, no, no, I'm just looking and, and The salesperson has not been appropriately trained. The salesperson will go, okay, I'll leave you to look, but it's just an automatic defense mechanism. You went into the store with an intent to seek information, to think about purchasing something. I do a lot of training with Grant Cardone, he calls it a reactionary defense response, this automatic response.

You've got to be able to deal with that and gain control of the sales process. So in order to do that, you've got to, as your prospects are feeling a little uncomfortable, you've got to make them comfortable with a warm greeting. You're going to introduce yourself. You're going to perhaps handle some of those fears up front and be open with them.

Now, here's the thing. So you might say something like, Hi, my name is Mick. My job is to give you all the information you need to make an intelligent decision on whatever schedule you choose. You don't have to make a decision today. My job is to service you. Can we take a few moments to go through some of the options we have at hand?

So you put them at ease. And you have a very, very positive attitude. And here's the thing. When anybody's in a sales process, when your buyers are there, they are looking for information and most sales processes break down because either you or your organization resists giving the customer information.

You fear of giving them information. I'll get, I want the price, you know, what colors do you have? Um, how quickly can you install this? Can you do it in the next two weeks? Uh, that's all I need to, that's, that's all I need to know. That's, that's the information that I need.

Now, remember from one of our earlier podcasts, we always agree with the customer. If you are in agreement, there can be there can be no resistance, there can be no argument. So one of the things in order to get control is you want to separate the giving of information from the offering of information. So I can offer you information but not necessarily give it to you.

So an example might be, Hey, would you like to know what the, what the weather's going to be?

If you're concerned you're going to go on vacation, what, I wonder what the weather's going to do to me. Oh, would you like to know what the weather's going to be tomorrow? I can help you with that. I didn't give the information about the weather, right, but I offered. Now, I would follow that up with a question, which is, in order for me to give you the most specific, relevant information, where will you be tomorrow?

Well, I'll be in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Ah, OK. Then, you know, I've got some information to be able to give the right answer, and the right value to the customer.

One of the most common reactionary defence responses is just, I just need the price, just give me the price. I want the price. And if you argue, if you resist giving the price at that point, it feels like you're hiding something. You're being a little shady. You're not confident about your price. Your price, you think it's too high. You convey that maybe it's a little expensive, and you just don't want to reveal that just yet, which will exacerbate their innate fear that they're going to get ripped off and the price is going to be too high.

So you, you want to respond to that. Now we know it's never about the price. People don't buy price, they buy value. When the value is greater than the price, then there's no barrier thrown up by the price. So price in and of itself is not the, usually the primary objection, but it may get talked about very, very early in the, in the sales process.

So what do we do?

Well, first of all, we have to, we have to acknowledge it. Don't, try and ignore it or sidestep it. Agree and acknowledge that the price is important. So you might say.

Oh, okay. So the look, I need to know what the price is. I agree. The price is very, very important to your decision and I'm very, very happy to get it to you. And if it's not agreeable, you know, we certainly I wouldn't expect you to do business with us. Right. So you've, you've acknowledged that price is important and that you are going to deal with it. You've reassured them and you're reassured with them. Yep, I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you the price.

But at the same time, you want to be able to. Keep control of that process because right now the customers ask for the price. Give me the price And if you just give them the price that you give them an answer, oh, you know, tell me what your your best product is Give me that info and you answer then the customer's in control And you know that if you don't take your prospect through a series of steps and building value to the close You're not going to get the deal.

So you need To be the one in control and the person that's in control in the sales process is the one that's asking questions and getting answers.

So let's come back to price, you know, what, what I need to know what the price is. Absolutely, sir. I'm happy to get the price for you. Because if the price isn't right, you know, I don't expect you to do business with us, and I'm quite confident that our price is the most competitive in the market, but I'd also like to give you, the best terms, the best payments, and some other options that might be possible for you, and I'd like to do it in the shortest time possible. Will that be okay with you?

Now, did you see what happened there?

The prospective customer, asked a question about price.

You acknowledged that price was important.

Then you reassured them that you would deal and answer and give them the price.

But then you transitioned into fact finding.

You transitioned into the next most important stage in the sales process by asking, a question by asking permission for the prospective buyer to give you back control and it's a very, very, natural process.

So now the customer has given you permission to be able to talk about your product, demonstrate the features and benefits of it. And then at the appropriate time, when you know exactly what they want to buy, you know what features that they want to be configured in their product, you know what materials you're going to put into the job, you can now tell them, and you've talked about the impact and what it would mean for them and the value of that offer.

Price is now a very meaningful Piece of information that you would give. So you give price in the presentation and proposal phase of the sale, not in the early greeting or fact finding phase, because you don't know what your customer truly wants at this point.

Here's another great reactionary defense mechanism.

 I don't have enough time. I don't have time. Look, I've only got, I've only got 10 minutes. Um, you know, I'm, I'm in a hurry. Just give me the price so I can make a quick decision.

So remember the prospective customer said, you know, I'm, I'm in a, I'm in a hurry. I don't want this to take too long and I need to get to the price.

Our process. Because we want to take control. We want to get them back into our sales process, where you, the salesperson, are in control, you're the one asking questions, and you've been given permission to do some fact finding.

So the three steps are Agree, Assure, and then Transition. Agree, and acknowledge that they've not got much time.

Then assure them that you're going to deal with it quickly and then transition into fact finding. So you might say something. The customer says, I'm in a hurry. I've only got 10 minutes.

Excellent. Great. That's more than enough time for me to outline some of the options. What information can I get you?

And now the customer is going to tell you, Well, I want information on this product or that product or whatever it might be.

Or it might be the customer. Just give me, just give me the price. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm absolutely in a hurry. Fantastic, sir. Yep, I understand. I hear that you want to make a quick decision. The price is very important in making that decision. I will give you all the answers to that. We'll get this done in less than 10 minutes. I want to outline some of the key payment terms and some of the options, if that would be okay with you. And we'll be done in 10 minutes. Is that okay? And the customer will say yes, and that gives you permission then to move into the fact finding phase.

So what you want to think about is what are all of the common, initial reactions you get. You want to write them down in a little notebook. I don't have enough time. I just want, I just want the price. When can we deliver this? Are you, are you the, are you the best deal in town?

All of those responses, right? You want to be able to have an easy. I agree. Yep. It's very, very important to get the right price. You know, we specialize in having, you know, all the best, you know, financial service companies. We work with all of the top. financial service companies to get the best rates on our payment plans.

I'll be happy to give you the, those rates. You'll find that they're most competitive. I'll give you those options, payment terms, and I'll give you a couple of other things to look at. And it won't take us more than 15 minutes. Is that okay? Now I'm going to ask for control back, the customer will exceed control and we can then move forward in that whole process.

So the key is control.

In summary, from this week, we are selling to people. People have innate fears. They may have been built from past poor experiences, or they're just imagined. And they're not often So you have to recognize that I need to put the buyer at ease with a very warm greeting.

Because they're all looking for information before they can even begin to consider buying something, you need to separate the offer of information from the giving of information.

So if it's price, you can offer And we'll get, we'll, we'll give you the price and several options. And let me tell you, we'll have the best rates and you'll find those very attractive.

You offer that information, but we don't give them the actual price until the end of the sales process when we know what they're buying. So the separation of the offer of information from the giving of information. Then we're going to take control. You need to be in control of the sales process.

The single thing that will allow you to have control of the sales process is a number one, you have a process in your head that you're following. But B you're asking questions and getting answers. That way you're in control. So in, and then when a customer raises some concerns, our procedure for dealing with it is to agree, to assure and to transition.

I agree with you. We don't have much time. I agree that price is incredibly important. I can assure you that I can, within 10 minutes, I can make you aware of all of the best options that would be available to you. I can tell you that we have, you know, um, great prices and lots of options on those and I'll make those transparent to you.

Transition. Let me also show you. The different payment terms and some other options that might be available to you. You might have considered yet, would that be okay? Or on the time one, yep, I know we've only got a few minutes. Let's not waste our time. I'll be able to get you all the information that you need and several options for you to consider.

it within 10 minutes. Is that okay? And once you've got that permission, then you're into your fact finding and you can follow your sales process. So hopefully you found this whole podcast helpful.

Make sure that you have a warm greeting.

Make sure that you acknowledge their automatic concerns.

Make sure that you reassure them

and transition with the use of good questions to give you control so you can navigate to a great sale. See you next week.