Where oh where has the year gone?
With a mere 12 hours left of selling time for the month, the quarter and the year I was left with the daunting task of trying to enable another $20K of revenue to hit my mark of $80K or more for the month.
While in the office today I yelled, “What type of day is it?” After no response I asked again, “What type of day is it?” And from the cubical close to mine I heard the right answer, “It’s a GREAT day to SELL something!” Darn tootin’ it is; every day is a great day to sell something.
If you’re keeping up with the sales guru’s that are a dime a dozen on the Internet, most are touting, “you need to be more of a consultant,” “know more about your client,” “become a valued business asset,” “listen more,” “build trust,, “know more about how your client does business,” “understand your clients pain,” “discover your clients pain,” and while doing all of this don’t “become a pain in the butt!”
Don’t get me wrong I agree with many of these tips for selling, but many of these Internet sales guru’s are missing the mark. YOU need to close business and the business will NOT close by itself.
Would you agree or disagree that the amount of answering questions about your products and services by e-mail is just about equal or maybe even a little more than the time you spend on the phone with answering the same type of questions? I’m in the camp that believes I really do spend more time answering questions and products about my services more by e-mail than by the phone.
Let’s take a simple question that was posed to me the other day by a prospect (we had already met, there is an interest for your product and service), you then receive and email that asks this question?
Hi Art:
We’re now thinking about financing the equipment instead of leasing it, do you offer financing or have some that you use?
How would you answer that in an e-mail?
1) You could just answer, YES, we offer financing.
2) Or, YES, we offer financing and what term are you interested in?
3) Or, YES, we offer financing and I would recommend a 36-month lease for “x” amount where you own the equipment at the end of the lease for $1.00, would this work for you?
The first answer leads you nowhere, the prospect does not owe you anything else, however with 2 and 3 you are asking for an answer and are moving the conversation forward to a possible order. By far, answer number 3) may get you there quicker than number 2).
Treat the e-mailed question the same way you would treat the conversation in a face to face meeting.
One other item I’d like to note there are some prospects and clients that would rather converse by e-mail, you need to accept this behavior and make it work to your advantage. You can do this by giving them prompt replies, including links for additional information (you tube links are really awesome), attaching documents, and respect that they just may want to do business by e-mail. I can tell you that there are many accounts where I never stepped a foot in their office until after the equipment was delivered.
It’s always a great day to sell something!
Good selling!
