You just got the deal! Congratulations! Did you undersell? Did you oversell? Did you leave additional opportunities on the table? Does the solution you just received a commitment on - completely meet the business and personal needs of your new client. Did you ask the question throughout the sales cycle?
A few questions you could pose during the closing process are "Is this all there is?", "Have we covered every issue?", "Does our solution/product/service provide the results you are looking for?", "Have we missed anything?"
Many times the answer to these questions result in larger engagements. Often times there may be an underlying objection after a verbal agreement that can be ferreted out with these type of questions.
Give it a try on your next sales effort - the responses may surprise you!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say!
Do your prospects and clients trust you? How do you know? Have you built a career on principles that are honest, ethical and trustworthy.
Dictionary.com defines trust as;
noun
1. reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.
2. confident expectation of something; hope.
3. confidence in the certainty of future payment for property or goods received; credit: to sell merchandise on trust.
4. a person on whom or thing on which one relies: God is my trust.
5. the condition of one to whom something has been entrusted.
One way to build trust during the course of your sales process is to re-affirm the commitments you have made in writing soon after your meeting. Then you must deliver on those commitments. Over time your prospect/client can completely rely on you.
Another component of trust building is to provide an atmosphere of complete honesty/transparency - "no - our product cannot handle your business - however, we will be making enhancements in a later release that may meet your needs", "We will not be able to hit your target date given our current resource limitations"....
Building credibility and trust is not overnight. It can take years to build a solid trusted foundation. You will continually need to work at it - time, energy, and continually meeting expectations are the ingredients in the recipe of a long-standing client relationship.
Dictionary.com defines trust as;
noun
1. reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.
2. confident expectation of something; hope.
3. confidence in the certainty of future payment for property or goods received; credit: to sell merchandise on trust.
4. a person on whom or thing on which one relies: God is my trust.
5. the condition of one to whom something has been entrusted.
One way to build trust during the course of your sales process is to re-affirm the commitments you have made in writing soon after your meeting. Then you must deliver on those commitments. Over time your prospect/client can completely rely on you.
Another component of trust building is to provide an atmosphere of complete honesty/transparency - "no - our product cannot handle your business - however, we will be making enhancements in a later release that may meet your needs", "We will not be able to hit your target date given our current resource limitations"....
Building credibility and trust is not overnight. It can take years to build a solid trusted foundation. You will continually need to work at it - time, energy, and continually meeting expectations are the ingredients in the recipe of a long-standing client relationship.
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