Water Well Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/529509
F or the past three months we have been discussing how to cover your market. The customers, the opera- tions, the job sites, the well systems— everything there is to know about your market for water distribution. We have done all the hard work nec- essary to prepare for selling into this market. We have done the research and we have calculated the market potentials for each customer. This allows us to develop meaningful yet achievable objectives for each account. Now we are finally ready to get in front of the customer. We completed the first two steps, re- search and objectives, before we met with anyone. Let's continue our journey to success at selling with the remaining four steps: 1. Questions 2. Features 3. Objections 4. Closing Let's look at the steps now from a slightly different perspective. • The first three steps are the critical few that take place in front of the customer. • The last step is the result of all the efforts going into all the previous steps. Having a purpose Now we have to get specific on sales calls. It is time for the next step in the sales process for successful selling. It is time to get in front of the customer. First of all and of critical importance is "you have to have a purpose" for the call. There has to be a reason the cus- tomer will give you some of their pre- cious time to allow you to present to them something you have to offer that will save them money or protect their investment. If you don't have a purpose—a rea- son—for the call, sooner or later the customer will recognize you are not bringing them value for their time. You will know this has happened when it's harder to get them to return your calls or harder to set an appointment to go see them. Each and every call you make, each and every time you communicate with your customer, you have to have a pur- pose. There is an old expression known by the acronym WIIFM (What's in it for me?). We must be sensitive to this point. Okay, so you have a purpose. You have identified a product or service your customer is not purchasing from you. They have obviously selected an alter- nate supplier. Now we have something to work with for a series of calls. You identified this from your research. You further hone it with telephone calls ask- ing the customer who it is they selected to use instead of you. You also found out what they liked about doing busi- ness with that supplier. Now you can use this in your face-to- face meeting with your customer. You can come prepared with comparative technical information, features, and benefits. You can come prepared on the value proposition your company pro- vides. Now you are with the customer, with a purpose, and you can start to sell. So we are ushered into the office of our customer. We deal with the social niceties and are ready to get to work. First, I don't want you thinking you're going to make a presentation. Yes, it is true you will be presenting information to your customer. But if we think of it as a presentation, it will soon be a regurgi- tation of facts and figures and start to be stale. You'll become bored with it—and imagine how that will sound or appear to your customer! No, I want you to position your prod- uct or service to the customer. This is slightly different, but the difference is huge. You are going to be making your presentation of the products or services by positioning them into your cus- tomer's business. This will make the discussion unique. It will always be fresh to you as a result of each of your customers being slightly different. You will be your usual motivated self, talk- ing passionately about your offering. The customer will feel it and sense it. The first obligation you have now is to get your customer interested in what it is you are offering. You have to "arouse their interest." You will know you are successful in this effort when the customer starts having a discussion with you. It is during this discussion when you will find out what it is that truly interests them and what fears and biases they might have. All this is extremely positive and you can adapt your discussion to their responses. If the customer does not get into a discussion with you and remains quiet, this is where you can start to ask ques- tions. This becomes a bit of an art form. Asking questions has a purpose. It is to get the customer talking, expressing themself, and providing you with infor- mation on what they like and don't like, need, and want. This is the usual set of questions: "who, what, where, when, how." But did you notice I left out "why"? I don't like RON SLEE THE AFTER MARKET DON'T FREEZE NOW. NOW IS THE TIME TO SELL. We have done all the preparation—let's do our job. 62 July 2015 WWJ waterwelljournal.com Each and every time you communicate with your customer, you have to have a purpose.