Part 2 in our 3 part Proactive Sales Management series has been released. It is titled The Structure of a Selling System and continues the homebuilding analogy by comparing a selling system to the framing of a house.
Just to give you a taste:
It took me awhile to understand what was going on and why some of the things I was required to do were important. The key to the training was to understand and use a proven sales process. Tom assured me of success if I stayed within this structured approach. He also assured me I would fail if I didn€™t use the process and techniques that had been refined by those who preceded me in this role. Tom told me repeatedly, €œThis structure and approach works.€
As an example, here are some of the questions from Tom€™s structured system:
What lead them to consider our product or service?
Who are the people making the decision? Are their any hidden decision makers? What does the decision-making process look like?
How will the purchase be financed? Sale, lease? Any special terms & conditions?
When will delivery be required?
What other are products are being examined? What attracted the buyer to those products?
Does the ROI make sense? Has a cost justification been made? Is one required?
A funny thing happens to reps when they get asked these questions consistently €“ they go out and qualify the information from their prospects (as I learned to do). As Tom would say, €œEverything in this structure will have to happen at some point in the sales cycle. You might as well do it now, rather than later, or when it€™s too late. Spend your time on deals that will happen, don€™t waste your time on deals that won€™t, or on deals we don€™t want.€
As they say, read the whole thing.