Sales Training - Reframing and Pre-empting Objections

Pre-empting an objection means that you bring an objection that you expect to hear early in the sales call and then deal with the objection so it cannot be brought up again. Make sure to answer any common questions and concerns before the client can ask. By pre-empting objections before the client can raise them, you decrease resistance.

For example: Want to think about it, you might say:

“I had one client who wanted to think about it, when he was taking his time to think the opportunity had gone, you wouldn’t want that to happen, would you? ”

List the Objections you normally hear:-

How can you pre-empt these objections?

Reframing Objections

A frame provides a context or focus for your thoughts and actions. Just as a picture frame puts borders or boundaries on what you can see in a picture, the frames of reference that you choose as a result of your beliefs about yourself and others, your perceived role in life, your perceived limitations in skills/abilities, etc. can limit what you see as possible or can open up all sorts of possibilities. You (and if you allow them, others) are continually setting timeframes, boundaries, limits, etc. on what you can and can’t do - often without any real thought about the consequences or if the limitations are true.

Changing the frame of an experience can have a major influence on how you perceive, interpret and react to that experience. The purpose of reframing is to help a person experience their actions, the impact of their beliefs, etc. from a different perspective (frame) and potentially be more resourceful or have more choice in how they react.

Reframing going on all around us:

• Politicians are masters at reframing. It seems no matter what happens, they can put a positive spin on it for themselves or a negative spin for their opponents.
  
  
• You may be frustrated at your wife for inviting the elderly gentleman next door for supper. Until she points out that if you were in his shoes, then you may find this simple act to be the highlight of your week.
  
  
• Consider that old wooden table in the basement that you use as a temporary workbench for sawing wood, nailing things together, etc. Instantly, it is seen differently if someone tells you that it is a valuable antique.
  
  
• Jokes are reframes - you are guided to think in one frame and then the frame (meaning or context) changes.
  
  
• Fairy tales often use reframes to help children see different perspectives or the consequences of ‘crying wolf’.
  
  
• An excuse is a reframe that attributes a different meaning or context to your behaviours.
  
  

Some more notable reframes are:

• During the 1984 campaign, there was considerable concern about Ronald Reagan’s age. Speaking during the presidential debate with Walter Mondale, Reagan said “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience.” Reagan’s age was not an issue for the remainder of the campaign!
  
  
• There is a story about Thomas Watson Sr., the first President of IBM. A young worker had made a mistake that lost IBM $1 M in business. She was called in to the President’s office and as she walked in said, “Well, I guess you have called me here to fire me.” “Fire you?” Mr. Watson replied, “I just spent $1 M on your education!”
  
  
• A father brought his head-strong daughter to see Milton Erickson - the famous hypnotherapist. He said to Erickson, “My daughter doesn’t listen to me or her mother. She is always expressing her own opinion.” After the father finished describing his daughter’s problem, Erickson replied, “Now isn’t it good that she will be able to stand on her own two feet when she is ready to leave home?” The father sat in stunned silence. That was the extent of the therapy -- the father now saw his daughter’s behaviour as a useful resource later in her life.
  
  

Reframing an objection is taking the objection and putting in a different context.

Let's use the price objection -is the context of the price objection - too expensive or outside the prospects budget.

Mostly the problem with price objections - they need to be pre-empted and handled at the qualification stage of the sales and then reframe should they come up when you are at the commitment (or closing stage of the sale).

Colly Graham
www.salesxcellence.com
www.salesxcellence.co.uk

Top Sales Experts Masterclass

On Tuesday October 20th – 1:00 pm Eastern, Jonathan Farrington presents his first solo Top Sales Experts Masterclass of 2009, and you can be there, with my compliments.

So You Want To Be A Top 5% Player In The Game Of Sales?

Recent exhaustive surveys suggest that only 5% of professional salespeople reach and remain at the highest level, which we call Level 3. A further 15% attain Level 2 status, but the majority, i.e. a massive 80% remain at Level 1 in terms of potential achievement.

Level One salespeople sell products and depend on having the right technical solution for the customer’s specification.

This is probably you Level Two salespeople sell solutions, which changes their image from sales rep to business consultant and positions them as a potential strategic resource. Most salesmen and women manage to advance from Level 1 to Level 2 fairly easily but unfortunately; many find breaking through that final glass ceiling extremely difficult i.e. moving from competitive sales professionals to collaborative sales consultants. Or is this you?
Level Three salespeople are able to first identify and then capitalise upon the political component within the buying process. They develop and sustain strong commercial relationships at all levels within their accounts and these relationships endure because they are based on mutual respect and trust. Their clients feel secure, so secure, that they would be fearful of changing supplier.

Level Three salespeople rarely, if ever, lose an order that they really want because they are always in control of the sales cycle. They have identified that in marketplaces where product uniqueness and technical expertise are no longer enough, it is they themselves, that make the difference i.e. their superior skills.

This could be you!

What we can say for certain, is that successful selling has become an exclusive club of highly skilled professionals where, for example, product knowledge, time management skills, objection handling and closing skills are the cost of membership, not leadership.

Attendees will not only receive a FREE copy of Jonathan’s most recent EBook “The Changing Face of Professional Selling” (Value $19.95) but also the chance to take a FREE ASP Profile (Value $175)

Jonathan Farrington is Chairman of The Sales Corporation, CEO of Top Sales Associates and Senior Partner at The JF Consultancy based in London and Paris.

He is also the Chairman of the Executive Board over at Top Sales Experts, and heads up the selection panel for AllBusiness’s latest initiative to find the very best sales professionals on the planet.

You can find out more about him and what they are saying about him here

Then you can accept my invitation to claim your FREE place for this significant event and register here - http://bit.ly/4wW1fc

with compliments of www.salesxcellence.co.uk

Developing a Sales Strategy

There are four basic parts of a sales strategy:

The sales plan should be short, simple and to the point. It's basically a strategic and tactical plan for acquiring new business, growing existing business and making and/or exceeding the sales quota within the sales territory. Typically, a healthy mix would include 75 percent of the sales quota from new business and 25 percent of quota from add-on business from existing customers.


1. New business strategies
2. New business acquisition tactics
3. Existing business growth strategies
4. Existing business growth tactics


Four Parts of the Plan


Sales Quota:
This critical element of plan sets the tempo of efforts throughout the year and provides quarterly, monthly, weekly and even daily sub-goals for you to achieve.

Sales Territory:
Refers to the geographic area, list of named accounts or specific market niche you have been assigned to in which you are to sell products, services and solutions.


Strategy:
The plan necessary to accomplish the company’s sales’ goal



Tactics: The steps necessary to carry out the plan.


New Business Acquisition Strategies and Tactics

Include the following four strategies in the sales plan.
Remember, these strategies are all designed to capture new customers and new market share. Important note: The strategies are numbered and the tactics are italicised.


1. Exceed quota

For example:
• Send no less than 50 letters of introduction to new prospects each week.
• Make no less than 50 cold calls of introduction to new prospects each week.
• Make no less than 20 face-to-face contacts with new prospects each week.
• Create no less than 10 proposals each week.
• Make no less than five presentations each week.
Important note: numbers will, of course, vary. What's important here is to calculate exactly how many contacts are needed to make in order to achieve the sales quota.



2. Increase awareness in the marketplace of products, services and solutions

For example:
Trade shows, exhibitions, seminars etc.


3. Obtain referrals from all my new customers.

For example:
Within 30 days of delivering my product, service or solution, I will ask each of my new customers for at least three names and phone numbers of someone they personally know who may have a use for my products, services and solutions.

www.salesxcellence.com
www.salesxcellence.co.uk

Overcoming Resistance in Sales - Sales Training

As a general rule we should treat resistance as something the sales person has created.

As people can only resist something the sales person is doing or saying and we only have control over our own behaviour. So we need to remove our resistance to the other person’s resistance. If we push someone they will push back, to stop the other person from pushing back all we need do is stop pushing.


“When we change one part of the system (in this case your behaviour), we in fact change the whole system (which includes the other person’s behaviour). You might change your behaviour by agreeing with the other person. Look for and find an area of agreement.

The best way to deal with resistance is to get into agreement, or alignment with it, rather than fight it. This is foreign to people as we are taught to be competitive. In the Japanese martial art of Aikido the exponents are taught to align yourself with your opponent and use his or her energy to foil the attack. You move with rather than against your opponent. A much lighter opponent can easily overthrow a much heavier attacker by using the momentum of the attacker.

Visit salesxcellence on line
www.salesxcellence.com
www.salesxcellence.co.uk

Join our Webinair Masterclass

Understanding Benefits

Selling the Benefits
Gain Product Knowledge Fast

The word benefit comes from two French words; bein or bon meaning well or good, and fit from faire or fait meaning to do or to make, so a benefit is what does your product or service do that will fit well or do a good job for your prospect, how well will your product/service fit your prospects needs.

Another way to view the benefit of the product is to see how the product solves a problem the customer may have, and the customer will make a gain or avoid a loss.

The need is the perceived value in the prospects eyes so you need to present the benefits of your products that will match the perceived values of your customers, how can you find the perceived value, by asking questions, features support the benefits

Here are two examples: The handle of the cup is an existing feature. Its advantage is that it enables you to drink coffee without burning your fingers. Its benefit is that it prevents something you had wanted to avoid; it anticipates and provides a solution to a potential problem.

But the handle is only a benefit to a coffee fancier. If you don't drink coffee (or some other hot drink), the handle feature is merely an advantage, not a benefit.

For a more sophisticated example, consider the caller ID feature than many telecommunications companies now offer their customers.

It's certainly an advantage in that it enables customers who want to screen their callers. Is it a benefit? It is only a benefit to customers who perceive value in that advantage.

Is it a solution?
Only to customers who believe that they have a problem -- in this case, a surplus of incoming calls that they don't want to deal with.

If you're not bothered by such calls, if the tracing potential of this technology makes you uneasy, or if for any other reason you don't see a problem in unscreened calls, then by definition this feature has no benefit for you, and the salesperson who provides you this "solution" probably will get nowhere.

To discover the features advantages and benefits of any product do this simple exercise;

List the features of your product /service.

Then keep asking yourself this question what will this feature do for my prospect or repeat the feature and ask "so what" keep asking "so what" till you have go no further examples – also ask the question what problems will this benefit solve.


Coffee Cup
Feature--------------------------------- Advantage---------------------------- Benefit
Has a handle------------------------Able to hold cup ------------------Will not get burnt

Problem - Can not hold container with hot drink

Solution: Handle allows you to hold cup without burning (Added Value)


Telephone System Caller id
Feature ------------------------ Advantage -----------------Benefit
See who is calling-------------Can screen calls------- Decide if you wish to take call

Problem: Getting an overload of unwanted calls
Solution: Caller Id shows who is calling (Added Value)

Now do this for your product or service.


Colly Graham
salesxcellence

Nine Hidden Buyer Questions

Do you need to build a telesales script or a sales presentation?

Here is an easy to follow plan to build your script or a presentaion; take time to answer the following nine hidden buyer questions.

I call them the nine hidden buyer questions because these are the questions your prospective customers may not ask but do need answered to make a positive decision.

Nine Hidden Buyer Questions: -
1. Why should I take your call you?

2. Why should I take time to listen to you?

3. What's my problem?

4. What benefits have you to offer my business?

5. How will you support these benefits?

6. Why should I trust you?

7. Why should I trust your company?

8. Why should I make a decision to proceed?

9. Why should I proceed today?

Write out your answers to the nine buyer questions, you will discover it will keep your presentation focused and on track.

Colly Graham
www.salesxcellence.co.uk