Magic?
First, let’s be clear—there is no magic tactic or tool that will ensure success. Real success in sales comes from hard work, dedication and a real desire to help others. Oh, and you need a consistently positive attitude, the ability to separate rejection of your firm’s services from rejection of you as a person and a willingness to be a life-long learner.
Sounds really hard, right? Sometimes it is. But while there are no magic tools to adjust attitude or instill a strong work ethic and helpful outlook, there is a proven process that can help achieve sales success.
The Sales Process
The concept of a sales process is not a secret. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of articles and books on the subject-a Google search produced an overwhelming twenty-one million hits. The following definition is from Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org):
"A sales process is a systematic approach for performing product or service sales. The reasons for having a sales process include seller and buyer risk management, standardized customer interaction in sales, and scalable revenue generation.
Specific steps or stages in a sales process vary from company to company but generally include the following steps:
- Sales Lead
- Qualified Prospect
- Need Identification
- Proposal
- Closing
- Deal Transaction
Seems pretty straightforward. However, before we look deeper into each step of the sales process, the image of the sales funnel might be helpful. The metaphor of a funnel helps visualize and monitor the long sales process. Wide at the top, narrow at the bottom, a funnel illustrates how leads drop away at each stage of the process, finally emerging out the bottom as a sale or project win. Each step in the sales process is like water flowing through a funnel.
Now, with the image of the funnel in mind, let's look a bit deeper into each step of the process that feeds the funnel.
1. Sales Lead
A lead is a person or company interested in buying a service. A lead is sometimes called a "rumor" of a project. Leads are generated via cold calling, advertising, trade show participation and, according to the best business developers, networking. Finding leads requires an open mind and open ears.
The open ears part is obvious-less talking, more listening. The open mind part may not be. Consider where networking usually takes place: association meetings, conferences, clients, co-workers, etc. Now consider some not so obvious sources of leads. How about charitable events, church and alumni association meetings? Peer professionals are also a key source for leads. Listen to the accountants, lawyers, insurance agents and financiers you know. They know who's planning projects and who's funding them.
The key is to listen for leads wherever you are, all the time. Robert V. Coolidge of Aetna Life says, "Prospecting for leads is like shaving...if you don't do it every day, the first thing you know, you'll be a bum."
Consistent, diligent listening can produce hundreds of leads a year. But keep in mind a lead is often called a rumor of a project. That's where step two comes in and the funnel starts to narrow a bit.
2. Qualified Prospect
Different salespeople have different criteria for qualifying a lead. The really excellent ones do their homework and find answers to questions like:
- Is my firm qualified for this project?
- Have we presold this project? If not, is there enough time to presell?
- Does my firm have an existing relationship with the client? Is it a positive relationship?
- Does my firm have the staff available for this project?
- Is the project funded?
- Is there decent profit potential?
- Is this a desirable client? (Litigious, slow pay, etc.)
- Is the project already wired for another firm? (What other firms have worked for this client? Were they successful?)
Good salespeople are like detectives and keep digging for answers. The more that is known about a lead, the easier it is to qualify it as
