I want to introduce you to what I refer to as the ultimate sales framework. This is made up of another series of ‘C’ words. We should take a look at each one of these C’s in turn. For those who have had some formal sales training, although that is certainly not essential, you will notice that this follows a very traditional sales process. That is because if it isn’t broken, we do not need to fix it. The basic rules of selling have not changed and no matter what the advancement made in technology terms, the rules stay constant and are just as relevant to online sales as they are to face-to-face selling.
These rules stay constant because the human psychology behind the sale has not moved. We still need to take human behaviour into account and we still need to have regard for what I am calling the human element of sales. It is of great importance that we build this human element into the machine, the machine that is or will be our business.
This is also based on the understanding that in the early years of your machine’s development, and certainly while it is in the start-up phase, it is more likely that new sales will require the personal touch. Of course, as your business builds and starts to develop its brand and name awareness this need will reduce as your reputation spreads and takes over. But for now, the personal touch and intimacy remain crucial to sales traction and success.
C1 Contact
The technique I am suggesting you use is one based on intimacy, demonstrating your expertise but making it very personal in feel. When you get to the point of talking to the prospect be it virtually or otherwise you will still need to make sure that first contact as far as the actual sale is concerned is focused on building the relationship with your prospect. This is still the case with repeat sales from existing customers.
Your marketing, website, multiple sales funnels, and possibly other mechanisms will have already created the first impression for the prospect and you can be sure it was a good one because if that were not the case they would not be talking to you now. That said, the paradox is that as soon as you go from web-based or electronic contact to personal contact or vice-versa, you have to focus on the first impression all over again.
Let your culture, values, mission, vision, and brand guide you on how you administer the contact, what you say and how you say it. It is important to remember all of the core rules of selling. You can learn all about this in my book ‘Making Rain’, should you wish to. Don’t worry; I will also be covering them in the next session.
If you are using technology, for example, Zoom or content-driven sales funnel through landing pages, some might say you have an advantage; others may take the opposite view. The truth is one system of connecting is just as good as another. The method you use to create the sale be it technology-driven or in-person is not the important factor your mindset is. The comfort or discomfort you feel is all in your mind and all down to how well you have prepared.
My rule of thumb would simply be to never go into the contact phase without first being fully prepared and without making sure you are in the right frame of mind to give your best performance, nothing less is good enough.
When looking at content for your various sales funnels for online sales, the model that appears to work most effectively is the Hook, Story, and Offer mechanism, and we will cover that in more detail in later modules.
C2 Create
This phase is all about creating the right environment. To do this you need to understand what this means from the prospect’s perspective. Creating the right environment is all about setting the stage to lead to or contribute to the ultimate outcome required by your prospect or customer, which in the majority of cases is going to the sale of your product or service, assuming you have got your marketing messages right.
It is difficult to disagree with this but what you really need is to understand what this means in terms of actions you can take to create this environment. The list of things you can do is long, and we can only scratch the surface of the more important aspects of this module. Not wanting to sound like a scratched vinyl record, but I must repeat this is covered in great detail during the majority of our various development programs. Let’s get the main headings down to give you some direction:
- Conversational
- Connected
- Channelled
- Conscious
- Compelling
- Cognitive
Conversational – Easy rapport – When I refer to this I am talking about making the presentation more like a conversation between friends than a more formal and old-fashioned sales presentation. This can be achieved within sales funnels and landing pages through the tried and tested model of Hook, Story, and Offer. we want to avoid all too frequent employment of the overt product-only based pitch and an endless stream of features and closes!
Do not let the word conversational paint any other picture than one of two or more people talking and sharing the stage, talking sometimes and sometimes listening a well-balanced conversation where both parties learn. I would call that the perfect sale, and despite reservations, this can be achieved within landing pages as illustrated by some of the well-known experts in this field.
Connected – When you are connected the barriers are lowered and the defence mechanisms are stood-down. To get to this state you need to show a true interest in the client, and this will come from a series of mainly open questions that get the prospect talking about themselves and their needs when you are working on a face-to-face basis. Not about you and your product. The more you know your client the better job you can do for them and that is what this process is all about. When using sales funnels this is based on demonstrating your understanding of the client by focusing your content on their main issues. Predominantly they will be focused on moving away from a problem or toward a future state based on either, wealth, health or a relationship.
Channelled – The conversation is balanced and follows a path that leads to motivations, the motivations I am interested in are your ‘Why’ being clearly communicated. In this way, the prospect will understand why you are motivated to help them. Equal to this is the motivation of the prospect. The more you understand this the better equipped you will be to identify not just what they want (their motivation) but also what they need.
Conscious – You need to be very conscious of what is being said to you. Not just the words but the body language the cadence the attitude the inflexions in the voice. Being conscious means actively listening and not just waiting for a gap so you can start talking again! There is significant evidence to support the opinion that those who are the best at truly listening are the ones that are seen by others as the best communicators.
Compelling – When it is your turn to talk, you should do all you can to make what you have to say as compelling as you are able. It is often the case that stories work the best. Stories to illustrate the point you are making. Stories to illustrate your motivation, stories to promote the brand, the product or service and of course, stories to create the buying environment. Compelling stories are the ones that get the prospect thinking in terms of what it would feel like for them to be benefitting from your product or service right now.
Cognitive – The more senses you can involve in the process the better. Cognitive participation in the process is the key. The more you get the prospect to think and learn the better. This may lead to the occasional silence, and there is nothing wrong with that. Get used to giving the others in the room time and space to think. In all honesty, we want our prospects to be thinking, We want them to be learning too.
C3 Confirm
When we are asking the prospect to share with us how they are thinking and feeling we are often required to make some assumptions, it is a good idea to confirm back to them. Confirm the messages you are hearing and the assumptions you are making. This is something that you need to be considering throughout the entire process when dealing face-to-face. This process is a little easier if you are using sales funnels as your messaging and content can do this for you. You will know if you have it right as the prospect will vote with their clicks.
It is at this time in the process when you have gained all the answers to the questions you were asking, or your prospect has made the predicted clicks your ideal customer would make. This is when you need to confirm your understanding of what the prospect needs and wants. It is also important to understand that what they want will be a bigger motivator for them than what it is you think they need. This is why your understanding of your market and your content based on that knowledge are so very important.
Do not worry about this because if you can deal with the want, you can often follow that with the need to. Sometimes, not all the time, they are one and the same. The better you understand your market, the more likely it is that they are indeed one and the same.
The key is to wrap what they need within what they want, in many cases, this is far easier than it may first appear. This is where the design of your machine, the design of your value ladder and the communication skills come into their own. Once you are sure that you have the want and need right and you know all you need to know about the prospect, it is time to move on to the presentation of the solution phase.
C4 Clear
We have spoken about the importance of clarity earlier in this series, clarity is no less important to your customers and prospects. In the sales process, this is the time to create a very clear picture of the solution you’re suggesting to the prospect based on the agreed wants and needs. Your sales funnel is the ideal vehicle for this.
The solution that you offer needs to be a match to the important things that they have been sharing with you if you are selling face-to-face. The beauty of the sales funnel is that this is always going to be the case as you have total control of the narrative and with your Hook and Story, you create the expectation of the offer from the get-go. I know this sounds very obvious but you would be dismayed at the number of sales presentations I hear where the presenter does not do or understand this most important of links.
This is because they are often too preoccupied with their own importance, their product, the commission or something other than the most important person in the room or on the call, or on your landing page, the prospect. The emphasis should always be on what you can do for them, not what they can do for you. The key to sales and the key to enduring relationships has always been, and as far as I am concerned will always be about giving value first.
C5 Concern
This is the stage where you can address and understand the concerns the prospect may have. How much effort you need to put into this stage before they make their final and fully informed decision, comes down to how well you have performed to this point. It also comes down to how well you understand them and therefore how well you have dealt with all of their issues leading up to the decision they need to make.
This is often referred to as objection handling by the more traditional sales training experts. But this, I feel, is a little out of date. While it may have been suitable in the 1980s in this century, I prefer to acknowledge that sometimes the prospect just wants more information or has a genuine question that needs answering. In my view the better the presentation, the better the landing page funnel, the better the Hook, Story, and Offer, the less likely it is that you will have any difficult questions to answer.
So what does a good presentation look like? I am sure that many experts in sales will have differing views on this subject. I will certainly share my views with you later in this section. For now, I just want to emphasise that requests in the form of questions, for more information are an indication that something has not been covered in enough detail; or that the prospect is just looking for some additional reassurance.
C6 Closing
Closing a sale is something that causes problems for many, mostly those who would openly admit to not being a salesperson. I want to emphasise again that if you are in business, you are in sales and therefore you should do all you can to gain sales skills. Not just any sales skills but those that are relevant to the market of today. Your market. Despite my reassurance do not worry,m the sales funnels can do all the hard work for you, all you need to do is create really great Hooks, stories to go. with them and then really attractive offers.
When it comes to face-to-face, the close is not to be feared, it is after all the natural conclusion to the sales presentation. The close is the ultimate purpose of the entire process, so it is silly not to want to get to that point, right? The close is simply asking for the business, assuming of course you have not already been closed by the prospect, by asking you for whatever it is you’re selling! when you get everything right, this will happen far more regularly than you might think.
The better the sales presentation, the better the marketing, the easier the close becomes. When you have closed you can move on to the next task creating that all-important forward momentum for you and your business. The best way to close is simply to make sure you are talking to the right person, for the right reason and to do that you need to have given your best in all the other stages leading to this point.
The good news is the more you work on your mindset and the development of your EQ levels the easier the entire process becomes. I would venture that closing is one of those areas of sales that is most likely to be influenced by the prevailing mindset you have. The same can also be said with regard to the production of content.
C7 Consolidate
The sale is not over once the close is completed, or at least that is my view. Once the prospect has asked for the business or you have asked them for the business, and they have clicked the buy button on your funnel, we move into the process of consolidating the sale. This may vary based on the product and the journey the customer will take with you. Here is a list of things that I suggest are included in the consolidation of the sale:
- Explain in detail what happens next
- Explain any legal or technical requirements
- Explain documentation that will need to be understood and or completed
- Ensure they understand the process to follow for customer services
- Confirm they understand the payment program
- Ensure they understand delivery timelines and systems
- Ask for any final questions they may have
- Ask for feedback on the process and accept their points of view
- Explain the value in their decision and ask them for referrals to others they may know whom they feel would also benefit from the service or product
- Gain or reaffirm their permission for regular contact to see how they are doing and to answer any questions they may have
What Does A Good Sales Presentation Look Like?
Earlier I made reference to the fact that the better the sales presentation the better the outcome. The question for some then becomes what does a good sales presentation look like? Perhaps the easiest way to answer that is to think of you as a customer and the kind of presentation that floats your boat. We will all have slightly different views and that is because we are all individuals. No two human brains are the same, we are unique.
That does not mean that we can’t provide a consistent and attractive presentation that will win the hearts and minds of all the people we present to. We can. All we need to do is make sure that our marketing and sales, our brand, values and principles are all aligned and underpinned by our one big reason ‘Why.’ With all of that in mind, a good sales presentation will have taken all of those items into account.
Be aware that the same applies to anyone working for you or on your behalf, they need to be a reflection of all these elements too. Your sales presentation starts long before you start communicating directly with the prospect and so as a business owner who understands the sales process you are going to want to make sure everything in your machine is aligned. Everything is on message and everything takes account of the core rules of selling. Your brand your values the principles you work to must all resonate and be clearly illustrated in all you do as a business and in particular in your sales. Your sales presentation must be based on the following:
- A genuine passion
- A focus on the desires & needs of the market you are in
- Materials that are based on data from your prospect
- Alignment to core values and brand
- An emphasis on giving value first
- Clear and educational information
- A full and actionable understanding of the core rules of selling.
This then is your introduction to the ultimate sales process. Next, we will give you a brief exercise to complete before moving on to the process in more detail.