Picture this scenario:
Walsh Manufacturing Limited is struggling for revenue. The Sales Manager is meeting with his team of 5 salespeople:
He impresses upon them the need to close more deals and gain more revenue. He reminds them all they’ve have a very lean 6 months in terms of sales and he can’t allow this to continue. If they weren’t able to transform this trend it could lead to some of the team being laid off.
He then completes a 15 minute training session on what he’s looking for from the team:
Individuals to be more aggressive when dealing with customers.
When they get a sniff of a new product sale, he’s found that ‘going for the jugular’ is always the best approach.
Don’t be afraid to offer discounts upfront if it means closing the deal. We need more revenue!
And remember…more sales, more revenue! Come on you can do it!
What’s the matter with this approach?
It sends all the wrong messages:
Aggressive salespeople will rarely be successful as the main objective for salespeople should be to build relationships with their clients, particularly in a Business to Business (B2B) scenario.
‘Going for the jugular’ with a B2B client suggests that you’re not understanding their needs. This ‘hard selling’ approach will rarely be successful either and will probably lead to dissatisfied clients.
Why would you offer discounts upfront? This suggests that you haven’t uncovered their needs, so you really don’t know what the solution is to meet their needs, and you’re offering them a discount upfront. I get lots of email offering me 25% off, or a the first £500 free, this suggests to me that they’re not very good and they have to give their services away.
Pressuring your sales team to get more sales will result in them adopting incorrect behaviours and make them desperate to achieve sales. This is what happens in a lot of businesses.
How about this as an alternative?
The Sales Manager at Walsh Manufacturing runs his sales team meeting but focusses on the following:
He reminds the team that we’re all about understanding the needs of our clients.
We’ve previously discussed the needs-based selling model:
1. Establish rapport
2. Explore needs
3. Present solutions
4. Close the sale
5. Build the relationship
Whilst ‘Build the relationship’ is listed at number 5, it’s something that we should be doing at all stages of the sales process, and something that we should continue to do after we’ve made the initial sale.
We offer ‘solutions to meet real needs’ and we should never hard sell.
Ensuring we do this will ensure client satisfaction and make sales easier to close. We’re offering them solutions to meet real needs, why wouldn’t they respond well to that?
Further, we’re never at the top of our clients’ to do lists, so it’s imperative that you follow up. Most salespeople don’t do this, when you’re doing it take every opportunity to build the relationship. Every interaction is a chance to learn more about our clients.
Follow these basic principles and you will all be successful. I have complete faith in you.
It’s never about us or our products, it’s all about them!