Systems, sequence, principles.

They are all important for running a business and performing any task. Imagine the pilot for an aeroplane not having a sequence or systems to work through when beginning a flight or even whilst they are flying.

Do you have systems and sequences in your business or is everything ad-hoc do as you please.

Here is the 9 Step Sales Sequence that you need for your business and your staff. Give them direction and guidelines to improve their sales performance

Here is the sequence in a nutshell.

1. Attitude – getting your head right.
2. Qualifying
3. Building rapport
4. Discovering the need
5. Warming the need and dealing with objections
6. Closing
7. Buyers Remorse
8. Follow up
9. Getting referrals

Now let’s get into how to apply this sequence to you and your business so you can build a strong and reliable sequence to bring you a steady stream of sales and thus income.

1. Attitude (Getting your head right)

There are two kinds of people in the world – moving toward people and moving away from people.

Moving toward people are those who are extremely proactive.

Their mindset is one that seeks opportunity, bounces back from failure and sees setbacks and failures as necessary to success. They love to learn and grow.

For them a failure is not seen as painful but something they can use to their advantage and learn from. They love the unknown and like to stretch their comfort zone.

Moving away from people, see failure as painful and something to be avoided.

Many of their choices are around avoiding pain. For them security is of prime concern and they will make decisions based on avoiding pain and establishing security.

They prefer to stay in the known and tend to stay within a certain comfort zone.

90% of people want safety. They are ‘moving away from’ people who are looking for reasons not to buy.

If you wait for someone to say yes, then you are not a professional salesperson who seeks to truly service your customer. A professional salesperson only sells something they believe in. If they believe in the product or service then they have an obligation to provide the best service possible.

For someone to be successful in sales they need to become a “moving toward” person.

Enthusiasm, clear thinking and positive attitude are essential.

Before you enter the office, pick up the phone or see a client you must be at your mental best! If you are not then you cannot provide full service and the selling sequence will be impaired.

How To Get Attitude!

The Power of Directed Questions

Let’s start by looking at the power of directed questions.

Directed Questions

Let me tell you why directed questions can be more powerful than standard affirmations.

While affirmations can be useful, the problem is that it sets up too much counter resistance in your mind. Let me give you an example.

Let’s say that you say the following affirmation, “I feel fantastic.”

Now if at that moment you don’t feel fantastic, another part of your mind steps in and says, “Ha ha, that’s a good one, you’ve gotta be kidding.”

What happens is that you set up a situation where one part of your mind starts battling with another part of your mind. It is the same with people who are financially broke. If they say, “I am rich,” the mind immediately, replies – “no you are not.” It creates just too much resistance.

What if there was a way that you could bypass this resistance. What if there was a way that you could elegantly sidestep around your mind and get what you want?

That’s where directed questions come in.

A directed question is one that you direct to your subconscious mind to effect a positive change in your life.

Let’s say you want more success in your life. Then begin by asking the question, “How can I be more successful?”

Essential Keys

Now there are some essential things you have to do when you use directed questions.

The first is to ask the question to your subconscious mind or higher self and not your conscious mind.

A question to your conscious mind demands an immediate answer. If you ask someone, “what is one plus one?” they will immediately answer, “two.” This is a question where you want an immediate answer from your conscious or rational mind.

A directed question is different.

When you ask the question, “how can I feel more happiness,”  don’t come up with a list of immediate answers.

Rather ask the question and let your subconscious mind do the work. To do this you must ask the question with a passionate curiosity and a deep desire to know the truth.

You see if you come up with an immediate list, then that may not be the real answer. Your subconscious knows more than you can possibly imagine.

Even Einstein said, “I did not discover my understanding of the universe bymeans of the rational mind.”

How can I apply this immediately in my life?

The first step is to come up with a series of questions that can positively impact your life and level of enthusiasm.

Let’s say that you felt you wanted to feel more confident. Then an obvious question would be, “how can I feel more confident.”

Or someone who faced a very difficult task could ask, “How can I do this task as easily and effortlessly as possible and have a very successful outcome?”

Or you could ask, “How could I feel more enthusiastic?” Or “How could I be more successful?”

Come up with at least 3 directed questions and ask them with passion, morning and night. Directed questions can open the door to a whole new life.

Anchoring

Anchoring is another process to increase your positive attitude. Anchoring is where you re-live successful experiences you have had in the past.

Often people remember the times they “screwed up.” Anchoring helps to put these experiences in the past and develop a success mentality.

Rules for Anchoring

1. Remember a peak emotional experience.
2. Choose one body position to associate the feelings of the experience.
3. Choose one silent word to associate the feelings of the experience (“yes”).
4. Adopt a powerful physiology.
5. Stack anchors (every time you have a win use the experience as another anchor).

Example:

Let’s say that the time you felt most successful was when you won a sporting contest.

Go back in your mind and remember the exact moment when you felt the peak emotional experience. It could be at the end of the game or listening to the crowd applaud. Re-live that exact moment. See it, feel it, smell it – engage all your senses.

As you remember the exact moment, make a fist and silently say the word “yes.”

Then adopt a powerful physiology. Stand erect and look and breathe like someone who is successful.

Every time you have a new win CELEBRATE. At the peak of the experience make a fist and say yes. This is stacking anchors.

Now you make ask what has these steps got to do with a sales process and increasing your sales.

Well if you don’t have a good mental attitude about yourself then you will find it difficult.

You need to first clear and strengthen your mind so that you then can help more and more people.

2. Qualifying

This is where you find out if your prospect is a genuine buyer.

As a general rule of thumb, you will need to qualify someone more if you are selling a high price item. For example, selling cars or expensive jewellery requires that you determine if your purchaser truly wishes to buy.

Otherwise you will waste valuable time. By all means be helpful to people, however you have to weigh up the cost of your time.

After you create a positive attitude, the next step is to qualify.

One way is to use your intuition and the other way is to use the funnel.

The Funnel

The funnel is a process where you discover and define someone’s needs through a series of questions. The funnel can also be used to get appointments, find out if someone has credit, is ready to purchase immediately etc, etc.

For example: If someone said that they wanted to have some food you may reply, “What do you want?” What happens however if they say, “I’m not sure.”

Here’s what the professional does.

“What kind of food do you want, sweet or savoury?”

Sweet

“What kind of sweet food, cakes or confectionary?”

Confectionary

“Would you like confectionary with chocolate or without?”

Chocolate

You can keep asking these questions until you get a precise answer. Basically you are taking someone down a funnel where you start really broad until you finally get a specific answer. The funnel can be used for almost anything – getting appointments, discovering if one person is buying or two people are involved.

For example, if you wanted to get an appointment you could ask, “I can pick you up at your house or we can meet in my office, which is best for you?”

There are 2 kinds of questions you use when employing the funnel.

Open ended and Closed ended.

Open ended questions generally (not always) create rapport and closed ended questions create command and usually demand an immediate answer.

If I asked you, “Where do you come from?” or “What’s your favourite colour?” then I have asked you open ended questions.

Closed ended questions are like the example above in choosing a particular food. If you look closely they are “either or.” “What kind of food do you want, sweet or savoury?” This question requires an answer.

You can use a funnel in a variety of ways:

One is with your face to face contact.

The second is with your content and email marketing where you provide valuable information and then tag the response of your clients to see who responds to what messages and content.

Then you can provide further information to suit your list of clients.

3. Building Rapport

You can’t fake being genuine; all but the most gullible people can tell when someone is false.

Here are 5 valuable tips in increasing your rapport skills.

1. Ask questions and get the person talking. Remember the old adage – “Interesting people are interested.”

2. Genuinely listen to them and and observe their body language. Try to find out what they are really saying. Keep eye contact with them.

3. Gather specific information and repeat it back to them. Let them know you have heard them. For example, nearly everyone has had the experience of asking a real estate agent for a 3 bedroom house with a view and then being shown a 4 bedroom house in a gulley. It’s a really good way of blowing rapport.

4. A lot has been written about mirroring their body language. Our experience is that if this is a technique without being genuine then people will smell a rat. By all means use some of these skills but the most important thing you can do is be genuinely interested.

5. Get clear on what you want to achieve with them. If you want to achieve rapport, then have this as a very clear intention or outcome in your mind. Whatever you intend has a habit of materialising.

4. Discovering The Need

You MUST find out what their needs are. For example – when you walk into a clothing store, what is the one, tired old phrase that every unprofessional salesperson utters? “Hi, can I help you?” And what do you say in return? “No thanks, I’m just looking.”

Here is a conversation a professional woman salesperson I met uses:

After striking up a casual conversation she asked, “Is the outfit you are looking for, for any special occasion?” “Well, yes it is. I am meeting an old flame for lunch.”

To which the salesperson replied, “So you want to look sexy without looking like you are trying too hard.” To which the person replied, “yes that’s exactly right.”

They have now established the real need. There are several ways you can establish need.

A salesperson in furniture store can ask if this is the first time in the the store. If the customer says yes then you can say them let me show the different areas of the store plus give background on the history and service of the store.

If a customer says No then the salesperson can say then let me take you on a tour as some things may have changed since you were last here.

Listen and let them do most of the talking!!!!! Need based selling means selling what they need, not what you think they need or worse still what you need.

You must discover the REAL reason that someone wants to buy (or sell).

As a general rule of thumb people will not reveal the reason, as often it is personal. You need to use the funnel, your intuition and the other skills we discussed to bring this real need to the surface.

The only way you can serve someone is by fulfilling their needs. If you don’t know what they truly need and want then you cannot effectively serve them.

Once you discover their need, then you have found their primary benefit.

What’s the difference between BENEFITS and FEATURES?

Let’s say your buyers needs are: they need a big spacious house for their 4 children, that is close to transport so they don’t have to drive the kids everywhere. This now becomes the primary benefit.

Interestingly enough they may not even know consciously what they want!

That’s where the professional brings to the surface the real need, which now becomes the Primary Benefit.

A FEATURE is something that is nice about the house. The average salesperson sells features. “See this door, it’s made from solid mahogany! The owner told me he spent 3 days restoring that door!” . Or “The great thing about this house is it’s got a separate entry hall!” .

Meanwhile for all  you know your buyer couldn’t give one fig about a door and separate entry halls. Why, because it doesn’t fit into their needs. It is not a primary benefit.

Benefits are emotionally related and based on what the client really wants.

For example a benefit might be they have 6 children and they want a big backyard so the kids can have a sense of freedom. Or some people might want a car that gives them a lot of prestige.

As a general rule, sell benefits 3 to 1 over features.

5. Warming The Need

This is the section of the sale where you begin to increase forward momentum. It is often the section where you begin to encounter objections.

Often an objection is being used to merely slow down the process. Be very careful about directly answering an objection.

Here are some very specific examples of how to use these techniques. The examples we have chosen are for the real estate or car industry, however, you can modify them for any industry.

PLEASE UNDERSTAND ONE VITAL THING – THESE TECHNIQUES WORK!

OVERCOMING MINOR OBJECTIONS

The Play Back

(B) Good lord. I’d have to renovate this entire kitchen!

“Well Frank, would you do that yourself or have it done?”

If he answers that, then he has just confirmed that he is moving ahead.

Remember unless you make minor closing statements it is difficult to enact a final closing sequence!

Forward Questions

Questions that create forward momentum and lead to minor closing statements.

Sue, would this be Tony or Mary’s room?

Would you use this as a den or family room?

Would a 10% deposit be OK or would you like to put down more?

Where would you put the lounge here or there?

I’m curious, would you change any of the interior design or leave it the way it is?

These questions are not only great to move a sale forward but they will let you know where you are on the buying sequence. If the answers are negative or hostile then you need to go back down the sequence. Perhaps you need to establish rapport or develop more need.

Or if they are incredibly positive perhaps you are near the final closing sequence and you need to move things forward more quickly.

THE BOOMERANG

The boomerang is taking an objection and sending it back to them.

(B) This kitchen’s too small!

“This kitchen’s too small?” Or “This kitchen’s too small, can you elaborate on that?”

(B) I think it’s out of our price range.

“It’s out of your price range?” (Can you elaborate on that?)

Variation:

(B)The alarm system would increase security, are they leaving it?

“Would you like it included?”

6. Closing

Harvard research has shown that most salespeople give up after 2 or 3 closes, yet most sales are made after closing 5 times.

Most people have huge resistance to closing. They feel they are being too high pressure. First of all we are ABSOLUTLEY NOT advocating becoming a high pressure salesperson.

You should never resort to high pressure tactics. However if you just present the information without working with the client to help them make a decision- then you will lose sales. Simple as that!

The primary close we recommend you learn is the “ I want to think about it close.” This one close if learned well and applied well can make a MASSIVE difference in your income.

Let us explain the rationale behind the close.

What is the one defence that almost every buyer uses to exit from your presence? “I’ll think about it.”

I am sure you have used this on countless occasions yourself. Most salespeople dread this comment as there is no comeback.

However this is the opportunity that the professional waits for as it presents a remarkable opportunity.

Let us take you through an example of someone who is selling a car.

Let’s first assume that you had worked the above steps and discovered that their needs were: they wanted power steering, a 2 litre engine, red colour, the particular model you had shown them and they wanted delivery in the next 5 days.

Watch the following sequence. IF they say: “NO, WE WANT TO THINK IT OVER.”

“No no, that’s Ok. Just to clarify my thinking what is it exactly that you want to think over (don’t pause), is it whether it has power steering? If they say no, they definitely wanted power steering then ask:

Is it the size of the engine? If they respond that the engine is fine then move on to the next question.

Is it the colour? If they respond that this is fine then keep working through the list.

Is the model OK?

Are you happy with the time of delivery?

After you have asked about 5 of these questions then it’s time to ask the final question. “So can you level with me, what is the real reason? (If you are selling a high priced item then change this to “So level with me, is it the money?)

The beauty of this close is that you get them out of confusion and get them to tell you the real reason. If you ask them to level with you in the beginning they may not tell you unless you go through the sequence.

Let’s say they said money, then you apply the logical close.

THE LOGICAL CLOSE

“So you think it’s the money, is that right? I totally understand. If it wasn’t for that you would go ahead, is that right?

“Well just so I am clear on that, why is it that you think it’s too expensive?

(B) Well we only wanted to pay $25,000 and this is 29,000. (If they don’t say this and are confused you say the following.)

“How much is it than you wanted to spend? What is your maximum amount you could go to?”

Just so I am clear on this, why do you feel 25,000 is your maximum amount, I’m just curious?”

Let them answer. If the price is $29,000 proceed to the next step.

“So what we are really talking about here is $4,000. It is just $4,000 more than you want to spend. Is that right?

Let me ask you something? How many years do you plan to have the loan, 5 years? Let’s look at this amount over 5 years. Do you know that you would be paying about $X a year? That’s about $X a week.

Do you think if you budgeted you could save that? I mean really is it worth not owning the car that you really love for $X a week?

The beauty of this close is it makes it clear for them it’s not $29,000, it’s $4,000 more than they wanted.

YOU CAN USE THE LOGICAL CLOSE FOR A HOST OF THINGS (NOT JUST MONEY)

THE STORY CLOSE

A true story about someone who was like them but went ahead and is now happy.

“I completely understand. I had (or our manager had, or one of our people had, or I heard about) a person who was exactly in the same position as you.

They were very reluctant to proceed because (repeat the same objection they had).

You know what happened to them? (Tell them the story and how they rationalized the decision and how happy they are now.)

Remember it’s easier to tell someone something about someone else than to give advice.

7. Buyers Remorse

If you are selling a high priced item then your client has just made one of the biggest decisions of their life. You need to pre-empt what they may feel so it does not take them off guard.

“Now I am going to let you in on a little secret. Tonight you might go home and look at each other and go, “what have we done?” If you do, it only means one thing – you are completely normal.

Because everyone does it. It’s completely normal and it’s called buyers remorse.

I remember when I bought a house I sat awake with buyers remorse but I am so glad I went ahead because everything turned out just fine.

Don’t worry about it you have made the right decision.”

8. Follow Up

Call them the next day with any new information that you have or anything that may be helpful.

This serves two needs.

It gives good service and it allows you to gauge how they are doing.

9. Referrals

After 5 years, a professional salesperson should be making the majority of their sales from referrals. However you cannot wait for referrals. You have to work them.

Try this very powerful idea:

Post a list of 25 magazines on a very beautifully crafted form.

On this form let your buyer/seller know precisely what service you have rendered them.

It’s no point telling people how great you were.

YOU HAVE TO BE SPECIFIC!

Most people do not know what you did or what was your point of difference. Over the next few weeks/ months/ years, (when you call) you are going to keep pointing out these specifics and what incredible service you provided.

You are going to SPELL OUT your point of difference!

Then thank them. As a way of appreciating them, tell them you would like to offer this gift.

On the form include their name and a box next to each of the magazines. Offer them one free, year long, subscription to any magazine of their choice. All they have to do is tick the box and post back to you on the stamp addressed envelope that you included. (Aren’t you clever!)

See if you can get the newsagency to include a “with compliments” with your name or you can take delivery and post them out yourself.

Even if you don’t take this step and the magazine comes to them directly, who do you think they are going to think about every time that magazine turns up? That’s 12 contacts a year!

Remember on the day you post the offer to them, phone and tell them what you are doing. In a week or a month you have a genuine reason to call them and ask if the subscription is still coming through.

This incredibly powerful idea creates incredible service and a friend for life. You have to periodically ask them if there is anyone they know whom you could to contact for you.

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