I’m a bit of a rebel when it comes to the subject of sales techniques. For example, I am suspicious of those who provide “secrets” for closing sales. It’s a long story, but when I started out in sales, and I started to get my first “no’s,” it was hard not to wonder what I was doing wrong (or what I could do better) when a prospective customer didn’t end up buying. It has been decades since then, and I have come to know there is no real secret to sales success – except for one thing!
There is One Sales Technique that Makes a Big Difference…
Before I tell you what it is, remember that nothing (including sales techniques) exists in a vacuum. Though I do have a very important technique or tactic to tell you about, it will only work in an environment that supports it. For example, to say plants need “food” from photosynthesis to survive is true, but it misses the fact plants also need water and nutrients from soil to support that survival. So what’s the technique? You’ll be underwhelmed at first, but the answer is – Qualification.
My current list of prospects is so well qualified (after years of disciplined outreach and data collection), nothing else even comes close in terms of impacting our overall sales success. In a nutshell,
- Identify your target market.
- Make a list that includes your whole market or a manageable segment of it.
- Set up an array of “forms” of outreach (calls, mail, person-to-person, Internet, permission email, etc.).
- Interact with your targeted prospects on a repeating, disciplined and systematic basis.
- As you interact, seek current interest – and future interest. Learn what gives one prospect a higher long term potential than another.
- Take good notes! Use a contact management software that you can easily sort.
- Follow up with prospects in a systematic manner – and isolate targeted buying times.
- Seek to cultivate the better prospects on your list. Teach them who you are and how you can help them solve their problems.
- Refresh your system over time.
Now, as you see, there are a lot of other elements than qualification at work here. But the overall tactic is to build bridges with better and better qualified prospects over time. Through such long term activity and improved sales conditions, most of the other elements of selling will take care of themselves.
Don’t worry about how to sell a prospect who doesn’t want to buy with some “magic” closing technique. Instead, focus on cultivating a large list of qualified buyers. Who wants to sell ice cubes to people on the North Pole anyway? They’ll just return them to the store tomorrow! Instead, cultivate a farm full of extremely well qualified prospects. Individual sales techniques will fall in line from there.
