Continuing our series on control, we come to another reason that control is of such vital importance: you won’t reach the win-win of a closed sale without it.
First, let’s look at why you’re selling someone a product or service, to begin with. If you’re only doing it for your own money, you should find another line of work—for you should be selling to help someone else solve their problems.
The money you make is also important, obviously, but the better you’re able to help your prospects, the more money you’ll make. That’s why we say that an ideal sale is a win-win. It’s a win for your prospect because their problems are solved, and it’s a win for you because of that commission and your continued income.
Next, how does control come into this?
Control in sales, as we’ve been discussing this month, is done through the sales process. The process is how you positively control your prospect all the way to a close.
After you’ve researched your prospect, the next part of the sales process is the Contact and Interview step. It is in this stage you need to establish trust—for without trust, you’ll never make it through the rest of the steps. Without trust, your prospect is not going to reveal to you how they truly feel and what they’re thinking. If you don’t know that, you’re flying blind in trying to sell. When you do know that, you’re able to control the sale the rest of the way.
That trust is vital when you get to the next step, Qualify, at which you’re going to establish why they should buy, from their point of view. Next comes the Education step, where the prospect knows that your product or service will exceed their expectations, and the prospect is inspired to take action to obtain that product or service.
These steps deal intimately with learning the prospect’s problems and solving them. Positively steering the prospect in the right direction to deal with those problems is how you get to the close.
If you’ve maintained the right degree of control, when you arrive at the close, it really is a win-win. And that’s what you’re after!
