This story is one we hear over and over in our SALES CPR Clinics. Salespeople hate objections or shall we say resist them.
When you talk with someone and they are in strong disagreement with you, can you feel it? Even if they do not express disagreement, you can feel that something is wrong. Prospects resist salespeople by expressing objections, which act like disagreements. Salespeople resist this and also disagree with the objections. This creates quite a mess in the sales process.
Let’s apply COMPETENCE to this situation: Competence comes from KNOWING and experiencing the following key points for yourself:
1. That the sales and buying process are both reactive.
2. That prospects react to salespeople and resist the sales process.
3. That the key to melting away the resistance is to welcome the prospect using great manners and giving them the importance they deserve.
4. That prospects truly are interested in the product or service, otherwise, they would not have come to the appointment or showed up in your business.
5. That the salesperson’s job is to guide the prospect COMPETENTLY through the sales process following the steps exactly.
6. That competence means each step is professionally done and fully completed.
7. That each step of the sales process sets up the foundation for the next step to be effective.
8. That the relationship between marketing and sales and the information exchange between them is vital and that good marketing and sales material comes from this relationship.
9. That the key to being competent in the sales process includes drilling each step to professional standards especially the use of marketing and sales materials to support the case for your products and services throughout the process.
Summary:
Between the marketing-sales relationship and company strategy, you should always be several steps ahead of the competition. If you’ve created a situation in which your competition is happy being number 2, then you’re doing well being competent as a company and a sales team. This competence includes understanding your existing customers, how they are using your products and services along with their results and successes.
This is the CASE for the next prospect to become a customer. Marketing and Sales work together to create this case with all the facts/truth about you, your company, and products/services.
Marketing then develops the materials for the salesperson to SHOW the prospect not just tell them. This gives you and your team a powerful, consistent message that melts away prospect resistance with COMPETENCE.
