Để tải về bấm vào đây: Bộ tài liệu quy trình quản lý nhân sự
‘You need to think, and thinking well is the hardest thing in the world to do.’ —Vivian Gornick I was sitting on a balcony above a sea of heads, close to the edge, looking down on a lit stage. The speakers were going to come on soon, one after the other, to tell stories […]
In sales, your customers are your toughest critics. Wary that they may be charmed into purchasing snake oil, they immediately put up their guard and find any excuse not to spend their hard-earned money. But smart entrepreneurs and salespeople find ways to build rapport with potential customers and then demonstrate the value of their product or service.To become more skilled at generating buy-in with prospects and consistently close sales, here are five tips to sell smarter.
1. Explore their latent needs.
Customers do not always know how to articulate their needs. While they may say that they want to grow their Facebook fan base, their biggest priority may be to improve their organic reach.
Learn how to identify latent needs, and find opportunities to make users more successful at their job. With a deeper understanding of what your customers truly care about, you can spot the items that are real deal breakers and remove them from the conversation.
2. Ease concerns with case studies and testimonials.
Sometimes, clients have a hard time imagining how they may be able to apply a new process or technology to their business. Although the value of your offering seems obvious to you, it may feel obscure to a customer. Consequently, buyers become skeptical.
“If you have doubts and concerns when you make a major purchase, it is safe to assume the same things happen with some of your prospects,” says Nan Hruby of HNH Sales Training. To overcome buyer reservations, share stories or collateral that detail how your other clients have benefited from your product or service. Affirmation that other businesses use and extract value from your offerings make customers more open to change.
Similarly, if your client feels she is among peers, she will feel much more comfortable with agreeing to your proposal. Hruby knows, “Sometimes just showing the prospect a list of the companies or customers you’ve done work for in the past is enough to put the prospect’s mind at ease.”
3. Sell less.
When price is a primary concern, find ways to accommodate your customer’s budget. Many times, a simple solution is reducing the quantity of work proposed to bring down your client’s total cost.
Jim Herst, CEO of Perceptive Selling Initiative, Inc., recommends selling clients on smaller projects first to open up a window of opportunity later. Herst calls this a “foot-in-the-door” approach. By securing a small commitment upfront, you get a “yes” from clients now who will be more likely to sing the same tune when you pitch follow-up engagements.
4. Explain the consequences of inaction.
To motivate your customers to take a certain action, you must first explain what can happen when they fail to act. Because people are inclined to insure against negative consequences, you can strike an emotional chord by detailing what could happen if a customer does not follow through with your latest recommendation.
Threats companies may face include: competitive forces, lackluster sales, a steeper learning curve later and more. Businesses should know that if they reject your proposition now, they will spend more time and money later, cleaning up their mess.
5. Educate your customers.
Bring clients back to the middle of the sales funnel. If they are not yet ready to give you a confident “yes,” spend more time educating customers about the value you offer. Avoid pushing a hard sell and use email marketing and retargeting ads to share information and materials customers can review to help them reach a favorable decision about working with you. This approach allows them to progress through the sales funnel at their own pace.
When you’re competing in an extremely crowded marketplace, how do you stand out? That was the question one reader, who owns a print shop, emailed me recently. He counts at least 10 competitors in just a five-mile radius.
“Marketing in a mature industry like printing is tough, since we don’t really do anything cutting edge,” he told me. “Beyond platitudes of ‘we provide quality at a great price,’ I’m at a loss when it comes to marketing.”
In any competitive marketplace, the thing you must avoid at all costs is becoming a commodity — a random, faceless provider who will suffice if the price is low enough. If there’s no customer loyalty, you’re always at risk of being undercut. But even in mature industries, as I describe in my book Stand Out, there are ways to differentiate your product or service.
Start by thinking of the providers that you choose to patronize as a customer. Why do you give them your business? What keeps you coming back? That may hold clues to help you determine your unique advantages.
Related: Don’t Declare War. Respect Competitors, and Capitalize on Your Own Strengths.
Here are five ways you can stand out amongst your competitors.
1. Superior customer service
Every business likes to claim it provides great customer service. But think about the best customer service you’ve ever received. Do your employees know customers’ names? Facts about their businesses and families? Do they know your customers’ unique challenges or preferences?
Almost every morning, I go to a shop in Manhattan called Juice Generation for my breakfast; they know my preferred order and start making it the moment I walk in the door. It’s a form of recognition and service that I appreciate it as a customer, and it keeps me coming back. Could your business learn to do the same?
2. Superior customer experience
If customer service is about executing the basics well, customer experience is about raising the bar and providing meaningful flourishes that others do not. Think about the car dealer that provides lattes and comfortable leather chairs for people waiting on an oil change, rather than the typical spartan chambers with old magazines that most offer. Can you provide amenities that make the process of visiting your business more enjoyable?
3. Superior service offerings
In a mature industry, it may seem like the options for innovation are limited. (It’s not like you’re going to invent a new smartphone or virtual reality device.) But if you truly listen to your customers, they may give you hints about offerings that are valuable to them. How can you take the benefits that matter to them, and expand them in a meaningful way? Every pizzeria vowed to work fast but Domino’s put a 30-minute guarantee on it. Could you guarantee some element of speed, accuracy or delivery? Could you offer extra services that others are not (like delivering coffee and bagels alongside the conference reports you’re printing, so your customers can concentrate on the meeting and not the logistics)?
Related: What You Need to Know About Your Competitors to Beat Them
4. Superior quality
There are easily a dozen coffee shops within a five-minute walk of my apartment, but I choose the same one every day, because I’m convinced they’re the best. (Incidentally, that means that within reason – even up to a 30 percent or so premium – I’m willing to pay more for it.) How can you drive your business’s reputation as being the quality provider? You could create ironclad guarantees — no errors, or it’s free. You could expand your staff training, and then advertise that as a selling point: We train our employees twice as long as our competitors, so we have the most knowledgeable staff in the entire region. You could offer your services for free to a marquee client on the condition that you can advertise that fact: We’re so accurate, we’re the choice of the IRS/Fort Knox/whoever absolutely must be accurate. Getting known for your quality is a powerful investment in your business’s success.
5. Superior data
Finally, data can become your competitive advantage. That may sound overwhelming for entrepreneurs running smaller businesses, but big data fueled by supercomputers isn’t the only game in town. Something as simple as an accurate customer database can be a powerful tool for you. Far too many businesses wish and hope that customers will come through the door, but don’t take the steps to build ongoing relationships, and let them slip away anonymously. Encouraging customers to share their contact information with you — and giving them a good reason to do so, like genuinely useful reports or e-books or coupons –gives you a powerful way to learn more about them, stay in touch with them, and service their needs better.
For entrepreneurs, competition is always fierce and sometimes it can seem that we have few options to differentiate ourselves. But using these strategies, there are often more possibilities than we may initially imagine.
haibull 