Part of the reason people panic is that selling seems like a mysterious process. We can solve that mystery. Selling is like any other journey: the territory you are covering may be new to you, but it has been travelled before, and there are certain steps you can take to clear the way.
Each step you take along the way matters. Let’s look more closely at the selling journey.
Building up
Selling a product or service is, in many ways, like a building project.
I have been involved in two major renovations for both a home and a commercial building. Here’s how the process unfolds:
1. You speak with an architect who presents you with some plans, drawings, or visual examples of what your home or building might look like.
2. Once you approve your plan, you seek a builder to do the construction.
3. If you want to approach the build with confidence, you’ll also want to be involved in the builder’s plans and timelines. Using excellent project management tools is key.
4. Still, even the best-laid plans sometimes change. You might go back and forth and change a few parts of the plan.
5. Even when you get started, you need to keep in mind the need to be flexible, adjust to shifting timelines, accommodate last-minute decisions, and possibly suffer some setbacks.
6. You need to be nimble, but it’s hard, because there is a lot at stake, financially and emotionally.
7. Soon enough though, you start to visualise the final product and then watch your home or building take shape. Finally, you see your completed project in front of your eyes. All of that planning has paid off.
Following a plan and actually building that home requires discipline and principles.
It’s the same with sales, which unfold in similar stages. With both types of projects, it is important, to begin with, the right mindset, so why don’t we do that when it comes to constructing a sale?
Why don’t we plan the process that will let us get the result we want? Most business owners jump in too quickly, assuming that their product is so magnificent that people should just buy it.
Or, they don’t bother to plan. Usually, salespeople do not follow any particular steps or processes on the way to the sale of that product.
If you look at sales the way you look at building your home, though, you will see that there are certain processes you have to follow to get a good result. It does not have to be a complicated process, but you do need a plan.
Knowing a few simple steps in the journey to your sales is all that is required.
If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?
My favourite thing to do is to show you what’s working right now. It’s not as good as being a client, but it’s close.
2. Take advantage of a FREE 45-minute consultation
Need some sales support? Make an appointment, and let me take you through the past, present, and future templates.
3. Work with me one-on-one.
If you are wanting to take your product or service from face-to-face to virtual selling, then I have a product that may be able to help you. You can get started for as little as $250 a month. If you’re interested then email mike@mikebrunel.com and put ‘Virtual Selling’ in the subject line…tell me a little about your business and I’ll get you all the details.
This week I wanted to share a question that one of my clients asked me in a call last week.
We were talking about ideas to motivate her team.
This was her question:
‘How do I get my team to think like me, or to at least follow some of my behaviours?’
We got talking about her love of reading; any books on business that she could get her hands on, she would read.
It was a habit she had learnt long ago, from one of her original managers.
She had discovered by reading these books, which shared successes in other companies, that she could apply many things she learned to her own business.
Start a library.
I said to her “why don’t you start a company library?”
She looked at me with a bit of a sideways glance, and said, “You aren’t serious?”
“Yes I am,” I said.
Not only start up a library but bribe them to read a book a month.
Tell them that you will pay a $50 bonus for every book report they submit each month.
It does not have to be a fifty-page novel, just a few pages on the key points they learnt from the book.
Whoever reads the most over the year, gets an iPad preloaded with a collection of both your, and their favourite books.
You will certainly notice a difference in their attitude.
It’s also a way to quietly bed down your culture.
The ones that you notice will go that extra mile and do the reading, are the people that you want in your organisation.
Have a great week.
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
My favourite thing to do is to show you what’s working right now. It’s not as good as being a client, but it’s close.
2. Take advantage of a FREE 45-minute consultation
Need some sales support? Make an appointment, and let me take you through the past, present, and future templates.
3. Work with me one-on-one.
If you are wanting to take your product or service from face-to-face to virtual selling, then I have a product that may be able to help you. You can get started for as little as $250 a month. If you’re interested then email mike@mikebrunel.com and put ‘Virtual Selling’ in the subject line…tell me a little about your business and I’ll get you all the details.
My favourite thing to do is to show you what’s working right now. It’s not as good as being a client, but it’s close.
2. Take advantage of a FREE 45-minute consultation
Need some sales support? Make an appointment, and let me take you through the past, present, and future templates.
3. Work with me one-on-one.
If you are wanting to take your product or service from face-to-face to virtual selling, then I have a product that may be able to help you. You can get started for as little as $250 a month. If you’re interested then emailmike@mikebrunel.comand put ‘Virtual Selling’ in the subject line…tell me a little about your business and I’ll get you all the details.
Cheers, Mike
Cheers, Mike
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
Last week we talked about the promise and painting a picture of a product we were selling.
Now I want to discuss proof.
You have to show them PROOF.
You have to prove to your client that what you have just said is true and you have to prove it to their satisfaction.
How do you do that?
Well in a funny kind of way you go back to the features, you know the blah, blah, blah bit.
Let me tell you about this electric bike, it uses rechargeable batteries that can travel up to 25 to 45 km/h, low cost, energy–efficient, and is emission-free.
You do it in the way of a summary.
The promise you made
The benefit you promised
The Proof
It might go like this:
“Here are some facts about the bike that support the promise we talked about” or “Let me tell you about this electric bike, it uses rechargeable batteries that can travel up to 25 to 45 km/h, low cost, energy–efficient, and emission-free.“
Build-in facts about the bike.
Or introduce a third party.
A satisfied customer – A testimonial from a happy customer that bought that exact bike.
Or Creditability- Health benefits, or facts from a local sports medicine person.
The key with proof is to build as much creditability that all the bases are covered.
Real people are the best.
Whatever proof you can put forward helps the sale move forward.
So what is next?
It’s pinpointing why this product is unique. It’s time to tell your client why this is the bike for them.
If you know some of the features of the bike are unique and they may not get these with other bikes, then this is when you position the uniqueness.
It’s called a unique sell proposition or commonly known as a USP and sits inside my Pitch perfect Programme.
This is when you can get the client really excited about your product.
They are now ready to buy.
In our last blog in this series, we talk about the Offer and the Close.
It’s really what you are here for, TRUE?
See you next week with the last two elements of the Structure of a Sale.
Mike (nearly there) Brunel.
PLUS, whenever you are ready…here are four ways I can help you grow YOUR business.
My favourite thing to do is to show you what’s working right now. It’s not as good as being a client, but it’s close.
2. Take advantage of a FREE 45-minute consultation
Need some sales support? Make an appointment, and let me take you through the past, present, and future templates.
3. Work with me one-on-one
If you are wanting to take your product or service from face-to-face to virtual selling, then I have a product that may be able to help you. You can get started for as little as $250 a month. If you’re interested then email mike@mikebrunel.com and put ‘Virtual Selling’ in the subject line…tell me a little about your business and I’ll get you all the details.
4. Finally, grab my new digital book on ‘How to get a predictable sales system into your business without coming across as salesy’
Cheers, Mike
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
In our last blog, we talked about the need to stop selling your stuff logically.
Too many salespeople get caught up in the features of a product vs the benefits.
The Promise.
Showing a client precisely what the benefits of the product are (in this case, an electric bike), is going to help him achieve what he wants.
Mr Client,
I’ve got some great news for you.
You can ride this bike, and you will never feel tired.
You will love riding this bike. It will feel like being a kid again.
You won’t have to worry about it breaking down.
It’s easy to go up those hills that you never thought you could do again; your experience will never be the same once you hop on this bike and go for your first ride.
You will be fitter, feel better and have lots of energy. It’s a fantastic bike.
This might seem a little over the top, but the message in your promise is to identify a fear or a desire and then tell them what it’s going to do for them – it’s about creating attention.
In this sales statement, you have created desire, and his or her life may never be the same. I know friends that have experienced this state of mind since owning an electric bike.
BUT right there is where the biggest mistake is made, the salesperson has created the desire and then BANG outcomes the close.
It’s often too early and does not follow the structure or the process. If you mention the price too soon, you may lose the sale, not all the time, but often.
There are always exceptions.
If the sale is being made off-site in advertising and promotion, then there is a real risk of losing the sale.
So, what do you do?
Create a picture.
You can do this in a couple of ways.
As the desire is met, you might get him or her to see the real picture. You might ask them to think of a place they would like to ride in the city they live in. Get them to imagine doing that, and paint a picture.
What you are doing for your client is showing what the bike will do for him/her and then getting them to see themselves reaping the benefits of your promise.
The next step is proof.
Like in any copywriting lesson, I have learnt proof plays a big part in the sale.
It’s often missing from the salespeople I come across, and sales are lost. They simply do not have proof in any form.
I can explain how to do that in the next blog next week.
PLUS: WHENEVER YOU’RE READY…
Here are 4 ways I can help you make more sales in your business – whether your business is big or small.1. Want to become a Sales Mindset Blueprint Member. Every month you get access to an exclusive coaching session with me and full access to my sales programme. Get the deets here.
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Join our private Facebook group – The Sales Mindset Inner Circle. Get all the latest up to date sales ideas. Every week we do Facebook Live updates on all things sales. Tips, ideas, free coaching, and much more. Join me by clicking here
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See you then,
Mike
Cheers, Mike
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
