Telling stories is an excellent teaching tool to use in many fields, especially sales. At one of our recent workshops on pain, a participant from a technology company shared a story about an experience he had in a large television store. This person went to the store to learn more about flat screen TVs, with no intention of buying. I just wanted more information so I could make an informed decision when it came time to buy a TV and get the best deal online, not in a store.
When our participant entered the store, he was immediately greeted by a salesperson, and before he knew it, the salesperson told him all about the great features and benefits of each widescreen TV. The seller never asked a single question about why he was visiting the store, or if he had even been there before. The salesman was nice, but he never discovered any pain. All he did was say, “Can I help you?”, And then he proceeded to “spill his candy all over the lobby,” and gave our participant all the ammo he needed to get his best deal online. The seller never had a chance to close the deal.
Too often, vendors try to spill their candy in the lobby for a living. They throw free information and advice and their own time, money and resources against a wall in the hope that something will stick. “If I attend enough networking events, if I make enough new calls for prospects, if I talk enough about my product, if I ask enough people if they need this for their business, and if I make enough cold calls, then I will be successful.”
The numbers game is one way you can focus your career, but it takes a lot of work and is often time-consuming. On the other hand, the Sandler System is about working smarter, not harder. Also, if you combine the same tenacity and work smartly to uncover the pain of a potential customer, you will become a Robo-Salesperson. Armed with new and effective questioning strategies and proven sales techniques, you’ll discover prospect issues and deep-seated emotional needs, pains, and desires for solutions (the ones you can provide). This will result in a dramatic increase in your sales and reduce your work time and accompanying stress.
Another participant in our Sandler sales program sells meters to machine shops and other businesses. This guy is very meticulous and had a telephone prospecting system that he followed diligently, but when he left messages, very few would return his calls. Sounds familiar? Well this guy signed up for our advanced training program and carefully followed all of his results. This is what he found:
After the first year of learning the Sandler Sales System, your machine shop sales market experienced a 5% decline, however, your personal sales increased 28.6%. Since he was working on a fixed commission, his personal income increased by the same amount. So his income went from $ 93,000 to $ 119,598. Our sales manager attributed this to learning how to leave an effective voicemail message, encouraging his potential customers to call back, and it worked. After his second year on the Sandler course, his sales were up another 32.3% and his income increased to $ 158,228. Why? He became more effective at closing deals. In the first two years of the training program, he had increased his commissions by 70%. In short, none of your successes would have happened without learning how to uncover the pain of your prospects.
By the way, if you’re one of those people who believe that “you can’t teach old dogs new tricks,” check this out. This guy was not a boy. He was in his 50s when he started learning the Sandler style and he still made those drastic improvements. I am pleased to say that 14 years later, he continues to attend and take advantage of our President’s Club classes. This sales leader is committed to staying at the forefront of his industry’s sales knowledge curve and providing for his family, himself, and his own retirement.