5 Words to a Sale

Need Sales? Remember These Five Words

If you ask a sales rep, “How did you get that account?” you are likely to get one of two answers, based on one key factor:

• Low profit account: “I got into a bidding war and won the business.”
• High profit account: “I got into a sales conversation and earned the business”

High profit accounts abound. They are everywhere around you. You’ve heard me give tips where I will read about some trend in the Wall Street Journal. Or perhaps the time I told you a story of a rep who was volunteering and met the president of a major corporation. Well, here’s another idea for you: Use these five words …

First two: “How’s business?”

Everyone loves talking about themselves. We are our own favorite subject. To be brutally honest, while people may or may not care about you, they definitely do not care about print, labels, packaging, or promotional products nearly as much as you do. What they care about is themselves, their business, and their business challenges. These two words unlock a magic door. Behind that door are myriad opportunities for profitable solutions.

Let’s say you walk into your bank and you bump into the assistant manager. “How’s business?” You ask. The manager replies, “We are seeing an uptick in lobby traffic no doubt as a result of the increased number of full vaccinations. With interest rates so low, we are excited about the opportunity to help our individual and business customers with their financial needs.”

Two words. Just two words — How’s business? — resulted in an avalanche of opportunity. This bank manager needs to get the word out. You have a chance to sell window clings and banners and perhaps a mailing piece or two.

But … Before you launch into your solution, here are three more words to use: “Tell me more.”

Rather than jump on this opportunity and immediately start talking options, take the time to practice good listening skills. “Tell me more” can be taken literally or figuratively. That is, you could say, “What have you done in the past?” Or “Are there any plans in place already?” As a way to take a deeper dive into this opportunity. Doing so might result in something like, “Yes, although the vendor we have used in the past has been a complete disaster. They were the lowest price but as they say, you get what you paid for.”

Three words. Just three words — Tell me more — and you just picked up two incredibly valuable pieces of information. First, they will not likely be going back to that same vendor. Second, somewhere down the road, when you get the “Your price is too high  compared to what we are paying now” objection, you now have serious ammunition as a comeback: “I believe you told me you were dissatisfied with your current vendor and, in your words, “You get what you pay for. Yes, we are more expensive. However, we will get the job done correctly. Isn’t that worth the extra cost?”

The best of the best sales people don’t really sell sometimes. What they do is get the client talking and keep the client talking. As my father once told me, “you learn nothing with your mouth open.” Fight the urge to sell. Instead, start the conversation and keep it going.

Tell me more. Tell me more. Tell me more.

Live Workshops. Weekly peer discussions. On demand sales courses. Archived content organized by sales challenge. That’s The Sales Vault and it is only $35/month. Go to SalesVaultInsider.com for more or call Bill Farquharson at 781-934-7036.