The Professional Selling Process

The Fast Track to More Clients

The Professional Selling Process

The final Step of the Marketing Ball is the selling process. Selling (in this model) is not another marketing principle, but actually another tactic that moves a prospect around the bases. Selling is the tactic, or process, that moves a prospect from, second base to third base and then back to home base.

You might have used several marketing tactics and action plans to get prospects to second base, but you’ll generally use pretty much the same selling process to turn prospects into clients – no matter how they got to second base. Of course, the process might vary some, depending on the service you are selling.

You’ll use marketing syntax and marketing currency in selling, just as with all the other marketing tactics. And there are important sub-steps in the selling process as well (the ‘Micro Game’).

In order to move from second base to third base you will need to follow three main steps: a) learning about the situation (past and present) of your prospect, b) uncovering the objectives or desired future of your prospect, and, c) presenting the approach or solution (your professional services) you use to move a prospect from where they are to where they want to be.

Once you are all on third base, your prospect should want to buy from you. They want to become a client. But before they do they need to go from third base to home, and through at least three other steps: a) First, you will want to agree on the next steps – who will do what and by when? b) Next, you might need to put together a proposal that summarizes what you’ve agreed to (sometimes this step is not necessary; sometimes it is hugely complex). c) Finally, you need to get paid, and get started.

In this session, we’ll cover the most important aspects of each of these points. It’s important to remember, however, that this course is more focused on marketing than on selling. I’d highly recommend several books on selling that will be listed at the end of this workbook.

From Second Base to Third Base

Perhaps the most important thing to understand, before the selling process starts is to know that a prospect is solidly on second base. If you start the sales process too soon, you’ll undermine all your efforts up to this point. Someone is on second base when they are ready to explore working with you. For them to have gotten to this stage, several other things needed to have happened.

They need to have passed through all of the stages from home to second base. You should have created some kind of affiliation and gotten their initial attention. You would have developed some degree of familiarity and provided a certain amount of information. They should now feel that they have an experience of you – and feel as if they know you, like you, and trust you.

On this foundation, sales become a lot easier. If you rush people to second base before you’ve accomplished these objectives, the marketing process is incomplete. It will be hard to do what you need to do during the sales process. You’ll find they need more information, or don’t have a good sense of who you are and what your business is about.

So don’t rush anyone to second base. Getting to second base can actually take relatively little time if your service is simple and inexpensive. It can take much more time if it’s complex and expensive.

The most important thing, perhaps, to remember is that you must have a good sense of what a prospect needs to know before they enter the selling conversation.

Once you are solidly on second base, you are ready to start selling. Unfortunately, selling has a bad name – worse than marketing. We equate selling with pressure and manipulation, but real selling is far from that. It’s simply a conversation to discover if you can help a prospect or not.

At this point, the prospect should know more about you than you do about them. They have been the recipient of your marketing messages and information, and might know a lot about your services. So, your first job in the selling process is to find out more about them and their situation. And you do that by asking questions.

At this stage, I won’t go into all the subtleties of rapport, body language, and tone of voice. All of these are important, but we’ll assume that you have made a good connection, and that you feel comfortable with each other.

The Prospect’s Situation

The first questions you ask will be about the prospect’s situation, both past and present. You want to get a sense of who they are, what they are going through, what’s working for them, and what’s not working for them. You don’t necessarily want to ask questions solely about the issue for which you provide a service, but questions that will give you a sense of who they are, and what they are about.

Your goal here is to determine the ‘pain’ the prospect is experiencing – where they are stuck, what’s not working, etc. If you’ve done your marketing right, the prospect will open up about these things. If you have jumped to second base too quickly, they are less likely to open up; they won’t be aware of their problem yet, and won’t be seeking a solution.

Your questions are a conversation, not a ‘grilling’. Take it easy. Show that you are a safe person to talk to. Show real interest. Ask good follow-up questions. Share a story, where appropriate. But do not, in any circumstances, talk about your services, and how you can help them. Back off. This part is about them, not you. Forget about you. At this point you can’t entirely know if you can help them or not.

The Prospect’s Outcome or Future

Once you know a prospect’s past and present, you want to know their future. When asking a prospect about their desired outcomes or future, they use a different part of the brain. It’s easier to recall past situations, or to describe present problems, than it is to imagine a desired future. So take your time. There is no hurry.

The first part of the objectives conversation might go something like this:

“Now that I have a better idea of your situation, and some of the challenges you’re facing, I’d like to talk about the results or objectives you’d like to achieve. What do you want things to be like? How do you want things to change?”

What you’re trying to do is help the prospect come up with clearly defined objectives that are measurable or observable. If they don’t immediately come up with objectives, you might need to prompt the prospect with ideas.

How you get to outcomes is to dig deeper when a prospect tells you what they want. It is rare that a prospect will tell you their exact objectives early in the conversation. They might not be sure themselves. Or they simply might be thinking of getting rid of an existing problem. For instance, the conversation might, up to this point, be about productivity (or the lack thereof).

Problem: Productivity is down.

Your Solution: Workshop that increases productivity.

Hmm, that sounds good. But it’s not. Even though the problem is stated as productivity being down, that is not their stated outcome. In questioning the prospect it might go something like this:

“You say your productivity is down. If you look down the road a year from now, what do you want to see in terms of productivity?”

“I want to see better productivity.”

“And what would that look like? How could we measure it?”

“I’d like to see revenue increase by 20%, with less than a 5% increase in overheads.”

Now, that’s their desired outcome or future!

Productivity is abstract. A revenue increase of 20% is concrete. So what you’ll be helping this client do is increase their revenue by 20%. That’s your objective. That’s what you are selling to this prospect.

During the objectives or future part of the selling conversation you might emerge with several concrete objectives. This is what you want. If a prospect is clear, not only about their problems but also about their objectives, they are much closer to doing business with you.

Presenting Your Services

Once you know a prospect’s situation and desired objectives, you are ready to present your services. That is, you are ready to tell the prospect what you can do for them. However what you are able to present depends on the situation.

If you are working with an individual prospect, it won’t take as much time. If you are working with a larger organization, it can take quite a lot of time. In fact, you might need to return to do a presentation. But in most cases you should be able to give a pretty concise overview of what you do, and then, if required, follow up with a proposal.

Your presentation should always start with an overview of the objectives the client wishes to achieve. Then you say, “To achieve these objectives this is what I recommend we do…”

What you offer might be a program, it might be a series of sessions, it might be a project, or it might be a long-term service provided daily, weekly or monthly. You should already have a good idea of the services you offer. You should have them packaged and clearly outlined. Ideally, you will have your services outlined in writing.

You should already be clear on the price with regard to some services. Your price will work for most prospects. In some cases, especially with big projects, you will have to think more about the parameters of your service and the price, and prepare them in a proposal.

Closing

Once you’ve presented your services, it’s time to close. This is the time to get agreement from the prospect to move ahead. Closing is not hard. It’s just asking. If you’ve done everything right up to this point, all you need to do is ask a closing question along the lines of:

“How does that sound to you?”

“Where would you like to go from here?”

“I could start as soon as next week. How does that sound?”

“The fee for this would be $X. Does that work for your budget?”

One rule of closing: Make sure you are ready to close. That is, do everything as outlined, build agreement step-by-step, and when the prospect understands what you are offering and that it will meet their objectives, it’s time to close.

Learning Points

Selling starts at second base. How well you perform your marketing activities and move a prospect around the bases will determine how easy or how hard the selling process is.

The first part of the selling process is ‘situation and challenges’ where you ask questions to learn about your prospect. The key is to dig deep, and discover the pain they are experiencing. Admission of pain is the first step in taking action to make things better.

The second part of the selling process is ‘outcomes and future’ where you ask questions to learn where the prospect wants to go. Again, you need to dig deep, and prompt a prospect to learn what their true objectives and ideal future are. Ultimately, this is what you’re selling to your prospect.

The third part of the selling process is ‘presenting your services’ where you outline what you can do for the prospect. This is the first time in the sales conversation where you should talk about you and what you can do for the prospect. Your presentation is also the shortest part of the sales process. It needs to be focused, concise, and based on how you will achieve the prospect’s objectives.

The final part of the sales process is the ‘close’ where you invite the prospect to make a decision to move forward. Closing is not difficult, if you have prepared the rest of the sales process effectively enough. Many times the prospect will close for you, asking you what the next steps are.

Action Plan Exercise #8

1. Map out your selling process as follows:

a) Questions about the prospect’s situation and challenges.

b) Questions about the prospect’s desired outcomes and future.

c) An outline for presenting your methodology, approach, or process.

d) Your close or call-to-action.

End