So you think you can dance?
That's what you're doing every time you show up to a webinar, conference call, or in-person meeting without following the steps in the exact (in)correct order I'm about to show you.
The typical salesperson thinks their 8th grade English teacher's advice about writing a paper applies to making a sale...
Now class, your assignment for this week is to write a three-page paper with a nice beginning, a warm middle, and clear ending."
Or you believe your high school speech coach was giving you advice on how to sell.
Now calm down you rapscallions. Here's how you give a speech. You to tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em. Then tell 'em. Then tell 'em what you told 'em. Got it?"
In sales you also have a beginning, a middle, and an end except your beginning is what your prospect is thinking is the end.
Wait, Wes...what?"
You heard me right.
EAT YOUR DESSERT BEFORE YOUR SALAD!!!"
I'm not only giving you permission to have dessert first—I'm telling you that you need to if you want to make every sale.
Okay, Wes...what's the dessert?"
The best part of a deal to a salesperson is not the actual order.
Sometimes it's a real pain running credit cards, filling out paperwork, working out payment plans, reviewing the billing policy, the terms and conditions, the extended warranty, the shipping dates, etc, etc, etc.
That's why car dealers have people for that. It's why real estate professionals have transaction coordinators and closers, etc.
The best part of the deal is when your prospect says
I'll take it."
That's the dessert!
But in order to get them to say they'll take it you need to get them to say what they need to see first in order to be confident in saying "I'll take it."
If you don't know what your prospect needs to see in order to make a decision—even a "no" decision—you're not a professional salesperson.
You're more of a professional visitor, a hoper, a dreamer, a shoot-from-the-hipper, a make-it-up-as-we-goer, charm-them-to-the-maybe-closer.
Good luck with that.
Professional salespeople close first then present. (But even the presentation isn't what you think it is and it certainly isn't what your prospect thinks it will be. In order to prove you're different from all the other dirtbag sales snakes out there you gotta act different. Including how you present.)
Wait, Wes, I'm so confused. You say you don't like the paperwork and running cards, etc. but you're just going to get their money?...up front...then present?...present what? Ugh!"
I'm way ahead of ya. Stay with me here.
Scroll up a few paragraphs and re-read the part about knowing what your prospect needs to see in order to make a decision before you start.
Heck, you need to know that before you even schedule a webinar or meeting.
So the close is really two parts, and neither include money:
- Close for an answer on what they need to see.
- Close for a commitment to give you a definitive answer on how they'd like to proceed once the meeting is over.
This is what professional salespeople do, and they do it without you even noticing.
That's why I say there are two types of sales:
- The easy ones, and
- Those you don't get.
I sing and dance with my wife and my kids and my friends for fun.
Heck, I'm married now for 25 years with 7 kids because I can dance. (I met my wife, father-in-law, and brother-in-law at a country bar and we danced twice a week for months before our first date.)
I don't sing and dance for prospects.
Are you ready to hang up your dancing shoes?
Market like you mean it.
Now go sell something.
