If you have not done enough probing to help your prospect make a positive buying decision several options exist, here are two: The summary might sound like this: In food service sales, we cannot be among the 62%. It's my belief that we should add a line on each call until our competition is completely out of the account. Naturally, we do this to limit competitive impact on the account. But we also do it to insure the client is getting the quality and value he or she deserves. The only way we can accomplish this it to take responsibility for the entire order and to do that we have to ask for it. There are some sales people who don't ask for the commitment and they leave prospects in the position of living with the negative consequences that have been uncovered. These sales people do this not because the prospect wouldn't buy but because they would rather take what the prospect would give rather than giving what ever it takes to do what is right. Here's some direction; We must be committed to doing what is necessary to help the customer make the right decision and occasionally that will call for us to stretch our comfort zones and ask a few more questions which help the customer to reexamine his inclination not to buy or to avoid a buying decision. "What else could they be doing, if your people didn't spend 30 minutes a day prepping boiled eggs?" In food service, we depend on long term relationships, not deals. You want to "open accounts," rather than "close deals." There is no place in our relationships for manipulative hard closers. 3. Most people are less satisfied with decisions that they feel they have been pressured to make. Customers in the food service industry will typically resist when faced with sales pressure. "How much do you think it's costing you to live with this situation?" "You look like you still have questions. What have I failed to explain?" A major study published in Sales and Marketing Management magazine found that 62% of sales people do not ask for a commitment or an action step before they conclude a sales call! The sales process is like that. We earn the commitment based on the relationship we have built through the previous steps we have taken with the prospect. And just like the courting process, your confidence will grow as the relationship deepens. There is a dangerous business myth going around which says, "the customer is always right." The simple fact is the customer seldom knows as much about our products as we do. They prefer do keep doing what they have always done. So how can he always be right? And because we talk to so many people in his business,Cheap Earl Thomas Jersey, we probably understand the subtleties of what the prospect is doing or failing to do better than he or she can ever imagine. The rules of the game are changing so fast in the business and they are becoming so complex that if the customer is right about 20% of the time, he is probably doing better than most. Bottom line, the customer can't always be right. "How many people do you have to serve to make $40?" 1. Probe to add value. When the prospect will not move to the next step, it means you have missed something in the sales process. We build "value" or the desire to change by asking good probing questions. First, you must identify needs, "How do you prep your boiled eggs for your chef salads?" Then you identify the consequences of those needs, "What happens when you get slammed at lunch and run out of prepped eggs?" or "How long does it take to boil and shell that many eggs." If you "summarize," as we discussed above, you should be clear on the benefits you bring to the prospect and you can be genuinely expect the prospect to say "Yes." Prepare well and do what is right for the prospect, without pressure. When you doubt the prospect is ready to buy, it will show and the customer can read the non-verbal "doubt." They will not "read your mind" but they can read the doubt or lack of confidence in your face, your voice, your attitude etc. And if they read "concern", they will wonder why and they will be less willing to commit. In training classes, I usually ask many of the males, "When you proposed to your spouse did you know her answer before you asked?" With few exceptions, the response is that they knew she was going to say "Yes." The next question is "Did she say, 'Yes' because of a tricky closing technique you read in a book?" Naturally, the answer is "No." She agreed to marry us because of the relationship we have built leading up to the time we asked for a commitment. Expect your prospect to say, "Yes." People resent being pushed and feel that if pressure must be used to sell the product, then there must be something wrong with it. Under those conditions, customers begin to search for what is wrong with the proposal. They begin to make objections or look for reasons to put off the decisions. "Let me think about it." We have to get a commitment from our prospects, we must ask for the commitment. But we don't have to draw blood to do it, especially if we have gained acknowledgment on needs and consequence throughout the sales process. B) Go back to the area of the sales conversation, where you last got support from the prospect and ask a needs consequence question? This step will take you back into the information gathering phase of the sales call and allow you to find more areas that will help to justify the change for the prospect. The needs consequence question may be enough to remind the prospect of how important it is to find the solution and buy. In a massive survey performed by the Forum Corporation, they discovered that the successful sales professionals seldom use a forced "close" at the end of the sale. It was their finding that since the prospect was continually confirming or acknowledging the sale throughout the sales process,Cheap Rickey Jackson Jersey, no "close," in the traditional sense, was required. You are trying to build long term relationships with repeat customers and successful partnerships are seldom built on the steam and hot air that comes from pressure. We never want a situation where our customers are looking for reasons for the relationship to fail. Action Steps for closing with integrity; "We agreed that it's costing you $40 a week right now. How much does that add up to for 52 weeks a year?" 2. Hard sales "Closing Techniques" will be counterproductive when long-term relationships, like those with our food service clients, are desired. "Tell me about your concerns?" 4. Summarize. Before asking for the order, help your prospect make the right decision by reviewing the consequences they can expect when they buy from you. The prospect will often forget how the benefits of doing business with you will effect his organization and it is your job to remind him. The probability is that the prospect is thinking about all kinds of things when he or she is considering making a commitment. He or she may very easily loose focus on the needs that will be affected and the value of solving those needs. There is no place in our relationships for manipulative hard closers. Summarize the benefits of your offering. -0- We have to give the prospect an opportunity to recall and reinforce in their minds the reasons for buying. We do this by reviewing or summarizing the important consequences they can expect when they buy this product, and we do this, just before we ask for the buying commitment. A) You can ask the prospect to explain the concerns that may be keeping them from making a positive buying decision? While we will certainly ask our customers to buy, we must concentrate on maintaining the relationship more than making a "deal." "What questions do you still have about this idea?" When the prospect acknowledges the cost or consequence of the problem, he or she will more easily justify the change and buy from you. "We have talked about several advantages of precooked bacon and before we proceed much further, I'd like to review what we have covered so far. First, we have found that 20% of your bacon usage comes after the breakfast rush. This currently slows down the flow of orders from the kitchen. Second,..... and finally, you will have much more space in your cooler. Are those the most significant values we have agreed precooked bacon can bring to you?" Probe to build value. 5. Expect your prospects to say,Cheap Michael Turner Jersey, "Yes." You can improve your chances of making the sale by going in with the right attitude. This is especially true when you have earned the right to ask by performing the other steps of the sales process. At the same time, when a decision is right for the customer and right for your organization, then it is your responsibility to somehow help the customer recognize reasons to buy from you. If you don't, you are doing a disservice to the customer as well as yourself...It has to do with personal integrity. Customers or prospects resist and resent sales pressure.