Certainty breeds trust
One of the first things that we need to understand is that we need to have a level of certainty that is going to allow the prospect to overcome their fear and hesitation at the time of making a commitment to buy.
The way that we can deliver the certainty is by:
1. knowing our scripting inside out.
It’s our job as professionals to know your scripts so well that we don’t have to make the presentation scripted.
2. knowing the value proposition inside out as well
HAving questions on demand or having even used the product or service before makes you a walking testimonial. Do you remember the ZigZiglar story about when he was helping his reps sell their kitchenware and he got the rep to buy a set…we need to go there first if possible
3. Precall congruence
Tony Robbins used to write out 16 questions why his prospect would benefit from his Jim Rohn tapes before an appointment and would be so pumped speaking to his prospects Try writing this out for your gig :
4, Use NLP to become as confident as you can. The best NLP school out there for me is https://selfconcept.com/. You can actually create mental databases of being a quality you wish to possess…its pretty wild
Avoid being scripty on the presentation
Many of us fall into automatic piloting during a presentation. So make sure that your basic scripted presentation is solid but be prepared to personalise the script a little bit ensuring that you are using the verbiage that the prospect has used during the call.
So that the presentation makes sense I would recommend working with a coach or rely on somebody’s battle tested script to ensure the presentation is impactful.
Two big pitfalls are making it too long and sound like a feature dump and secondly you know it so well you speed up and it gets rattled out and sounds salesy.
Deal with uncertainty on the spot
between pillars/features ask tie in questions and then you are listen More for the nonverbals such as Oh yeah, it kinda makes sense or they don’t sound too sure
Comment on their hesitancy …’ you sounded a bit unclear on that. But what’s with that? ‘
And then make sure that you use committing questions at the end of the presentation so that they are telling themselves and reminding themselves very quickly Why the offer The features can help Get from a to z
‘….so Fred..can you see this working for you ?’
.
If you sense an element of hesitancy then you really need to deal with that. before asking for the order, otherwise the deal just won’t close. We need to have the attitude of patience and calm and deal with concerns as they arise, handling concerns before asking for the order can help reduce chaotic smokescreen objections after the close
Search for clarity when they ask a question in the close
Remember that once somebody asks a question after you’ve made the presentation most of the time, or when it makes sense, you should ask. That’s a great question. If I may ask what motivated you to ask that?
The reason being is we presume that we know the reason they’re asking the question, but maybe 30% of the time. It’s not for the reason that we thought and we miss a vital piece of information.
When people are asking about your role , where you are based, how long you have been in business or for testimonials there is a lack of trust.
We need to be careful here and understand what’s behind the trust, is it trust in you , the business or even themselves. Each situation will need to be handled differently …that’s another blog.
Think outside the box
And just because the deal didn’t close after the first time asking for the order it doesn’t mean that they’re not bought in. It’s just they’ve got some clarifying questions that they need to make. And it’s crucial at this stage that we just remain completely calm. Because if we raise our energy levels, then this is going to cause an element of stress in the prospect.
So we just need to just be super calm and just think Yep, great. The prospect has got some questions, I’m happy to answer anything they need to know.
Deal with fear as logistical even though through the way that the engagement has been progressing we have a very strong suspicion that the reason for not moving forward may be fear based ..we can’t fall into the trap of just presuming that it is.
My book has Objection handling flows that treat an objection as logistical search amazon for ‘ the closers radar book ‘
When reframing has a suite of fear based refram… maybe 3, one may be more appropriate for the circumstances than the other and land better. Here is one I wrote myself …
Ok, I hear you and I appreciate that things may be a stretch for you and we have had many people in the same circumstances as you…. In fact it’s that common that we call it desert island syndrome… Can I explain why?
Imagine you were trapped on a desert island and you had made a raft in order to break free and escape into the open ocean… What part of the process of getting free would be the most challenging?…
It’s breaking past the surf right?
And that’s where you are now, your current circumstances are like the waves pushing you back, stopping you … but the truth is you are so close to success and one solid push and you are away…free ..
It means packing everything you have on the raft, putting your head down and just going for it and throwing everything at the surf because if you don’t the surfs just gonna keep on pushing you back on the island forever and its OK for now but your resources and your desire are just gonna dwindle…does that kinda make sense ?
Look I can help you make this stretch so you can break free…are you in ?
Give The person’s space to think Because at this stage, they may be embracing new concepts, which may take a little bit of time settling
Explore that they just aren’t sold- be OK with it and pipeline
On a side note, it is also worth exploring the idea at this stage that the person simply isn’t sold. And although they are delivering a smokescreen which could have been fear based, you may find that your rebuttals and or reframes are not working.
And that the reasons for the smokescreen were that they were just not sold and you may have to just go off grid just ask. I cannot think of any other reason why we potentially don’t move forward today. Would you be open to just maybe tell me kind of what’s going on and just to see if there’s any worth pursuing the call just to value your time?
Asking for the order and taking payment
Use this sequence so that you maintain decorum when going from asking for the order to taking payment.
1.Soft Close
Be smooth asking for the order…
Well it looks like we have outlayed a plan here to get you from A to Z, really the next step would be to get you onboarded we can use a visa or mastercard and at that point we will connect you to X and commence your journey, so can we welcome you to ( insert name ) family ?
2.Lean out
When they say yes, be cheeky with a little smile you sure ?!
3.Congratulate
Congrats on taking the first step on your journey to achieving… ( what they said they wanted, how are you feeling ?
4.Micro commitments
Ask for the card details amongst other info rather than just swooping in for card details
OK can i just Confirm your email as….
And the contact number we have on file is XXXXX… that OK to use
And would you like to use a visa , mastercard or AMEX today ?
I hope this was of some value… let’s catch up next week.