FEBRUARY 2001 ISSUE
HOW TO GET THEM TO BUY NOW
By Ann Barr

Everyone, from time to time, has a prospect like this. The prospect that sounds like s/he really wants to buy your product. You have gone through all the right steps:

1. You have had several conversations with the prospect.
2. You have mailed a catalog and price list with all the information the prospect requested.
3. You have followed up with a telephone call and you’ve given a great presentation using facts, features and benefits. They listened attentively.
4. You have responded to all objections.
They have a need for your products/services. So what’s holding them up from buying?

What’s Stopping Them?
You are ready to celebrate – you feel you’ve made the sale. The prospect is just inches away from placing the order. Your hands are on the keyboard, ready to input the order. Or your pen is in your hand waiting to write up the sale.

There is a silence. No order. What do you do?

First: Get Agreement
To make sure they really are close to ordering, start with a statement to review the specifics of the order:

* * "Let’s see what we agree on."

After you get agreement on the main points, move on to closing questions.

Four Closing Questions
To find out – really – how close the prospect is to ordering, and to move the process along, try one of these questions:
l "What do you need from me to move forward?"
l "What do we still have to do?"
l "What do you consider to be the next steps?"
l "Shall we process your order today?"

Your Critical Next Step
After asking one of these questions, don’t say a word until the prospect answers you! And then: listen carefully to the answer – you’ll learn what you need to do or say to move the sale along. There is a tendency on the part of some sales people to feel uncomfortable with silence and to begin talking before the prospect answers the question. This is a big mistake because the prospect doesn’t get a chance to say what’s really on her/his mind and the sale may be lost. If you haven’t practiced using silence – and then listening to the prospect, start today. There is an old adage: "No sales person ever listened his way out of a sale."u

Ann Barr is a consultant and sales trainer with 19 years’ experience in Sales and marketing. ENX readers can get a complimentary e-mailed copy of her report: "64 Ways to Increase Your Sales" by subscribing to Ann’s free e-mailed newsletter "Weekly Sales Tips."E-mail your request to: annbarr@sellingsupplies.com with "Sales Tips" in the subject line, or visit Ann’s web site: www.sellingsupplies.com

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1. Customers lured by ads alone tend to be temporary. In other words, using only conventional advertising does not provide a solid customer base for future business.

2. Dependence on traditional advertising makes a business more vulnerable to changes in consumer taste and thus, more likely to fail.

Relationship Marketing Keeping in touch with customers consistently is a crucial element in keeping customers. Calling customers on a regular basis is preferable to other methods of communication. But marketing studies have shown that the use of a steady stream of effective direct mail pieces - in place of, or in addition to telephone marketing - is the glue that keeps customers from leaving. In research conducted by Sales and Marketing Management magazine, they found that 27% of customers switch vendors because their sales representatives lost touch.

Cash Generator Eric Garza at The Toner Factory in Brownsville, Texas uses a simple, tried and true - quick marketing tool that generates between $250 and $1700 additional revenue a month. And it does what marketing should do: It keeps his company name in front of customers on a consistent basis. What does Eric do?

In his own words: "I mail out about 1000 post cards every month. I get a response rate of about 2% and I get orders." Garza goes on to say: "In each mailing I get one client that makes big purchases (between $250 and $1700 a month.) So it has paid for itself."

Almost Free Marketing Nobody likes to get "spam" e-mails. But when we get occasional e-mails from businesses we have made purchases from, that's different. These e-mails can keep us informed about new products or services we may need or a sale price on a consumable item used on a regular basis.

Do you ask all your customers for their e-mail addresses? E-mail is an easy way to stay in touch and it's practically free. Imagine the marketing power and results of sending a free e-mail newsletter to 5,000 customers at a time. To avoid being mistaken by your customers for a spammer, ask permission to put their e-mail address on your list to get regular informational e-mails.

Automated Systems There are several good automated systems you can use to easily and quickly send personalized e-mails to your customers. The one I use to send out Weekly e-mailed Sales Tips is World Merge by Colorado Soft. A free trial version is available at www.coloradosoft.com Another good product is Group Mail. You can get the freeware download at www.eBusiness-Advantage.com/GroupMail. The retail price for World Merge is $49.50 and Group Mail is about the same price. Systems like this are well worth the investment if they are used consistently.u