Six ways to get more 
prospects to buy from you

by John R. Graham

Salespeople never stop looking for some magic formula to guarantee quicker and easier sales. They buy books on “How to be the World’s Greatest Salesperson” but rarely read them. They stand in line to attend sales rallies in the hope of finding “the answer” to improving their closing ratios. Even though none of this changes their results, they repeat the cycle throughout their careers.

This description may sound cynical, yet anyone in sales knows it’s accurate. While it takes discipline to learn mountain climbing, fly-fishing, public speaking or brain surgery, selling has generally been reduced to using gimmicks to control the customer. As a result, we hear them comment, “Just get me in front of a prospect and I’ll close every time.”

Selling is less of an art and more of a process that’s successful to the degree that the salesperson focuses total attention on the prospect. Here are six strategies for getting prospects to buy from you.

Fight for your credibility. 
While we expect an auto mechanic or physician to be accurate in diagnosing problems with a car or a cardiac condition, we generally don’t expect salespeople to tell the truth. Closing the sale is no longer a matter of overcoming objections; it’s a matter of creating trust. Accurately weighing the pros and cons of your product or service for the customer creates confidence. Not trying to hide limitations and refusing to overstate benefits send a powerful message that a salesperson can be trusted.

Forget about what you want to sell.  
Many receptionists are adept at spotting calls from salespeople no matter how they try to disguise their intentions. One such receptionist says, “It so easy. There’s an air of insincerity about most salespeople.” And it stems from only being interested in what they want to sell. This is why salespeople experience so much rejection. They’re taught not to take rejection personally. That’s the problem. It is personal because it results from sending the message, no matter how subtle, that what you want to sell is more important than what the customer wants to buy. Successful selling is working with customers so that what they buy aligns with what they want.

Let the prospect know that you know something.  
Salespeople make a major mistake when they try to set up appointments with customers only when they want to make a sale. Why not spend time with customers on a regular basis, offering ideas, suggestions and helpful information? Doing this changes the salesperson’s role in the eyes of the customer and brings the salesperson around to the customer’s side of the table.

Perform a situational analysis. 
Too many salespeople jump to solutions before they know the problems. When this happens, customers become instant skeptics. They doubt the solutions presented will accomplish their objectives. Taking time to perform an adequate situational analysis creates customer confidence. It’s the best way to let the customer know that you understand them. It follows that if you are on target with your analysis, the solution is, too.

Respond to the customer’s issues. 
Forget about trying to impress the customer with the fact that you are working for “the largest cutting tool house in the region” or “the fastest-growing.” All that is irrelevant, and probably not totally true. Is this what the customer wants to hear?

Most prospects have their antenna up when meeting with a salesperson. They are looking for an answer to one question: “Does this person understand what we want?” If the customer isn’t comfortable with the answer, there’s no sale.

The test of the competent salesperson is whether or not the individual has the ability to grasp what the customer needs to accomplish.

Prepare personalized proposals.  
The main test a proposal must pass is what the customer thinks after reviewing it. Consciously or unconsciously, customers look at proposals to determine if they were prepared for them. No one wants pages packed with irrelevant boilerplate.

There’s no place for “fill in the blanks” proposals. Unless a proposal adequately expresses the individual customer’s situation, carefully articulated solutions to meet those needs, and an individualized implementation process, credibility is diminished and doubt creeps in.

These six strategies for successful selling can almost be called “secrets” because they are often ignored in favor of cutting corners and acting inappropriately just to get an order. More often than not, such efforts end in failure. Success comes from customers wanting to buy from you. n

John R. Graham is the president of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm. Reach him at , or .

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2001 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2001.

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