Got a BIG appointment? Want (or need) the sale?

Sure you do – everyone wants to make the sale, especially when it’s a BIG one.

Well, this column is NOT about “how to make the sale.” Rather, it contains elements of a sale that engage the prospect. It’s way more powerful than your typical “probe, present, overcome objections, close, follow up.”

These elements go way beyond your “system” of selling. They go way beyond traditional selling. These elements are for professionals who want to build relationships – not just make a sale. These elements will make the prospect respect you. These elements will lead to partnering. These elements will make the prospect want to buy from you.

Here are the major elements about the sale that you must incorporate into your presentation:

1. Develop a belief system in your company, your product or service and yourself, a belief so strong that you assume every sale before you walk in the door. This mindset is the single most powerful element you can possess. If your belief is weak, your passion will be weak, and the prospect won’t catch your fire.

2. Do your homework the night before. Prepare ideas to help the customer produce more and profit more. Being ready with ideas to help the prospect will breed your own self-confidence. You’ll feel “ready to win.”

3. Pre-relax. Set your own internal tone. Listen to your favorite music on the way over. Be bouncy and in high spirits.

4. Set your mind on helping them achieve their objectives – NOT selling your stuff. That will set a game plan and the agenda for the meeting at the same time.

5. Tell the prospective customer you have come with a few ideas that will help them. This immediately separates you from the others. The prospect will be engaged and listening from the beginning.

6. Make friends with the person or people you are presenting to before you begin your formalized talk. Become likable. If they don’t like you, they’re far less likely to buy from you. Make small talk that allows you to find something in common. If you’re lucky enough or smart enough to find a “link” (something of mutual passion), you have set the tone for a positive outcome and the beginning of a relationship – not a sales presentation. If they aren’t smiling, if they aren’t friendly at the beginning of the meeting, DIG IN. You’re not likely to make the sale without a price fight.

7. Ask ONE killer question at the beginning. One that makes the prospects stop and think, consider new information and respond in terms of you. Get them to respond with their past experience or their opinion. Get them thinking. Get them involved.

8. Create points of value and areas of differentiation as you’re speaking. It’s like a prize fight. You have to win each round so you can win the contest. You don’t have to knock them out – you just have to get the decision.

9. Don’t “need” the sale. If it’s the end of the month, a big customer and a “must” sale, it’s likely that you will telegraph this fact to your prospect if it’s on your mind. You’ll be trying too hard. Pressing and pressuring for a “now” answer. By the way, the reason you’re pressing is that your pipeline of prospects and prospective customers is empty.

10. Remember all the sales you have already made. Keep your mindset on the winner that you are. But keep your focus on helping the customers win for themselves. The more the prospects feel “they win,” the more likely they will buy.

11. Don’t be afraid to ask for the sale. That’s why you came, remember?

11.5. While you are qualifying them, they are qualifying you. This is a secret that most salespeople never realize and are never taught. From the way you enter the room, from the way you look, from the way you treated the person at the front desk, from the first words you speak, your prospects are judging you, and deciding who you are as a person. They’re deciding if they want to do business with you or not.

If you want more information on setting your mindset to positive, I offer you an anonymous poem called DON’T QUIT. Go to www.gitomer.com, register if you’re a first-time user, and enter DON’T QUIT in the GitBit box.

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com.

© 2006 Jeffrey H. Gitomer