I Have a Plan!
(Act 1)
(Act 1)
What is Act 1 and what is the purpose of this Act?
Answer:
Act 1 is the establishing of a Commitment Objective. It is a goal that we set for ourselves to gain agreement from the customer that moves the sales process forward
How much of the selling process takes place in Act 3: Ask the Best Questions?
Answer:
2/3rds of ALL selling is done here
What are the best types of questions to ask and 2) what do you uncover when you are able to drill down to Leverage Questions?
Answer:
Open-ended questions
You uncover high-yield needs, where clients have a personal stake in the outcome
How many High-Yield Needs should you try to establish in preparation to Presenting the Estimate?
Answer:
Target a minimum of 3 High-Yield needs to address
What is the primary mission of EVERY salesperson AND what does Action Selling call this?
Answer:
Close the Deal!
Gaining Commitment
If Commitment Objectives are planned effectively, what happens?
Answer:
This planning will actually shorten the sales cycle by ensuring next steps are understood by both you and your customer. It will keep the sales process moving forward
What does being a good listener enable you to do?
Answer:
Understand your customer’s needs.
Which Act is the climax of the selling process? Why is this Act to critical?
Answer:
Act 4
If you've asked the best questions, you have agreed on what needs the customer has
Traditional selling places the majority of the selling in Act 6: Sell the Product. Action Selling mocks this style of selling as what?
Answer:
Show up, and throw up! The hope is, something is gonna stick
According to the stats in Action Selling, what percentage of salespeople fail to even ask for commitment?
Answer:
62%
Which meetings do not require a Commitment Objective?
Answer:
Never! No Commitment Objective. No sales call.
Finish this Sentence:
It is more important to customers that the salesperson understand their needs than...
Answer:
the customer understands the salesperson's products and services
Name at least 3 things that are happening when you are Asking the Best Questions?
Answer:
Customer is realizing you are a good listener
You are building trust!
Customer realizes you genuinely care about their needs
You’re uncovering their needs – which you will use when you arrive at the Estimate Presentation stage
What changes when you arrive at Act 5: Sell the Company?
You move from becoming the listener to the talker
The manager in the book made the comment, “In my experience, every time you leave a call without gaining commitment, your chances of getting a commitment later drop by at least XX Percent.” What percent did he state?
Answer:
50% If this is remotely close, what does it tell us when we don’t gain commitment during the Presenting of the Estimate stage???
What distinguishes a Commitment Objective from the salesperson's other objectives
Answer:
The commitment from the customer to move the sales process forward
1) What is the most important skill you, the salesperson, must have and 2) what do those who have this skill do really well?
Answer:
Listening!
Great listeners ask great, open-ended questions and summarize what they have heard
In Act 4, what strategy does Action Selling use to not only uncover high-yield needs, but also helping the customer to perceive Premier’s solution is the best solution for them?
Answer:
Back-tracking benefits
Why does Act 6: Sell the Product, become much less significant in Action Selling?
By Asking the Best Questions and Agreeing on Need, you have significantly removed the unloading of features and benefits that are not relevant to this specific customer and focusing on the features and benefits you’ve mutually agreed are most important
Both parties know how our product is the best solution for
Why do reps fail to ask for commitment?
Three reasons reps fail to ask for commitment:
1)No Plan (Commitment Objective)
2)No Procedure (Failure to realize you’ve missed a key buying decision
3)Miss the Opportunities (Failure to pick up on a buying signal)
What are the 5 buying decisions the customer makes?
1)They need to buy You!
2)They need to buy the Company
3)They need to buy the Product
4)They need to understand the value (Price)
5)They need to feel it’s the right Time to Buy (accept Estimate)
Provide 2 reasons it is important to understand your customer’s needs?
1) You will tailor your solution to your customer’s specific needs
2) It’s more important to the customer that the salesperson understands their needs than the customer understands the salesperson’s product!
3) It also eliminates wasted time “shotgunning” features and benefits the customer doesn’t necessarily care about – reducing the sales process.
What is the process for Back-tracking benefits?
Answer:
1.What are our best features?
2.What benefit would the feature provide to the customer?
3.Do our best features align with customer’s needs?
4.What questions will draw out these needs?
5.What leverage questions can we ask to determine High-Yield Needs?
What is the acronym used to explain the process that ties customer’s needs to the benefits the customer will receive by purchasing our solution, and what do the letters in this acronym stand for?
Answer:
Process to do this called “TFBR”
Tie-Back: Connect to agreed upon need (A reminder)
Feature: Must relate to agreed on need
Benefit: How this corresponds to customer’s need
During the Estimate Presenting stage, if asking for Reaction (think TFBR), you will either receive positive (buying signal) or negative feedback.
1) What are the two types of negative feedback and what makes them different?
2) What is the difference in these two types?
Answer:
Stalls & Objections
Stalls mean client has no real reason not to buy, but they are not sold, yet. Do you have another TFBR you can use?
Objections have a specific reason customer is not ready. Need to go back to Act 3 to uncover this new need
What are the 3 most important things you are going to focus on to improve your chances of getting commitment (must fall into the most important takeaways based on the world according to James)?
Go into every sales call with a Commitment Objective
Focus on listening skills
Ask The Best open-ended questions
Remove your shotgun from your arsenal
Make sure there is mutual agreement on needs (ideally High Yield)
Steer the process, in the sequence that buyers use to make decisions
Ensure you have a minimum of 3 TFBRs before you are ready to present
Recognize that the Presentation of Estimate can’t be done via e-mail and achieve what is needed through the TFBR (Reaction process)
ASK for Commitment!