acme corp. selling playbook - vass. vass selling manual.pdf · acme value positions outsourcing...

© 2010 VASS® Training Group 1 ACME Selling Playbook

ACME CORP. SELLING

PLAYBOOK

Developed from the VASS® Executive Sales Training Course


Developed from the VASS® Executive Sales Training Course

© Jerry Vass 1990-2010 USERS' NOTE: this is copyrighted material, to be used for the purposes of developing and troubleshooting your selling manual. It is a working copy only and does not imply that the entries are complete or correct. You must enter, verify, street test, and edit your own work to make this an effective sales manual.


ACME CORP. SELLING PLAYBOOK

TABLE OF CONTENTS Inventory and Description of Tools Preparing a Tactical Presentation Features Advantages Benefits Value Positions Probes Standard Probes Status Quo Probes Emergency Probes Best-of-All-Possible-Worlds Probes Proof Statements Problem, Solution, Benefit Supporting Statements Objections Closing Statements Dos and Don’ts


INVENTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF TOOLS Value Position Your story in 40 words or less: (1) Why you're taking up the Buyer's time; (2) What kinds of problems you solve; (3) Compelling benefit of your solution. Features, Advantages and Benefits Features are an attribute of your product or service, your “stuff” or process Advantages are the action the Feature performs Benefits are the quantifiable results stated in the Buyer’s terms Flanking Probes Question that can be answered any way the Buyer prefers; it allows the Buyer to express his opinion or feelings about whatever he likes; begin with: who, how, what, why when, where. Don't guess at the Buyer's need -- simply ask. It requires the Buyer to search his mind for the answer, make decisions and create an opinion. 4 Probes to Prepare Standard: Questions asked every new interview Status Quo: Uncovers areas of buyer's dissatisfaction with his or her current situation. Emergency: When you are stressed, pressed, lost or confused Best of All Possible Worlds: Allows Buyer to dream Proof Statement Statement of fact, figures, testimonials, like circumstances, expert opinion from someone who does not have a direct involvement in your transaction or anything else that is quantifiable and real. Use when Buyer expresses doubt. 1. Restate the Benefit for the Buyer; 2. Prove the Benefit for the Buyer; 3. Expand the Benefit for the Buyer. Supporting Statements Makes the Buyer feel good about him- or herself and therefore, you too; the most effective and economical tool. Use when Buyer says something that helps your cause. 1. Agree with the Buyer; 2. Give additional Benefit of your service. Be careful not to support buyer statements that go against your cause. Respond with a flanking probe. Objection Anything that prevents the Buyer from closing with you, that is, giving you a commitment for your service.


Inherent Objections Something intrinsic in your service; can be a Feature that the Buyer doesn't like or perceives to be a weakness (e.g. price, your company, you...) 1. Isolate the objection; 2. Minimize the objection; 3. Offset the objection with Benefits. Easy Objections Objections that can be answered by your product or service. 1. Isolate the objection; 2. Answer directly; 3. Offer proof if necessary. Closing Statements Obtains a commitment from the Buyer. 1. Assume the sale is made; 2. Ask for the order in the form of specific information required to get the buyer to

actually use your products or services; 3. Begin the question with who, how, what, when or where.


PREPARING A TACTICAL SALES PRESENTATION Hard preparation and demanding role-play practice makes the actual presentation easy. Prior to your meeting, prepare the tactical side of your presentation in writing and role-play it live incorporating the following: 1. Determine the Objective of the meeting (the agreement you are looking for -- a meeting;

get hired, resell agreements made prior or get paid.) 2. Pick the Value Position you will use -- set the scene for the Client. 3. Choose six Status Quo Probes you'll use -- make the Client think. 4. Decide on the probable Objections to be raised by the Client -- think ahead. 5. Develop the Answers to those Objections including Proof Statements -- prepare to win. 6. Choose the quantifiable Benefits you'll sell – time and/or money. 7. Determine the Close you most likely use -- technical information you'll request to start. 8. Assign presentation parts to the team sellers -- who supports, who proves, who MCs. 9. Role play live, in real time, the presentation with the team sellers: • first time through , a quick blocking for sequence and times; • second time through, a rough read through for timing and content; • third time through, a finish read; • fourth time through, a finish read with probes and supports. Plan your presentation cold. Give your presentation HOT.


FEATURES, ADVANTAGES AND BENEFITS The Features of your product or service are its product attributes, its characteristics—facts, data, information, history, magnitude, etc. Advantages are how the product or service performs or functions. The Benefits are how your product or service affects Buyers personally—makes them feel better about life; gives them power, makes them sexier, wealthier, smarter, more competitive, etc.

FEATURE

ADVANTAGE

BENEFIT

ACME’s high-speed processor unit

has a reliability rate that is 17% higher than the closest competitive unit

saving you the up to 11/2 weeks of production downtime (profit)

Rocksolid Malpractice Insurance Provides a 24-hour approval for new-hire physicians

getting your new doctors in the treatment room six weeks sooner

and creating up to $45,000 in practice revenue per new physician (profit)

Office space close to home

means you spend less time driving

and an hour a day more with your family


VALUE POSITIONS Use the Value Position as an introduction to the Buyer. To build a powerful and profitable introduction it should contain a compelling reason to buy from you ... If you already know your Buyer, use it to set the scene for the presentation. VALUE POSITION Your story in 40 words or less: (1) Why you're taking up the Buyer's time; (2) What kinds of problems you solve; (3) Compelling benefit of your solution (including a number if possible). ACME Value Positions Outsourcing ACME Repair Service increases client profitability by reducing

maintenance overhead by 15-20% -- often more. Location ACME Repair Services nearby location saves clients up to 19%

in repair time, reducing production downtime and management aggravation.

Value Positions 1. 2. 3.


PROBES Flanking Probe Question that can be answered any way the Buyer prefers; it allows the Buyer to express his opinion or feelings about whatever he likes; begin with: who, how, what, why when, where. Don't guess at the Buyer's need -- simply ask. It requires the Buyer to search his mind for the answer, make decisions and create an opinion. 4 Probes to Prepare Standard: Questions asked every new meeting Status Quo: Uncovers areas of buyer's dissatisfaction with his or her current situation. Emergency: When you are stressed, pressed, lost or confused

Best of All Possible Worlds: Allows Buyer to dream


STANDARD PROBES How are buying decisions made inside your firm? How does your business compare with your projections from a year ago? What factors do you feel help your company remain successful? Competition How do your competitors’ strategies affect your business? How is your business impacted by the local economy? Business growth Where do you see your company in three years? What section of your industry is growing the fastest? Profits What are the biggest problems your company is facing? How do you overcome price competitiveness in your business? Personal As a business owner, what keeps you up at night? How has your job changed in the past two years?


STATUS QUO PROBES How does computer downtime impact your peoples’ stress levels? How are you managing liability risk to increase patient satisfaction and practice revenues? How are you taking advantage of foreign market turmoil to increase revenues? What strategy have you implemented to prevent erosion of your market share? How do you keep your competition from forcing you to discount your prices?


EMERGENCY PROBES Allow me to ask, exactly where did I go wrong? What is it about _____________ that concerns you? Mr. _______, how can we work together to fix this? What does your perfect solution look like? I seem to have gotten off track. Help me get back to what is most important to you.


BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS If money were no object, what would you do differently? In the best of all possible worlds, if you could build the perfect situation what would it look like? Time and budget aside, if you could further improve upon your network, what would you change?


PROOF STATEMENTS Statement of fact, figures, testimonials, like circumstances, expert opinion from someone who does not have a direct involvement in your transaction or anything else that is quantifiable and real. Use when Buyer expresses doubt. 1. Restate the Benefit for the Buyer; 2. Prove the Benefit for the Buyer; 3. Expand the Benefit for the Buyer. Labor savings PanDowdy Computer can save you 65% of your computer costs

according to an Iris & Company survey of 62 user firms. In your firm, than can mean annual time savings of 1,160 hours or about $38,000.

Time savings The ACME Autoslotter can save you time and money. World

Hardware magazine said the Acme is 22% more efficient to operate. That saves you time that you can use to increase profits in other areas.

Increase Profits Rocksolid’s services increase profits for medical groups and

hospitals. Mercy Hospital in Berry, Rhode Island saved $27,000 in direct costs of risk management while increasing managed care services by 8%. This range of services can increase your profits 20% to 30% while helping you practice better medicine.

Time & aggravation Pinstripe can help you shorten your merger time. Our last three

Fortune 500 clients were able to shorten their merger time by an average of 43%. That means you can get your company productive after merger and save nearly four months of downtime that usually occurs while people figure out their new job.


PROBLEM, SOLUTION, BENEFIT In designing this move:

Your statement moves from the buyer’s need or problem to your solution

Your product or service name is offered as the solution or answer to the Buyer’s problem or need

The Benefit of your solution is included

Problem

Problem Solution Benefit

Mr. Tarmac, highway supervisors are spending more of their budget keeping roadsides clean

The ACME Road Vacuum sucks up roadside trash and automatically sorts it,

saving you 22% in employee wages and management expense.

Paying technicians to keep your personal computers on-line can triple your cost of operations.

PanDowdy reduces support time by as much as 65%

and save you $45,000 in employee costs

Poor communications with employees can drain your time and personnel resources and make your department look incompetent.

Our process improvement techniques streamline communications and

frees up your people to focus on their jobs by eliminating 90% of your employees’ questions and misunderstandings.


SUPPORTING STATEMENTS Makes the Buyer feel good about him- or herself and therefore, you too; the most effective and economical tool. Use when Buyer says something that helps your cause. 1. Agree with the Buyer; 2. Give additional Benefit of your service. Be careful not to support buyer statements that go against your cause. Respond with a flanking probe. Supporting statements You’re correct. You’re right. That’s great. That’s very astute. That is very true. That’s been our other clients’ experience. Your assumptions are correct. You have a good handle on the situation. You’re knowledge of the market is commendable. You’ve hit the nail on the head.


OBJECTIONS Anything that prevents the Buyer from closing with you, that is, giving you a commitment for your service. Objections, when analyzed, almost always fall into one of the following categories; price, market, terms, budget, won’t work, reputation, and status quo. Inherent Objections Something intrinsic in your service; can be a Feature that the Buyer doesn't like or perceives to be a weakness (e.g. price, your company, you...) 1. Isolate the objection; 2. Minimize the objection; 3. Offset the objection with Benefits. Easy Objections Objections that can be answered by your product or service. 1. Isolate the objection; 2. Answer directly; 3. Offer proof if necessary.


Objection Isolate Answer We only use ACME Computers Isolate I understand. That may not be an

important factor when you find that PanDowdy has addressed that situation and designed a computer that works in both ACME and PanDowdy environments. Due to the ease of use and compatibility with both systems, you can take advantage of the most efficient products the PC world has to offer and reduce your total costs by 19%.

We have no experience with a company like yours.

Isolate Our experience in your specific industry may not be important when you consider that we have helped over 150 businesses of all types acquire companies and cut six months off the time to realize profits from the purchase.

We used you as our insurance carrier five years ago and cancelled because you weren’t responsive.

Isolate I understand. You’ll find that won’t happen again. We have revamped our entire system so you can reach one of our agent teams 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to make sure you are fully serviced instantly making it both convenient and safe for your doctors.


CLOSING STATEMENTS Obtains a commitment from the Buyer. 1. Assume the sale is made; 2. Ask for the order in the form of technical information required to get your service

into the actual use of the buyer; 3. Begin the question with who, how, what, when or where. Process What conditions would you like to see in the agreement? How are decisions like this made inside your company? How would you prefer to take delivery? What product mix would work best for your market? Who is the contact person on this project? What coverage plan would best fit your needs? Next meeting When is the best time to meet to discuss your options? When is the best time to have a weekly meeting? What initiation date would work best for you? Budget When can we meet to establish the budget? When can we sit down and discuss a conceptual budget? Soft What is the next step? Who is the best source of basic information to begin our study? How do you see us working together to uncover all your options? Where do we go from here?


DOs AND DON'Ts DO

Use flanking probes. Listen intently. Support consistently. Prove without puffery. Be Buyer responsive.

Don't Attack; Vomit your presentation. Guess at the Buyer’s problem. Use contractions to direct. Use "I think...". Talk more than 40%.

The EXECUTIVE SELL Don't talk Listen Don't tell Ask Don't sell Solve Don't pitch Probe Don't leave Close

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acme corp. selling playbook - vass. vass selling manual.pdf · acme value positions outsourcing...

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