Proactive Selling

pro·ac·tive

Adjective

(of a person, policy, or action) Creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after...

Why use a Proactive Approach?

• Most sales people run into challenges on every sale

• Most challenges are similar from sale to sale

• Objections to cost, shopping competition, or the belief the product/company doesn’t fit their needs

Preparation

• We are sometimes in such a hurry to cross the finish line we forget about all of the things that will get us there quicker

Preparation Examples

• What information needs to be updated?• What 3rd party independent info can we use?• What are our specific competitive strengths? • How we will handle common objections before

they come up?• What will we say? How will we get better

saying it?

Update your information

• Pew Research Center study said 58% of Americans did online research before buying

• This means that there is a good chance that have up-to-date correct or misinformation themselves.

Know your strengths

• Determine your client bases’ buying motives and find out what strengths you have over your competition. Example-Build Quality may justify a higher price

• Collect independent information, reviews, and articles whenever possible. 15 minutes of research a day goes a long way

Some helpful research questions

• Where do my clients go to learn about this/us?

• What has been said in the press/online? Has anything changed since then?

• Where can I find industry information?

Proactive Objection Handling

• Instead of waiting until the end, getting an objection, and having the client put up their defenses; try this instead…

• Think of all of your most common objections, share information during the sales process to try and overcome these things

Objection Example

• Here is a typical greeting in a retail situation “Hi. Can I help you?”

• Client says “No. Just Looking.”• Salesperson justifies why they need to sit

with him/her and need his help.• Let’s look at a proactive way

Proactive Greeting

• When appropriate after brief pleasantries• “Mr. Johnson. Why don’t we have a seat for

just 5 short minutes, I’ll find out exactly what you are looking for in this ___. That way I can save you a lot of time by showing you exactly what you are looking for. How does that sound?”

Proactive Greeting

• This works more often or not because:

1. You are telling them what you are doing

2. You are giving them benefits for doing it (save time, less hassle, less walking, weather, etc.)

3. You gave them a short time expectation, so you have “faded the heat” on this concern

Proactive Greeting

• In a retail setting this greeting would then allow you to:

1. find out your customer’s needs

2. help them select the right product

3. Share independent information with them

4. And show you’re a professional

Common Objections1. Cost too much

2. Not what we’re looking for

3. Shopping around

4. Shopping competition

5. Company/Product history

The chance of these can be lessened during the proactive sales process.If not you can then overcome them with professional, practiced objection techniques

Want to know more

Email:hillyerb@proactivesalestraining.com

Visit our website atwww.proactivesalestraining.com

www.proactivesalestraining.com

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