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The Sales Buzz Issue 190 - Information Makes You Money: See this real example
January 30, 2013
Hi,

In this week's Sales Buzz:

Information makes you money and it’s all around you in every communication just waiting to be picked up and turned into a sale. Take a look at this real example...



Information Makes You Money – See this real example

Information makes you money because the more you have the more sales you can close and the more rewards you can earn.


This week I saw a great example of an organisation that really knows how to collect information and turn it into sales.

A cold prospect is about to phone up the local gym which is part of a national chain of health clubs.

Her membership is about to run out at the one she uses and she wants to compare what she currently gets to make sure she is getting best deal.

The cost is important to her and she knows the club she goes to now is probably the cheapest but there’s no harm in looking around to make sure.

She phones up and gives her name and says why she’s phoning.


The call gets off to a good start

The call is answered well, friendly, confident, and well mannered with the advisor giving his name and taking ownership of her call rather than passing it on to someone else.

The advisor recommends that she arranges a time to come in and have a guided tour around the place so she can see the facilities.

Then the first information gathering technique is used and it really is clever and well rehearsed. The advisor asks her what her phone number is. She gives her number because she is expecting him to say someone will contact her to arrange a time for her visit. He takes her number and then goes straight into asking her the best time for her to come in and look around.


At this point he has her name and her phone number. The technique was well executed because she assumed that there was a reason to give him her phone number but as he went straight into a question about her best time to visit she moved with him to the next stage of the sales process.


The next step of information gathering

Her visit to the gym wasn’t the hard sell she expected. It started with a conversation over a coffee that again gathered information about the prospect.

The advisor got her talking about her favourite subject, herself. He slipped in a line about how she should get as much information as possible before making a decision.

A lovely smooth technique as it was him gathering all the information about his prospect...

One way he could help her to make the best decision is to send her the club newsletter, ‘What’s your email address?’ And because he is doing this for her benefit she gives it without hesitation.

Now he has her name, her email address, and he is building up information about her, what she wants, and what she would like to change in relation to the cheaper gym she currently uses


Gathering information makes you money

In the above example the health club advisor has gained very useful information that will help him close the sale and sign up a new member. Even if the advisor doesn’t close the sale on the day of the visit he will have more opportunities because he has information about his prospect.

He has her name and phone number and her email address. He can send information, invite her to special events, ask her if she wants complementary tickets for her friends, and he can target the wants needs and desires she has discussed with him.


Now take a look at your sales process

Can you use the successful ideas in the example above to build your information on a prospect to help you close more sales and give you more opportunities to close if the initial attempt doesn’t quite make it.

Look at what you do now, how much information do you gather before closing:

Do you rush straight into the sales process.

Or, do you build a picture of your prospect and their needs.

Doing this can make the sales process feel a lot softer from the prospect’s perspective as well as giving you a better chance of making the sale.

How can you build information gathering into your process from the very first contact.

Maybe it isn’t you that makes or receives that first contact so you might need to work with others on this.

If you use a CRM system or other prospect data base this will be like putting money in the bank. Gathering information makes you money, think of it as an investment.


The above is an example of sales training and tips that I pick up from my everyday involvement in sales management and training, as well as writing my own website on selling.

From this practical experience I have developed downloadable sales training courses that are short, to the point, and will add real techniques used by successful sellers to you existing sales skills. To see the courses and gather information before making a decision to invest in them visit Sales and Training Solutions...








I'm Stephen Craine from the website Sales-Training-Sales-Tips.com

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