Modernization has become a part of every aspect of life, so why not sales? Sales advancements and buyer side technology have taken the modern turn where risk has become irrelevant.
With changing times, consumer behavior is changing. Customers lose sleep over their problem, not the product. There are new engagement channels popping up every day creating good market share challenging the competitors.
When it is about sales in an IT company, you are selling services, not a product. Hence, it is far more difficult to sell services. Explaining the millennials about the services you provide needs a lot of creative marketing.
Like it is hard to differentiate between Coke and Pepsi. But here it is far easier to differentiate because it’s a beverage. Soda is a cool drink. IT is not.
To explain your IT services well you have two major issues here-
- Communicate your value properly
- Differentiate your offerings from others
The company culture and marketing efforts will have a large impact on these areas. Most MP’s overlook their sales process. A strong sales process has the power to overcome both the issues. It is the best way to communicate your value to your potential clients. It is the most effective way to stand out in a crowd.
Train your MSP’s in the right way to get the desired results.
What is MSP?
A managed service provider (MSP) is a company that manages a customer’s IT infrastructure or user system. You can hire IT Management Consulting Services to do the structure the IT sales for you.
You can implement these sales processes in your department and get your desired results for the marketing and sales of IT services.
What is the Sales Process?
A sales process has some steps consisting of several activities. The sales process has one or more methodologies that are mainly aimed at finding and connecting with customers. This process will help you get the customers to make a purchase. Creating a sales template will help you achieve the desired sales objective.
Through the sales model process, your sales team can get success in finding prospects, solving customer problems, closing deals, performing up-sells and bolstering client loyalty.
What should an effective sales process be like?
- Customer-centric
- Clearly defined
- Repeatable
- Predictable
- Goal-oriented
- Measurable
- Adaptable
In a highly competitive digital arena, any one of the missing processes may cost you.
Ultimately the sale process is the seven steps I will show you now
Step 1: Preparation-
You are well-versed in your product, your target customers and industry. Your brand has a unique value and it cannot be overstated. Search about your competitors, the core problem your buyer’s persona experience the different product features. Benefits that directly or indirectly address the problems.
The core problem from a buyers point of view and the different product features that directly or indirectly address these problems.
You can be an average salesperson 100 percent of the times into sales. All sales and all prospects are the same. But you are making a mistake; no client is the same every time. Your target market can be just a small family-owned business in the radius of 10 miles of each other. But every firm has a different perspective, needs, goals and pain points. So do your homework and be prepared.
Gain insights into the prospects and specific pain points. Look at your prospects on social media platforms like LinkedIn. Check their website and figure out who works in the company to get your leads.
Step 2: Warm-up-
First of all, it is a task to find a customer and engaging the customer is another level of issue. You may find your prospects from many sources but engaging them can be very difficult.
To engage your prospects the major aspect, you need to consider is the emotion. People first get into buying with emotion. When it is the first appointment, you can’t just go and start with the pitching about yourself first. You need to go slow, create an emotion. Let the prospect talk as much as he wants to. This way you will know the exact pinpoints and use them to convert them.
The warm-up is exactly like going out on a first date. You don’t start things off on a first date with a story all about yourself. First, you get to know the person and then you can follow up by telling all about yourself. First time sales should be treated as a first date. First, you warm-up and then pitch all about yourself.
The basic idea is to make your prospect forget about sales. Make them see you as just another human being, instead of a salesperson.
Step 3: Need Assessment
Meeting a prospect in real or corresponding with them over the phone can probe deeper situations that need to be assessed. You cannot sit all day to know your prospect, as neither of you has all day to know each other.
You need to take it like a arrange marriage. Wait for the ice to break. Once the ice is broken, you can get to the nitty-gritty things.
This is the stage, where you have a lot to deal with at a time. Uncover your prospects needs, built credibility, identify potential issues, connect these issues to future or present implications. Find an easy way to tie it all to your solution.
Here is the best way to accomplish network assessment-
- You need to kick start from PAS. Where P is “Their Problem,” A is “Other Alternatives,” and S is “Your Solution.”
- Warm up the decision maker, but don’t go all in.
- Qualify the decision making sure you are speaking to the important man on the board.
- Make high-impact statements and create an instant connection to the real value.
- Before asking any questions, ask the permission of perspective. Because you are asking for a buy-in.
- Utilize conversational layering.
- Ask implementation questions.
Being a seller, you may feel that you should do all the talking. The fact is that you should be doing only 20 percent of talking. Make sure you keep your prospects focused on problems, pain points, needs and not on solutions & price points.
Remember the idea is to conduct the network analysis is an appointment. Hence, the sales guy should get a network engineer with him for the first appointment.
During the first appointment, these three goals should be kept in mind.
- Build rapport
- Conduct a needs analysis
- Determine the feasibility of the relationship.
Step 4: Presentation
The first rule is that you never go into a presentation without a presentation. In case you break this rule you will not get a signed agreement in your hands. The presentation should include all the pain points, features, ROI or cost saving analysis and perceptible gain.
If the presentation is just between you and the buyer, i.e., the decision maker then consider using a handout or a tablet to walk through the client through the presentation.
You also need to discuss everything and uncover the network assessment. Have a general idea and educate them. You need to find the solution strategically.
For instance, you need to hit on short-term as well as long-term goals. You can give your prospects some insights on how will your product help them save X % of dollars in X months as we will speed up processes, reduce expenses and modernize solution on a larger scale.
Everything you present should be considered important. There are some less important topics that should not be glazed. This might sound very easy, but practically it is very difficult to do so.
Most of the people are nervous during a presentation. This nervousness can be due to a lot of things lined up for presentation. Now that you are done with the presentation, you can schedule a follow-up appointment.
Step 5: Overcome rejection/objection-
It is not necessary that you will always receive a verbal or signed commitment from your prospects. There is nothing unusual about a prospect having objections concerning your offer.
At this stage, you need to be prepared to handle rejection or objections of any sorts. You should have advanced built slides or handouts dedicated to the objections. You need to be prepared in advance. If not, you will be losing the credibility of turning the client that you have built with so much hardship.
To manage objections, you need to be empathetic and process situations from the customer’s point of view.
Step 6. Closing-
You can’t just expect them to sign a document; you need to tell them where to sign. This is the stage where you make a sale. It is the closing that will reflect all your efforts in your company’s revenue.
This step usually involves proposals or a quote covering the tailored solution. It also includes further negotiation about a few terms in sales, subscription, membership agreement and a series of signed agreement form the decision makers in the organization.
You may not always successfully close your perspective. In that case, you need to have a follow-up plan.
Step 7: Follow-up
You may have managed to overcome every objection, but the prospect is still hesitant to sign on the dotted line. In such cases, you need to schedule a follow-up appointment. If you don’t follow up, you may consider it as a lost cause.
In case your prospect has agreed to get into a partnership, you still need to have a follow-up plan to build a strategic foundation and maintain a relationship.
With regular interaction nurture your customers by keeping them updated about the new services, implement a reward plan and take regular feedback.
The main point is, you should try to leave without another appointment in the books.
Conclusion- Customer behavior and market reliabilities are shifting at the speed of light. Sales professionals cannot depend on outdated approaches. You need to think about to keep the next generation in mind and plan your strategies accordingly. Use technology as the next generation embraces tech. Hack your sales process with these simple seven steps.