Are you following the Ten Commandments of Sales Success? Find out by watching our new series with Chief Growth Officer Mark Trinkle. Today, Mark will discuss Commandment #8: Thou Shalt Always Remember to Add Value.

Watch all of the Commandments Here

Transcript:

Good day everyone. This is Mark Trinkle, Chief Growth Officer with Anthony Cole Training Group. We’re going to continue to march forward in our series, the 10 Commandments for Sales Success. Commandment #8 is Thou Shalt Always Remember to Add Value. Now, remember this right from the get-go. If you don’t add value at the beginning of your sales process or your sales cycle, it’s going to be really hard to defend that at the end. So let’s get that straight. You’ve gotta add it at the beginning to defend it or sell based upon it at the end. Maybe this screen is summarizing some things that you’ve heard recently about price or about rate?

Maybe you’ve heard, “Hey, your rate or your price is too high.” Maybe you heard a prospect say, “Well, you know what, I’ve got better terms from you.” Fill in the blank. Maybe you’ve heard your prospects say, “Hey, I’m gonna look around at some other options.” Maybe they’ve come back to you. Your prospect has come back to you and they said, “Hey, what would it look like if you took your proposal and you did X, Y, or Z?”

Now, look, there are three immutable truths about a prospect and their mentality and their strategy for asking you for a rate or a price reduction. Number one, the first immutable truth. It doesn’t cost him anything to ask, right? I mean, what’s the worst thing that could happen? They might hear no. Number two, your attitude and how you respond to your prospect when they do make that ask is going to set the tone for all future negotiations. And number three, if you don’t move the conversation with your prospect away from rate and towards value, then you are always going to be negotiating on rate or on price.

Now, if you want to be strong at this, if you want to get it right and you want your response to be as effective as it can be for things, you gotta be assertive. You gotta be able to assert your value. You have to know what that value is. You cannot be scared. Number two, you better be really good at asking questions and listening. That was one of the other commandments in this series, by the way. Number three, I alluded to it at the top of this video. You’ve got to be introducing value all throughout the sales process. There must be something unique. You have to stand out from the competition. You better be teaching your prospect not what to think, but how to think. And number four, you had best be really good at negotiating. That’s it for this commandment, Thou Shalt Always Remember to Add Value. Have a great day.

Thou shalt always remember to ask questions and listen. This commandment is critical if you truly want to be a great salesperson. This video is a part of our new series with Mark Trinkle: The 10 Commandments of Sales Success. Watch Commandment #7 now! 

Register for our newest free webinar - 7 Keys to Building a High Performance Sales Team ->

Thou shout always tailor your message for resonance! Does your prospect have a problem that they have to fix? And are you speaking their love language? This video is a part of our new series with Mark Trinkle: The 10 Commandments of Sales Success. Watch Commandment #6 now! 

Watch all of the Commandments Here

Register for our newest free webinar - 7 Keys to Building a High Performance Sales Team ->

Thou shout never present without making sure your prospect is committed to making a decision. Are you certain you're getting the decision-maker to a point of clarity? This video is a part of our new series with Mark Trinkle: The 10 Commandments of Sales Success. Watch Commandment #5 now! 

Watch all of the Commandments Here

Transcript:

Good day everyone. This is Mark Trinkle, Chief Growth Officer for Anthony Cole Training Group. Today it is my privilege to bring you our fifth commandment of a 10-part series that we are calling the 10 Commandments of Sales Success. The fifth commandment is: Thou shout never present without making sure your prospect is committing to making a decision.

Now, there are a couple of different parts to this. I'm going to assume for today's commandment that you are in front of the decision maker. If you're not, then your sales results are gonna be wildly erratic. You're certainly gonna lose a fair amount of the time. So, again, I'm assuming... and it's dangerous to assume, but I'm assuming that you are in front of the actual decision maker and that you've checked off all the boxes, that you've met with everybody who has a say in making the decision for your presentation.

The second part of this is that you've got to be certain. You've got to be certain that you are getting them to the point of great clarity so that they will make a decision. So, the secret to getting decisions from decision makers is no doubt they have to be fully qualified for the compelling issues. At least compelling enough to them that they'll make a change. You've gotta know why they're gonna make a change. You've gotta know what the problems are. You've gotta know how the problems are impacting them. You need to dollarize or monetize that, and understand what those problems are costing. You've gotta be certain that the prospect has the capacity to invest the appropriate or required amount of time, money, and resources. I mean, you've gotta know that the problem hurts so much that they're willing to go through the process.

They need to understand your process. What are you going to require of them? There has to be complete clarity. I'm gonna call it "beautiful clarity" on the decision-making process. You know that they will make a decision. That's what you're actually closing your prospects on. Don't worry about them picking you, or favoring you, instead focus your time, efforts, and energy on making certain that they are clear, that you are expecting them to make a decision, and that they will commit to making a decision.

I'll end with this. You should close a hundred percent of your qualified business opportunities, but by that I mean sometimes you're gonna get a no. And that's okay. But you know what your greatest frustration should be? That you spent an appreciable amount of time, you went through your sales process, you got your team involved, and you delivered a proposal or a presentation, and they didn't answer with yes or no. They answered with that dreaded TIA. "I need to think it over."

You can do something about that as long as you're willing to plant your feet and walk your prospect through your expectation that they will make a decision, that yes is great, but, but no is OK. Get your prospect to commit to making a decision. Have a great day.

SMA stands for Severe Mental Anguish. Is this something that your salespeople are uncovering in their prospects? This video is a part of our new series with Mark Trinkle: The 10 Commandments of Sales Success. Watch Commandment #4 now! 

Watch all of the Commandments Here