Believe it or not: sales and chess have a lot of things in common. A new sale rep can always look at a chess player to up his owns sales numbers.
Confused? Read further, as we bring for you selective excerpts (paraphrased) from one of the recent articles of Barrett Riddleberger (renowned author of Blueprint of a Sales Champion: How to Recruit, Refine, and Retain Top Sales Performer)
A skilled sales player should exactly work like a skilled chess player. What’s the similarity between the two? A chess player needs to look at the board and plan two or three steps in advance—his own move, the opponent’s move and then accordingly his next move.
Likewise, in an ideal case, a sales rep should know how to anticipate the buyer responses and accordingly be ready to make the next move. Following such a tactic helps the sales rep to take the conversation with the prospect on the route to SALES.
Sounds difficult? Here are three steps on how a sales rep can envision his moves in advance and thereby take the CONVERSATION to CONVERSION:
1. Do a thorough need analysis
Develop your questions in advance. How do you do it? Use your online CRM software and study the communication happened between the prospect and the marketing team. Write down things like – challenges they face, goals to achieve, deadlines, people involved in the purchase process and so on. Accordingly frame questions for each pointer. Refer to this list of queries during the meeting.
Tip: If any question really works well for you, make note of it for future use. Post the meeting, update about the conversation in the lead details page of the web CRM software. Mention the question specifically there. Delve more upon this question in the next meeting.
2. Ask multiple follow-up questions
Do not make your question and answer round a onetime process. Further dig into the matter with follow-up questions like
“What’s the reason behind this scenario?”
“How does that impact your business?”
“How much does that increase your profits?”
Tip: Modify your sales process in the online CRM software and make follow-up questions a crucial part of it. Once you get into the habit of asking good follow-up questions, your sales outcome will improve. Gradually make your entire sales team realize the importance of follow-up questions. Include it in your web CRM software as an indispensable part of the organizational sales process.
3. Listen to the prospects
Do not plan your next question when your prospect is talking to you. For example – when your prospect is answering to question A, do not think about question B. Just clear your mind and listen to the response. Try and understand what the buyer is saying. Analyze the responses on multiple levels to decode the objectives of the prospect. Applying this method will automatically pop up the next question in your mind.
For example, if the buyer mentions about price in the response, this can be a possible indication that:
The buyer is qualified, ready to make a deal.
The buyer is comparing the deals to make the final decision.
Tip: If you fear forgetting the questions that you planned for the meeting – Store all of them in your online CRM software. Access it during the meeting as a reference point. In this way (using the web CRM software), you can always have your list of questions in front of you and can get back on track if you forget any one of them.
