Here’s a simple yet effective approach that you can use early in the sales conversation with your prospect which will help set up the conditions you need in order to earn the sale at the end of your presentation.
Now, with this technique, you begin with a compelling question that’s aimed at the ultimate benefit or result that the customer will enjoy after he owns your product or service, and conclude by qualifying the prospect at the same time.
For instance, let’s say you sell mutual funds. In this case, you’d open with the question, “Richard, if I could show you an investment in which several decades of research confirms that it consistently makes more money over the long term than nine out of every ten competing investments which are managed by professional investors, and is one that will put more of your money to work for you and help you grow your wealth sooner, then are you in a position to invest five thousand dollars in it today?”
You see, by asking this specific question, you’re changing the entire nature of the conversation. Now, it’s no longer as if you’re timidly asking, “Will you listen to me?” But instead, the question becomes, “How much money can you invest after I fulfill the promise contained in my opening question?”
For example, the prospect might say, “Sure, if the investment is actually as good as you say it is, I could invest five thousand today.” Then, you could qualify the prospect even further by asking, “And if you really like it, could you invest ten thousand, or more?”
Here, the prospect will either say yes or no. Yet no matter what he says, you’re qualifying the prospect more precisely and determining exactly what his financial situation is, even before you’ve begun talking about your product or service.
But on the flip side, let’s suppose the prospect says, “I don’t have five thousand dollars.”
In this scenario, you can respond by asking, “If that’s the case, then could you invest three thousand if it was one of the best-performing investments that you’ve ever seen?”
The prospect might say, “Well, if it’s really as good as it seems, I could probably invest three thousand.”
Now, as a result of asking these questions, you’ve qualified the prospect accurately in terms of his financial capacity. And by providing his response, the prospect is now giving you permission to give your presentation and prove that you have the superior investment, the greatest combination of benefits, or the best of whatever it is that you offered him in your opening question.
And from here, you then demonstrate that what you’re offering is absolutely excellent for him right now. Then, at the end of your presentation, he can’t say that he doesn’t have the money, or that he needs to talk to his spouse or his accountant.
Now, the beautiful thing about this technique is that you can adapt it in order to begin the sales process for pretty much any product or service. For instance, if you offer sales training programs to businesses, and you’re speaking with the sales manager who is responsible for making the decisions in this area, you would ask, “William, if I could show you a system that will increase your sales volume by 20 to 30 percent without lowering your prices, and is one that’s unconditionally guaranteed, then are you in a position to get started with it today?”
If the prospect says, “Well, sure, if you can show me a way to increase my sales by 20 to 30 percent, I could make a decision regarding it today,” then your job now is to simply show him that your program will definitely deliver on the promise that you made.
Again, the useful thing about this approach is that by using it, you’ve persuaded the prospect to give you an answer at the end of your presentation. And as a result, after you’ve demonstrated that the prospect will be substantially better off by owning whatever it is that you’re offering, he can’t say that he needs to think about it, or talk it over with his business partner, or check his finances. That’s because he already agreed beforehand that if your product or service is a great option for him, he is in a position to purchase it at this time.
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