American Express

Posts Tagged ‘prospective customer’

where it is agreed to put forward a proposal or similar,ask your prospective customer exactly what he or she wants. Ask and find out how much detail is wanted. Does the prospective customer want an outline as well as a more detailed document? This will not only save a great deal of wasted time on your part but will also give the customer a document or e-mail to read rather than skim through or be bored with.Then, before you conclude your meeting, agree a day, date and time to return with your proposal – more on this later.

Written proposals really need to meet two most important criteria:
first, they should have a good and logical structure and, second, they should be written in good English, in other words in jargon-free, easy-to-read sentences. Please don’t be verbose. A sales proposal will have a clear structure only if there is clarity of thought, which is why it is so important for you to find out exactly what your prospective customer wants to have included. So what should be included in a proposal? This will be very general, but how about putting yourself in the other person’s shoes? What do you require in that document to help you make the right and best decision? Did you find out before you left the meeting that your prospective customer might be showing the proposal to and discussing it with another person – maybe even a board of directors? It is important to be aware, if there are people you will not be speaking to who are going to be involved in the decision-making process, that your only chance of giving them the best selling information is in that proposal document.

A common belief is that a good sales person can sell anything. We have all heard the expression ‘He or she could sell fridges to Eskimos.’ I take issue with the statement that good sales people can sell anything. They can’t. Good and successful sales people can sell only what they believe in. It is therefore worth establishing at the outset what good sales people actually do.

Very simply it is that, given the chance of meeting a prospective customer, they will complete the transaction and close the sale. Equally they must create an environment and experience that will make the customer come and buy again. Once a sales person has built that trust and relationship, the customer will recommend the sales person or the company to friends, family and connections.

This is what professional selling can achieve. This is what you can do comparatively easily. Therefore it is imperative that you have belief in your product or service. You must convince yourself of the value and the results that your product or service will achieve for your customers. Now it is essential at this stage to mention price, though this will be covered in more detail in Chapter 9. There will be many occasions when your product or service will not be the cheapest, but this must not impede your belief in it.What matters here is that your product or service delivers what you state it will, what is claimed or what the customer is looking for. If it does that, the price is of less importance.