Sandler’s 5 Steps to Master the Selling Process

1. You must uncover your prospect’s pain. People buy emotionally, but they make decisions intellectually. You have to uncover the pain- without it people will do what they’ve done all along until maintaining the status quo becomes so painful that something new is required.
2. Get all the money issues out on the table It is important to discuss the cost of your product or service, it’s more important to discuss the cost to your prospects if they do nothing. Deal with money so that you can get paid for what you do. Once you uncover the prospect’s pain, and you know money is available to get rid of the pain, proceed to step 3.
3. You must discover the decision making process your prospect uses when deciding to buy or not buy a product or service. Is your prospect empowered to make the decision alone? How does he make that decision? Can he/she decide to spend the money to get rid of the pain?
4. Present a solution that will get rid of the prospect’s pain. Don’t talk features or benefits. This step has everything to do with us helping the prospect eliminate the pain. Prospects do not buy features and benefits, they buy things to help them overcome or avoid pain. All you have to do is to show your prospects that your product or service will eliminate their pain.
5. You must post-sell your sale. Don’t lose the sale after it’s been made. Don’t allow your competition to swoop in and lose you the deal after you’ve gotten a verbal commitment.

 

Characteristics of a qualified prospect

I’ve been reading a really cool series (4 books) on strategic selling by Patrick Henry Hansen.  The book I’m reading right now is called “The DNA Selling Method“.  Quite a bit of great historical stories are used to show sales best practices.

In discussing qualified prospects, he gives a pretty great succinct definition on page 89.

“A qualified prospect in any industry has four general characteristics:

1. Ultimate decision maker(s)
2. Available Funding
3. Acceptable Timeframe(s)
4. Matching Needs

If any one of the qualifying components is missing, the probability of closing the sale is diminished.  By asking simple qualification questions, sellers identify all four qualifying characteristics, and enhance the probability of working with clients likely to purchase.”