The following steps provide a good outline for what you should be doing to find potential customers, close the sale, and retain your clients for repeat business and referrals in the future. But in order for a salesperson to use adaptive selling, he or she must thoroughly understand the steps in the selling process and how each works to can use them effectively. It’s Amazon’s invitation to “rate your transaction” after you receive your Amazon order. Selling online has become easily possible nowadays. Undoubtedly, when the salesperson called the target customer to discuss his ovens (in the example, you were the customer), she asked some questions to qualifyDetermining whether a lead has the desire and ability to buy your product or service. Perhaps he is only an employee, not the manager, and he doesn’t have the authority to make the purchasing decision. Adapted from Michael R. Solomon, Greg W. Marshall, and Elnora W. Stuart. The word presentation implies using PowerPoint and giving a salesy spiel, but it doesn’t always have to be that way—you should actively listen to your customer’s needs and then act and react accordingly. In this case, he is no longer a prospect, and the salesperson will move on to another lead. The most popular online Visio alternative, Lucidchart is used in over 180 countries by more than 15 million users, from sales managers mapping out prospective organizations to IT directors visualizing their network infrastructure. From the buyer’s perspective, the follow-up is the implementation step in the buying process. Maybe he will tell you there is occasionally a wait to use the tennis courts at peak times, but you can reserve a spot up to a week in advance, in which case you can get right in. 7 Steps to Selling Your Small Business. New skills need to be practised, the most powerful of which for me – keeping quiet, and thus actively listening – has been my biggest challenge. This usually involves introductions, making some small talk, asking a few warm-up questions, and generally explaining who you are and whom you represent.Paul Cherry, Questions That Sell: The Powerful Process of Discovering What Your Customer Really Wants (New York: AMACOM, 2006), 21.,Neil Rackham, The SPIN Selling Fieldbook (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996), 40. Cut out steps that are unnecessary to your particular business and focus on your customer. In the same way, almost all selling—regardless of the product that’s being sold—follows a particular sequence of steps. After all, spending an hour discussing the capabilities of your company’s ovens with a lead that is about to go out of business would be a waste of time. and actually leads you back to the first step in the selling process because it provides the opportunity to learn about new needs for this customer or new customers through referrals. The Fastest, Easiest Home Selling Process. Mastering each one of these stages is essential if you're going to succeed in sales. She visited your restaurant, reviewed your menu, spoke with some of the wait staff, read reviews on the city magazine Web site, and even had some conversations with some of your patrons on Chef’s Blog. 4. Note that the sales process in Anritsu EMEA does not differ much from the classical seven steps selling process that can be found in the literature … The process begins with initiating contact with the client and ends after a salesperson closes the deal. The second stage has you in preparation for initial contact with a potential customer, researching the market and collecting all relevant information regarding your product or service. This is where you listen to your prospect’s concerns and address them. This is called the approachThe first few minutes of a sales call, during which the salesperson explains her purpose for coming and establishes a rapport.. Hesitations or concerns a prospect might have about the product or purchasing process. Summarise actions at the end of a meeting (use the same document internally and externally). This is the other component to step one. Salespeople qualify their prospects so they can focus their sales efforts on the people who are most likely to buy. Salespeople have adapted the specifics of the process as culture and technology have changed, but the fact that they’ve followed the same basic model has for so long testifies to its effectiveness. Consider the last major purchase you made. See the license for more details, but that basically means you can share this book as long as you credit the author (but see below), don't make money from it, and do make it available to everyone else under the same terms. A potential buyer for a product or service; also referred to as a qualified lead. This step is called prospectingIdentifying potential buyers for a product or service., and it’s the foundational step for the rest of the sales process. She explains that the ovens she sells heat up quickly and use energy more efficiently. While the basics of the selling process have remained the same over the years, the methods of communication and the way people interact are quickly evolving with the use of the interactive capabilities on the Internet by customers and salespeople alike. This is a very important step in the entire sales process as the deal can either break or close at this step. Take a look at some real-world selling examples below and how of each of the steps is used. A good salesperson researches his prospect, familiarizing himself with the customer’s needs and learning all the relevant background info he can about the individual or business.Geoffrey James, “6 Things to Know about Every Prospect,” BNET, January 12, 2009, http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=705 (accessed June 9, 2009). The first of the seven steps in the sales process is prospecting. The prospecting and qualifying step relates to the needs awareness step in the buying process described in Chapter 6 "Why and How People Buy: The Power of Understanding the Customer". This is the point where the potential gym member signs her membership agreement, the restaurant owner decides to purchase the ovens, or your friend says, “Sure, let’s go camping next weekend!” Sometimes a salesperson has to make several trial closesAn attempt to close the sale. There are several stages involved in the process and a salesman has to understand all the stages in the process to make the process more effective. Account maps are an effective way of identifying these buyers. 5. The preparation and research a salesperson does before making the sales call. The sales process from prospect to close is often full of uphill climbs, twisting paths, and unexpected turns. Selling the image of the company and not actually the products offered by the company . Or maybe he’ll say that while they don’t have kickboxing classes, they offer Zumba, which is a fun aerobic alternative. Do you notice a pattern? The 7 step selling process comprises: Prospecting and qualifying; Preparation/pre-approach; Approach; Presentation; Overcoming objections; Closing the sale; Follow-up; Step 1: Prospecting and qualifying. While it might seem like you’ve accomplished your goal, the customer relationship has only begun. Did the salesperson use the seven steps? is an important part of assuring customer satisfaction, retaining customers, and prospecting for new customers. 3. Why don’t we plan to go then, once your project’s out of the way?”. Think of the front wheel as the buying cycle and the back wheel as the selling cycle. Unresponsive to the needs and objections of clients . Ovens are a big expense—what happens if you aren’t satisfied with the product? The 7 Steps of Buying and Selling Process PowerPoint delivers the sequence of steps of Business-to-Business Sales and Business-to-Consumer Sales process. What happens if the customer is not interested in the salesperson’s product, or he’s interested but his business is struggling financially and doesn’t have the resources for a big purchase? William C. Moncreif and Greg W. Marshall, “The Evolution of the Seven Steps of Selling,”. Let’s take a closer at the 7-step sales process: Prospecting, Preparation, Approach, Presentation, Handling Objections, Closing, and Follow-Up. Sales process vs. sales methodology. 1 (2005): 13–22. For details on it (including licensing), click here. Has this book helped you? Did you know you can create a free account and start diagramming with just an email address? The sales process doesn’t end with the close; Think of a personal interaction in which you sold someone on an idea (e.g., a vacation, a choice of movies, or a date). Now, take a minute to review this selling situation in the box below to see exactly how the steps are implemented. It’s a good idea to stay connected—set up a calendar for repeated contact with potential, present, and past customers. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008), 450. Follow-up also includes logistical details like signing contracts, setting up delivery or installation dates, and drawing up a timeline. The 7 steps of selling process are explained below in detail: 1. Chapter 3 "The Power of Building Relationships: Putting Adaptive Selling to Work", Chapter 6 "Why and How People Buy: The Power of Understanding the Customer", http://www.sellingpower.com/content/newsletter/issue.php?pc=868, http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=705. 1 (2005): 14, 15. is generally divided into seven steps that, once you understand them, will empower you to sell virtually anything you want and satisfy your customers: Each step of the seven-step process is covered thoroughly in this and the next six chapters so that you can learn the details of each step and how to apply them in various selling situations. Learn about sales process mapping. Relying on product literature for product knowledge totally . You have to handle objections and try, try, try again. Each stage of the process should be undertaken by the salesperson with utmost care. As the old adage goes, “Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.” Once you’ve mastered the seven steps of the sales process you might learn in a business class or sales seminar, then you can break the rules where necessary to create a sales process that, like a rogue cop in a bad TV show, doesn’t follow procedure but gets results. Sales engineers can use Lucidchart to visually demonstrate how your product or service solves client problems and makes their lives easier, such as the flowchart below. Prospecting. Then, you sit down to discuss pricing options and payment plans. The process of selling a product covers various steps like prospecting, pre-approach, approach, presentation, handling objections, closing & followup with customers. An effective sales process is: Clearly, Hollywood has come to learn that this particular structure is the secret to keeping the audience’s attention, earning positive reviews, and selling movies. When one is extremely well versed in a particular product especially a technical one, it is easy to get caught up in a monologue of all the great features it provides. For more information on the source of this book, or why it is available for free, please see the project's home page. The selling processA sequence of steps that builds a framework for selling. However, the publisher has asked for the customary Creative Commons attribution to the original publisher, authors, title, and book URI to be removed. Maybe you received a promotional offer in the mail, your friends on Facebook have had good things to say about a particular gym, or you picked this club because it’s close to home. The first few minutes of a sales call, during which the salesperson explains her purpose for coming and establishes a rapport. In the approach stage, you make first contact with your client. What are the seven steps in the sales process? In other words, in a perfect world, you are identifying customers who are in the process of or have already identified a need. In fact, it has become one of the most popular platforms people prefer buying from. The seven-step sales process outlined in business textbooks is a good start, especially since 40% of sales teams don’t have a playbook—and a playbook or sales strategy makes you 33% more likely to close sales at a higher rate. 6. Determining whether a lead has the desire and ability to buy your product or service. Failing to ask for order . At this point, you develop your sales presentation and tailor it to your potential client’s particular needs. You’re interested, but you’re concerned that the ovens might not cook food evenly. You can develop a successful sales process for your business using these 10 essential steps to selling. The following steps provide a good outline for what you should be doing to find potential customers, close the sale, and retain your clients for repeat business and referrals in the future. Although you may not have realized it while you were reading it, the situation follows the seven-step selling process. The selling process A sequence of steps that builds a framework for selling. Typically, a sales process consists of 5-7 steps: Prospecting, Preparation, Approach, Presentation, Handling objections, Closing, and Follow-up. There are no commissions or fees. The 5-Step Selling Model is fairly standard in big-ticket retail. If you’re a real estate agent selling a house and your customers are an older, retired couple, you won’t take them to see a house with many bedrooms, several flights of stairs to climb, and a huge yard to keep up—nor will you show them around a trendy loft in a busy part of town. The preapproachThe preparation and research a salesperson does before making the sales call. Whether you’re buying a gym membership or a car, cell phone service or a new computer, the situation may be different, but the steps in the selling process will follow the same pattern. After you present the product to your prospects, a middle-aged married couple, they tell you they are very interested but are concerned they might be out of town on some of the weekends when there are home games, and they don’t want their tickets to go to waste. You feel like this might help you solve your problem, so you agree to lease the machine for four months.