by Peter Ebner

As Daniel Boorstin said in his book “The Discoverers,” “The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents and the oceans was not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.” It is this illusion of knowledge that prevents many salespeople from reaching their objectives.   

Every day I meet with experienced salespeople that truly believe that they have mastered the art of selling.  So instead of holding themselves accountable and improving their skills, they blame poor sales on forces that are out of their control. They are under the illusion that it is their territory, the economy or the competition that is costing them sales, when in fact poor performance is always an indication of a lack of skills. So here are some simple exercises that will measure your ability to land the job. 

Do your best to answer the following questions. Not only will they sharpen your selling skills, they will help you identify areas that need improvement. 

1. Why should the prospect order from you instead of the competition? Studies have consistently shown that the No. 1 reason for lost sales is not that your price is too high or because your prospect is happy with his present supplier, but because most salespeople fail to make a presentation that distinguishes them from the competition. Unfortunately, most salespeople still believe that offering the prospect quality printing, competitive prices and outstanding services will land the job. These are the minimum requirements for doing business. It is what you offer your prospect above and beyond these minimum requirements that will set you apart from the competition and justify your higher price. In other words, if you’re not giving your prospect several reasons to order from you – then the only distinguishing feature will be the price. There is always someone that will print the same job for less. 2. Are you giving up on call-backs? You rarely meet a new prospect who has a job that is ready to go to press. In most cases, landing a job requires several call backs. In fact, studies show that 80 percent of all new sales are made on the fifth or sixth call. Unfortunately, many salespeople (48 percent) give up after one call, and 25 percent give up after the second call, because few have learned to take advantage of the call-back. When properly executed, the call-back offers an excellent opportunity to build rapport and to gain the prospect’s trust – if you make the call-back a positive experience for the prospect. 

All too often salespeople call back for the wrong reason. They call back because they want something – “Ms Prospect, It’s Peter from Lucky Print. I was in to see you about a month ago and I’m just calling to see if there is anything that I can quote for you at this time” – when in fact, the call-back must benefit the prospect. 

Unless the prospect is ready to order, don’t play all your cards during the meeting; instead keep something in your hand that you can use as a reason to call back. For example, even though you may have samples with you, if your prospect asks to see them, don’t show them at this time. Instead, make an appointment to show the samples at a later date. 

If your prospect’s job will not be ready to go to press for six months, look for reasons to call back every month. If the job is ready to be printed in six weeks, look for reasons to call back every week. 

3. Do you know what
your prospects want? The secret to selling is to very simple, all
you need to do is to give your prospects what they want. But what do your prospects want? Do they want low prices, fast turnaround, increased
response to their mailer, an improved corporate image, or better efficiency? The list is endless, and you have no way of knowing unless you ask, so before making a presentation, always ask your prospect a series of probing questions that
identify his wants and concerns. To maximize the benefit of this questioning period, your questions must be preplanned. Select a target market (such as direct mail, small run magazines or corporate brochures) and write out 30 probing questions for each of these target markets. 

4. Do you have a sense of urgency? Although you deserve to be proud of your tightly run shop that offers fast, efficient service, all too often your fast, efficient service costs you the job. Consider the following scenario; 

Prospect: “If I decide to go ahead with this, how soon could I get the job?” Salesperson: “I can probably get your job on press by tomorrow and have it folded and delivered within the next three days.” If the prospect in this example doesn’t need the job for another five weeks, he won’t order now, because the salesperson just told him that he can wait four weeks before placing the order and still get delivery on time. Well, a lot can happen during the next four weeks. The prospect could change his mind. He might shop around and get closed by the competition. He might even find someone who will print the same job for less! So never tell your prospects how soon they can get the job until you know how soon they want it. Always keep in mind that if you don’t give your prospects a reason to order the job today, they won’t, and time quickly kills desire. 

5. What can your company features do for your customers? Salespeople often get caught up in telling prospects about the wonderful things that they can do and about the state-of-the-art printing equipment purchased. They’re not interested! The only thing prospects want to know is “What can you do for me?” In other words, every time you mention a feature, you must translate it into a benefit. For example, telling your prospect that you’ve been in business for over 25 years is a waste of time unless you follow through and turn this feature into a benefit: “Because we have been in business for over 25 years, we have the experience to identify costly mistakes before they happen and that will save you time and money.” 6. What are some ways to change a job? If you are quoting your prospect’s exact specs, you are forcing the prospect to compare quotes where the only distinguishing feature between you and the competition is the price. But when you change the specs, your prospect can no longer compare identical quotes, and price becomes a secondary issue. Whenever possible, change your prospect’s specs, but keep in mind that any changes you make must benefit the prospect. Create a list of ways that you could change a job. For example, you could change the stock, the finish, the length of the run, etc… 7. What are your weaknesses? There is no denying that all print shops have perceived weaknesses. It could be that your shop is too big, or too small; that your location is out of the way or that your equipment is outdated. While some prospects may feel that you can’t service them adequately because you only have one press, others may feel uncomfortable giving you their work because your shop is filled with too many presses. A weakness is only a matter of perception, so by changing your prospect’s perception you can change a weakness into a strength. For example, if you happen to be the new shop on the block and you’re consistently losing sales to prospects who say “We only deal with well-established printers” you could address this concern by boasting about it in your presentation. Mr. Prospect, the fact that we are the new printer on the block is exactly why you should be dealing with us. Our new state-of-the-art presses allow us to print quality work at a lower production cost than many established printers and that means we can pass these savings on to you.” 

8. Can you answer your critics? 

Most salespeople are losing jobs to the same four or five objections. For example, do you know what to say when the prospect says “I can get the same job elsewhere for less” or “I need three quotes before I decide”? If not you are losing jobs, but needlessly so, because the proven and tested techniques that easily overcome all objections have already been developed. Keep a list of the objections you hear and take the time to memorize the responses that turn these objections into sales. 9. How can you ask for the order
without asking for a purchase? Closing is a major stumbling block for many salespeople. All too often the salesperson will work hard to find a new prospect. He’ll spend time gathering the job’s details and writing a competitive quote and then he’ll just wait for the client to say “I’ll take it.” Unfortunately, eight out of 10 prospects will say “Let me think it over and I’ll get back to you” unless the salesperson takes that all important step and asks for the order. But asking for the order once is not enough, since most sales do not occur until the third closing attempt. If you expect to increase your sales, you’ll need to ask for the order three times.