The Master Sales Strategies for Business Funding Pros
What does it sound like?
“I’m not doing anything right now, I haven’t reopened yet.”
Where does it typically show up?
Prospecting Call: making contact with a lead for the first time.
What do we do with it?
Turn around. Key Objective: to turn around the objection, engage the lead further, and continue to guide the lead through the sales process to ultimately close and fund!
How do we turn it around?
In Zachary Ramirez’ video, Cold Call Basics! What you need to know, he does a great job explaining how to greatly improve the effectiveness of every cold call.
From the first second of the video to the 4 minute mark you can see him deliver the first key takeaway from this talk:
Said another way, know the key objectives you want to achieve with every single call within the Sales Process.
If you know exactly what specific result you are trying to accomplish with every single conversation you have, you will speed up sales cycles, maximize time, get to more deals, and fund more deals.
If you get stuck on tactics but aimlessly talk your way through calls, at best, you will waste time, and at worst you’ll lose deals.
Time kills deals.
“Gathering the application is your utmost goal. It’s not to call them and get rapport or whatever. Those are tactics that help you accomplish your goal.”
-Zach
Know that whatever tactics, steps or tips you execute within a call are only as effective as they are in helping you achieve your key objective for that call in the most efficient way possible.
Zach’s cold call example falls within Sales Phase 1 – The Prospecting Phase. If everything went perfect on this call, you would get an application out and in on that same call.
Know what you’re after. If you know exactly what you are trying to accomplish, every word that comes out of your mouth must be in alignment with accomplishing that goal. Don’t dilly dally.
What if the merchant is not in the market for financing now and you can’t get the application?
The late Dr. Stephen Covey synthesized the common patterns in the leaders he studied and worked with in his 1989 best-seller, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
At the core of his message is the belief that the way we see the world is entirely based on our own perceptions. In order to change any given situation, we must change ourselves. And, in order to change ourselves, we must be able to change our perceptions.
Put simply, in the context of this crisis:
In order to change/improve the state of things during this crisis, we must change/improve ourselves first.
In order to change/improve ourselves, we must change/improve our perceptions.
“The way we see the problem is the problem.”
-Covey
To undergo a paradigm shift and upgrade ourselves fundamentally, we must go beyond the surface level and alter our behavior for the long-term.
This is where the habits (7) come in:
4. Think Win-Win
Quick Hits:
In order to establish effective strategic alliances, we must commit to creating Win-Win situations that are mutually beneficial to each party.
To Covey, there are six paradigms of human interaction:
Recap:
On our Sales Process map, if each Stage is a mile marker on the highway to Funding, the roadways in between the markers are the Phases.
Here are all the Phases:
Each one of these Phases has specific steps to complete to get to the next Stage, and there are Key Steps to take in each Stage to accelerate your sales cycles and closings.
This is what it looks like when we put it all together:
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 1 – The Prospecting Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 2 – The Consulting Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 3 – The Application Sending Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 4 – The Application Reeling-in Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 5 – The Submitting Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 6 – The Closing Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 7 – The Contracting Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 8 – The Contract Reeling-in Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 9 – The Closing Stip Reeling-in Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 10 – The Funding Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
*Phase 7 – The Contracting Phase*
Most sales reps see listening as a necessary process needed to close deals but may not acknowledge its true power. Really, most reps are often just waiting for their turn to talk or thinking about what to say next, instead of truly listening to the prospect.
Top performers, Funding Pros, understand listening is their greatest tool in closing deals and producing Results. It’s not so much what you say, but what you listen for and key on that makes the biggest difference in dealmaking.
How you listen will determine how effective you are at consulting the influencing the merchant.
With as much information out there as there is now, merchants can run a quick Google search, and in short time, gather as much information about a product as most sales reps have.
Therefore, it is more challenging now for reps to demonstrate their expertise and value – to separate themselves as merchants’ Trusted Advisors.
Establishing trust in sales cycles comes down to building rapport quickly, uncovering buyer needs and making the prospect feel that you understand their world.
Whether its funding deals, making your spouse happy, negotiating, resolving a conflict, or influencing your kids, we need to listen at a deeper level if we want to be effective at achieving our outcomes in those conversations.
Enter Active Listening.