Last week we looked behind the curtain at pieces of the sales process that should be in place to help your business be more effective and flexible in its sales process. Now, we look to focus on pieces of the Sales Process that are external and the pieces that the client sees, hears, and touches. In the most effective sales processes, these external pieces connect seamlessly, giving the prospect or client the impression that purchasing the product or service is the natural and logical conclusion of the interaction. Pieces of the Sales Process puzzle we are going to focus on this week are scripts, agendas, and sales materials.
- Scripts: This is not about making the sales process impersonal or turning your sales team into robots, forced to utter specific phrases. Scripts are about the message and ensuring that your message is delivered consistently, every time the opportunity arises. Scripts should be practiced again and again so that the message is clear and ingrained in your sales people. Once the message is ingrained, your sales people then have the ability to make it their own and deliver the message that fits their style. An elevator speech is a perfect example of a scripted message that has been learned and then modified to fit the person delivering the message.
- Agendas: There is nothing worse than a client sitting with a sales person for thirty minutes then having that sales person bring up a key piece of information as the client is leaving the meeting. It gives the impression that the sales person is, at best, unprepared or at worst, incompetent. Agendas allow the process to move along at a prescribed pace, highlighting the topics of conversation for both the sales person and the prospect or client. By providing an agenda, there is a higher probability of prospect engagement because they know where the conversation is heading and have the built in opportunities to ask questions during the process. This level of engagement leads to more sales.
- Sales Materials: The materials your sales people use in the sales process need to be relevant to the conversation. Charts, graphs, and infographics don’t mean anything if they don’t relate to the conversation being held with a prospect. Materials should support the conversation, give clear examples, and be easy to understand given the prospects level of sophistication. The material used would also be a vehicle to continue the message used throughout your sales process. Use colors and fonts to draw the prospect into the material where it supports the presentation by the sales person.
The external pieces of your sales process serve to enhance the presentation and delivery of the sales person. Scripts, agendas, and materials engage, support, and reinforce the message of your company. Use them wisely.