Recently I almost committed to a builder to develop a new house, largely because the salesperson had such a great selling tool. This company was smaller and less credible than the other builders, and the salesperson was not as confident or charismatic as his competitors, yet his main sales tool created such as sense of buy-in that it levelled the playing field.
For all you salespeople selling new houses, if you dont have an interactive tool that allows your customers to play and change floor plans, adjust the dimensions automatically and give a 3D view of the what the inside the new house will potentially look like inside and out, then you better invest immediately!
This tool helped me and my partner to better understand the product and also gave us a sense of buy-in that no other builder did. However, this salesperson took way too long to prepare the quote and come back nowhere near the ball park in terms of budget. So the tool on its own didn’t get the job done, but it added extra value to the weakest salesperson’s proposition and almost won him the business.
In a past life I co-owned one of Australia’s largest web marketing companies. But we weren’t always successful until we came up with an idea for creating mock-up websites (essentially two flat pages) which the customers paid us for. The creative concepts were a small cost compared to the overall project investment, but it showed us which customers were serious, so we could invest more time and energy towards more of the right opportunities.
These creative mock-ups become an invaluable tool in our sales process to help the customer better understand our product: see it, feel it, play with it, which led to greater buy-in.
This strategy allowed us to stop giving away so much free information (proposals) which drained valuable time, energy and resources. It’s also meant salespeople could focus their time more effectively instead of chasing prospects that never returned phone calls once they received their free information and ran.
It was also much easier to sell a customer a creative concept than the entire project. But once the client liked the creative the sale was already made. As a result, our time management and sales process improved dramatically. Conversion rates improved, sales went up and our business grew rapidly. The power of the right tool! Very cool.
What type of tools can you develop to help your customers better understand your product or service? Remember, give them something that helps them in some way. Or make it something they can really sink their teeth into, so in their minds they have already purchased it.
The right sales tool may take some time to think about and develop, moreover a few attempts to get right. But when you do get it right, the tool will not only assist your customers but will also empower your salespeople.
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Trent Leyshan is the founder and CEO of BOOM Sales! a leading sales training and sales development specialist. He is also the creator of The NAKED Salesman, BOOMOLOGY! RetroService, and the Empathy Selling Process.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
