The Sales Advantage summary

Have you ever picked up a musical instrument for the first time? At first, you poke and prod it to investigate how it works, but honestly, this gets boring pretty quickly. Yet once you start improving, you begin to find the act of playing truly enjoyable. Pretty soon, you're naturally compelled to do it just for fun.

Similarly, when it comes to proactively seeking new customers – that is, prospecting – the more you practice, the more pleasant the experience will be. As much as you may dread looking for new prospects, remember that without planting the seeds of new customer relationships, you won't be able to harvest long-term leads. And without practice, you won’t get to the point where you actually enjoy prospecting either.

Let’s say you’ve identified your prospect. Wasting no time, you pick up the phone and dial her number. When she answers, you launch right into talking about your company and your offer. So far, so good! But, within the first 15 seconds, she cuts you short; she’s not interested. Before you even have a chance to say goodbye, the line goes dead.

This is the worst-case scenario for every salesperson – after all, your main goal at this stage is to grab a prospect’s attention. But then again, how can you know what will interest your customer if you haven’t done your research? In order to determine which opportunities are likely to develop into real prospects, you need to do some investigating – this is what’s known as developing your pre-approach strategy, and it’s one of the most crucial steps to landing a meeting.

If you’re in the lobby of a movie theater, you’ll notice that most movie posters include quotes of praise. Usually, these are from critics who use words like “masterpiece” and “tour-de-force,” and including them is a bid to convince you to watch a particular movie rather than the others on display. What you won’t see is a quote from the director or cast of the movie in question – while you’d expect them to praise it, too, you wouldn’t necessarily take their word for it. That’s why the critics’ quotes are there: they act as a credibility statement.

Similarly, when it’s time for you to initiate contact with your prospect, it’s less effective to open with your own opinion. Instead, build credibility about the solution you’re selling by showing your prospect how others in a similar situation have benefited from it.

Imagine you’re a human resources manager in a manufacturing company. One day, you receive a sales brochure in the mail. Attached is a cover letter opening with, “Dear customer,” followed by information about a recruiting firm’s new technology. Doesn’t sound exactly riveting, does it? Chances are you’d toss it in the recycling right away.

Now picture a different scenario. Along with the brochure, you receive a cover letter that addresses you by a nickname you like, and the first sentence reads: “I noticed that you’ve been running recruitment ads for engineers.” That’s exactly what you’ve been doing, so you keep reading, hooked by what the author terms attention-getters. These phrases or actions get your prospect interested in what you’re selling by taking her mind off whatever she’s focused on, and onto what you’re saying.

So you’ve found your opportunity, done your pre-approach, initiated direct communication, and caught your prospect's attention. Now you’ve finally reached the stage of the process where your prospect is willing to meet with you. Congratulations! You’re exactly where you want to be. Now it’s time to improve the odds that your interaction will be effective and enjoyable for everyone involved.

During this stage, your goal is similar to during the pre-approach: you want to build on the information you already have in order to find out more about what your prospect wants, including the full specifications of the product or service she needs, and also why she needs it. This is what the author refers to as your prospect’s Dominant Buying Motive. And it will be your key to having leverage over the negotiation process.

When you’re at a store and the cashier asks, “Would you like to pay by cash or card?” there’s a reason he’s not asking an open-ended question like “Would you like to buy these now?” Once you’re at the checkout counter, he can safely assume that you’ve made a commitment to buy and present you with two low-stakes choices. This technique is known as alternative choices and it’s one of many that you can use to nudge a prospect closer to commitment once you’ve landed your meeting. As we've seen, it's not about hard-nosed tactics – sometimes asking the right question is all it takes.

In addition to asking your prospect to make one of two low-stake choices, questions that refer to the next step in the sales process can also help you take the meeting beyond the pitch to the sale. For instance, if your prospect expresses interest in your offer but stops short of making an order, you can jump in and say: “When would you like me to schedule the delivery?” Keep in mind, these “next-step questions” shouldn’t be yes or no ones, since you don’t want no for an answer. In other words, avoid questions like “Would next Thursday be a good time to install the machine?” since your prospect may have countless reasons why that day wouldn’t work.

Do you remember getting behind the wheel of a car for the very first time? Looking at the dashboard, you probably wondered what all the buttons and switches were for. Once you’ve been driving to work every morning for 20 years, this scenario might seem a little silly. That’s because eventually, driving became second nature.

Think of handling objections to your sales in the same way. When someone turns you down, the experience can make you feel dejected. But as you acquire the tools to navigate objections as they come up, you’ll gradually become able to turn any objection to your favor.