Complete The Communication Cycle
Great salespeople have the ability to listen and to communicate a message to potential customers. The most successful salespeople also make sure that the communication cycle has been completed. In other words, the salesperson knows, without a doubt, that they were heard and understood by their customer. Only through communicating a message and getting acknowledgment from the customer can we know that we were heard and understood.
Many salespeople have trained themselves to talk in terms of just features, or just benefits, or simply features and benefits. In other words, saying "This ring has a six prong head, a fourteen karat gold band and one carat total weight of diamonds." (All Features) Or saying "The diamonds in this ring are secure, you won't have to worry about an allergic reaction and has beautiful diamonds" (All Benefits) Or saying "This ring has a six prong head making the diamonds secure and a fourteen karat gold band that won't cause an allergic reaction and one carat total weight of diamonds making it beautiful." (All features and benefits)
Never, during these scenarios did we complete the communication cycle with the customer, insuring that we were heard and that the customer understood and agreed with what we were saying. An Agreement Question will complete the communication cycle and thus increase your sales productivity. For example; This ring has a six prong head that makes the diamond extremely secure and security is important to her isn't it? Additionally this ring is made of fourteen karat gold that means she won't have to worry about an allergic reaction as you stated, right? Also this ring has one carat total weight of diamonds giving it the beauty that you wanted for her. Isn't it gorgeous? As you can see, with an agreement question and completing the communication cycle, you insure that you were heard, your customer is involved in the presentation and reacting to what you said. Thus increasing your sales, don't you agree?
FINAO -
Brad Huisken is President, IAS Training and has been in sales since 1971. Since that time he has been directly involved in all aspects of Sales and Sales Management. His experience and knowledge have enabled him to author the book I'm a Salesman! Not a Ph.D. In addition he has developed several sales and sales management seminars for his company, IAS Training, and authors a weekly newsletter, "Sales Insight."
