What do you do after you land a big sale? The first answer that comes to mind might be to celebrate, but remember, in sales, success breeds success, particularly when you learn to build loyalty in the sales relationship with your customers.
Follow Up
Most initial sales promise to solve a short-term, critical problem for the customer. Before you consider the sales cycle complete, however, you should have a plan for developing loyalty in that customer relationship, suggests Tim Murray. Murray is president of the Sales Board, a Minneapolis-based company that provides sales training and sales skills certification.
"The best way to deepen the sales relationship and create loyalty with a customer is to do what you did to earn the business in the first place," Murray explains. "On every call, you should learn about the customer's needs, present solutions and gain agreement to move forward."
Ask Questions
Murray trains salespeople in the Action Selling method, which encourages asking open-ended questions that help customers reveal their greatest and most significant needs.
"Open-ended questions are the crowbars of the mind," says Murray. "You can get a tremendous amount of information and identify a significant number of needs by asking questions like: 'How confident are you that you'll achieve your sales target this year' or 'What are the most significant challenges your department is facing this year?'"
Murray advises salespeople to listen twice as much as you speak. The sale isn't about your needs, but your prospects and customers. You should pay close attention to their comments and repeat back what they've shared in order to confirm that you've understood them correctly.
