How to persuade your customers of the need to change and the value of buying your product to achieve that change.
Why Change?
The objective for any sales team is to persuade their customers to buy their products. They need to do this as quickly as possible to maximise sales and revenues.
However, before a customer can buy a product, they need to understand how that product will change their existing processes and why that change is a change for the better. If the product is simply presented to the customer without them understanding why they need to change, the opportunity will frequently be lost.
Indeed, studies have shown that up to 60% of opportunities are lost to no decision rather than to a competitor. Without a clear understanding of the risk of doing nothing or a compelling vision of “what better looks like,” customers will tend to do nothing.
This means that rather than selling a product, we first need to sell a reason to change and then demonstrate that our product is the means to effectively deliver this change.
Making a Change
The mere mention of the word change may make some people feel uneasy. We often find ourselves resisting change because of the perceived risk or fear associated with it.
To successfully make a change, people need to go through the five stages of change, known as the Transtheoretical Model.
Pre-contemplation – you need to think differently, receive some new information;
Contemplation – research, what can I expect?
Preparation / Determination – take action, start to see results;
Action – doing things;
Maintenance – it becomes part of normal life.
Download a free Infographic describing this here.
“Progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change their minds, cannot change anything.”
George Bernard Shaw
Catalyst for Sales
Catalyst for Sales is a two day sales training course for sales teams who are not making sales at the speed that they would like to or who are losing opportunities to no decision rather than a competitor.
Before taking this course, sales teams will have lots of opportunities that struggle to get beyond the first few customer meetings. They will feel frustrated at the lack of progress that they are making.
By taking this course, the team will be able to identify the reasons for change within their target accounts, be able to explain the value of those changes to their customer and be able to progress opportunities more rapidly to a conclusion.
The course includes:
What is Change?
Why is it difficult?
Choices
Making Decisions
How to change someone’s mind
Biases
Science of Persuasion
Cold Calling
How to change
How to Change
How to change takes the attendees through the Transtheoretical model for one of their customers. It covers:
Why does your customer need to change?
What do they need to change?
What are the desired outcomes?
How big is the change?
What can you tell them to make them think differently?
What do they need to do to change?
What else might they do?
Who will be impacted?
What is the roadmap?
What problems might occur?
What does success look like?
“If you never change your mind, why have one?”
Edward de Bono
Training
At the end of this training course, sales teams will understand change and why it is difficult, they will understand the reasons for change within their customers and why those reasons should drive those customers to buy their product. They will have a clear plan to work with one customer to immediately start taking action.
By applying the lessons learnt to all other customers, sales teams will be able to make more sales at a faster pace delivering more revenue to their companies.
Feedback from customers
“Tim delivered his Catalyst for Sales training course for my team and it was extremely enlightening and engaging. This is not a standard sales training course. It takes a different view of sales and in particular, how the customer views potential new products and services.
Tim took the time to understand our needs and the issues that affect our business and then developed the course to match those needs. The training has been very valuable for my team and we continue to engage with the process.”
Mark Skinner, Technical Business Development Manager, Shearwater Geophysical
