The first thing I want you to know is this I am very, very excited about sharing this sales system with you! Over the next six months I will walk you through every step of the exact same system that I have been using since 1991. In 1990, I began to rethink everything that I had learned about selling after more than 10 years of successful sales experience. In 1991 I launched a voluntary dental insurance business using an entirely new strategy that took me from zero revenue to an $11,000 monthly income in eighteen months. In the years since, I have employed the same strategies to build my various other endeavors.
Here is what I have learned in the years since 1991:
- You should never try to overcome an objection to an appointment
- You should never try to overcome the I want to think about it objection
- There is no need for a complicated questioning strategy
- It is not about how many appointments you get. It is about the quality of the appointments
- Selling is about recognizing that prospects do not know what they do not know
Why?
What makes my sales system so effective is that you will only schedule appointments with prospects who actually want to meet with you and have an expressed interest in your sales proposition. An expressed interest means that you did not have to overcome an objection to the appointment. It also means that the appointment is based on a specific deliverable outcome or a specific product. I never, ever use the I would like to meet with you and introduce myself and learn more about you and your company approach. That is a visit and not a sales appointment.
The next criterion for a great appointment is to make sure I am meeting with a decision-maker. The only time that I will meet with a non-decision-maker is when I have been referred down by the decision-maker. Even when selling dental insurance, I never begin with the person who handles the insurance or the person handling HR. If the business owner or president wants to refer me to either of those I am fine, because having that referral changes the nature of the appointment.
Finally, a great appointment is one where the decision-maker must be open to making a change. At the end of the day, a salesperson is really an agent of change. Whether you are asking the decision-maker to make you the agent of record, whether you want to replace the existing plan, or even when you want to sell an additional line of coverage, you are asking the prospect to make a change. Any appointment with a prospect who has stated that he/she will not make any changes until renewal is a visit but not a sales appointment.
One can argue that the visit creates a foundation for the relationship and that is true, but we are all incredibly busy. Our goal is to use our valuable selling time to sell.
Next month I will discuss creating a value proposition that sells.
