daniel chigunwe
Clemence Mutembo
I did sales at university and it is one of the areas I like so much in addition to other key marketing areas.
I therefore understand the academic and practical aspects of sales.
Many people wonder where they can get customers from and it’s true that customers do not come easily.
There are many ways through which a business can have customers.
Such ways are referrals and repeat purchases but in this article, we wish to explain how a business can get customers from scratch.
In the world of selling, the very first stage is called prospecting or lead generation.
This is simply the process of generating a list of potential customers from different sources.
A sales person must know where to find people that have the highest likelihood of buying what he or she sells.
If you fail to prospect of generate leads, you have failed the very first stage of the sales process!
When you see someone putting an advert in a newspaper or radio, what that person is doing is creating awareness of his products so as to end up having a list of people potentially interested in his/her products.
There are traditional and modern tools used for prospecting.
If anyone wants to increase their sales, they should know how to generate leads and prospects. Without a constant flow of leads into it, a business has very slim chances of having sales success. Prospecting is not an intermittent process! It has to be continuous and daily process.
One of the very critical stages in the sales process is called handling objections.
Objections are issues that the customer raises as concerns before committing to the product. Some are genuine but some are fake.
There are many types of objections but they essentially come down to three types namely:
1. Product objection
2. Price objection
3. Company objection
Before customers make a purchase decision, they face a number of risks like functional risk.
It is a feeling of uncertainty whether something will work or not. Any customer is justified to ask some questions before committing to any product.
When customers raise objections around your products, do not be harsh to them. Customers want to get an assurance that they are making the right decision.
Product objections are dissolved by demonstrating functionality of the product and also explaining the product’s value and benefits.
Price objections are quite common. Some customers object the price because they are not the right customer for that product, they got in the sales funnel by mistake!
Company objections come up when someone feels that the company is not registered or qualified to provide the solution to the need.
Tell the customer how compliant the company is to the relevant bodies. It will be key for you to also show the company’s experience and track record of delivering.
Successfully handling objections usually results in sales success.
Some customers may buy here and there while some may buy at a future date.
After handling objections, you need to know how to then close the sale. I will explain how to close a sale in the following instalment.
Clemence Mutembo is a high-impact customer experience, sales and brand-building coach who has done over 500 presentations to small, medium and large organisations. You may reach him: 0778 994 994
Bongani Ndlovu