1.  As an exercise, take a look at any past sales that were supposedly completed and find any that are “stuck” in the sales department. Get the missing sales process steps on each of them completed immediately and move these completed sales out of the sales area to take the sales person’s attention off of them. Now, re-focus yourself and your team on the creation of new sales. Getting these sales actually fully completed and out of the sales department will have an instant good effect on you and your team. With you and your sales team no longer stuck on any past sales you can put all of your attention and focus on new sales. Please remember to follow the steps of your sales process, though. This is the fastest way to speed up the sale as you will fully complete each step and having a result at each point, your closing percentage will go back up.
2.  Create an incentive or “buy now” for your product. If you already have a discount or special incentives then use it. Look for any existing prospects that have not taken advantage of this incentive and are not moving forward in the sales process. In other words, these sales are not moving or moving slow or stuck. Make a list of them. Now contact each one and do the following (NOTE this is effectively done as a “Quality Control Survey”):
a)  When you make initial contact, let them know that you are conducting a quality survey to ensure they were well taken care of by your company.
b)  Find out what interested them about your company products or services in the first place. Take very good notes of this. Also, note how long they were thinking about a product or service like yours before they contacted your company.
c)  Find out about their existing situation in relation to your product or service. Meaning, are they using a similar product or service now or are they using a completely different product or service that serves a similar purpose? Take very good notes of this.
d)  Find out what they would change or improve about their existing situation. Find out what is ideal from their point of view. Take very good notes of this.
e)  Next, find out how their situation would change if they were able to achieve the ideal results they have described in “d” above. Take very good notes of this.
f)  Lastly, find out if they would change or improve anything regarding the service they have received so far from your company. Acknowledge and note down everything they say. Thank them for their time and then let them know a Sales Representative will be contacting them to ensure they are serviced at the highest level and presented with a solution that gives them the ideal scene they have described in the survey. Or as close to it as possible.
3.  Now that you have all this information, provide this back to the Sales Representative who should call this prospect within 24 hours. The Sales Representative should let the prospect know that they have received the quality control report and are calling to provide the best quality service and solution for them. At this point, the prospect in most cases will be receptive to the Sales Representative.
4.  The Sales Representative should acknowledge and verify the information in the report, getting the prospect to even tell them more about each point. Then present your product and/or service as the ideal solution, gaining agreement from the prospect that this is the best solution for them.  Reminder at this point: If you have created such a desire for your product or service that the client would do whatever it takes to get it, you have done a great job as the salesperson.
5.  Once you have the prospects agreement and the prospects sees that this is the best solution for them, present your incentives or “buy now”.
6.  Objection handling: The following are reminders of what to have in place for objection handlings: One of the key questions you have to ask throughout the sales process is “why should the client buy my product or service from their point of view?” If you can thoroughly answer this question, you have now created urgency in the sale. Another great question is “What would happen to the prospective client if they wait to buy your product or service?” Categories of answers include: Would they continue to lose money and if so how? Would they continue to lose productivity or efficiency in their company and if so how? Would they continue to feel worse and if so how? What would the client miss without your product or service? And you should also answer the opposite questions like: How much money would they gain by signing now? How much company productivity or efficiency would they gain? Would they feel better if they had the product now and if so, how would it make them feel? If you can answer all of these questions from the client’s point of view, you now have a compelling case which will cause the prospective client to urgently move forward and sign the contract. THE DISCOUNTS OR INCENTIVES USED NOW WILL BE THE MOST EFFECTIVE. The combination of both becomes unbeatable.
Nick Terrenzi
Senior Partner SELLability
SELLability – The Pro Sales Network
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