Occasionally EGOPOWER readers send me questions or topic suggestions that I feel would be of interest to you. In this issue I give some tips to improve your sales closing ratio in response to a question Rob Smith wrote me from the UK:
"I sell IT equipment to schools in the UK over the phone. I seem to always hold a massive prospect list that's constantly changing but I'm struggling to get my deals closed. The following is how 85% of my potential deals go:
First Contact:
- I find a prospective customer
- Find out what they have at the moment and what they want (where they want to be with I.T. in the future)
- I find out when they are looking to buy
- And ask who is involved in the decision making
Next Action:
- I put together a proposal and post/email/fax it to my contact
Second Contact:
- I call him/her to discuss the proposal with them, make sure it's what they wanted and make a few extra suggestions.
- I'll try and have a laugh with them to get some rapport going.
- I'll try & confirm a decision date again.
- Say something like - "is this something that we can go ahead with now?" it never is