Blog – Page 3 – Synergy For Success

June 20, 2018July 24, 2025

The Perfect Sales Pitch

The reason you lost your last sale… 

How good are you at presenting your company’s products or services?
How good are your team members at presenting on the phone or in person?
When was the last time you and your team reviewed and practiced your sales pitches?

Think back to a recent purchase you made in which you were assisted by a sales person or BDM. What was the manner in which they presented their product or service?

Believe it or not, the pitch is one of the most important parts of the sales process.

The most successful companies are the ones that have created a slick and powerful sales pitch. The reason for creating the slick sales pitch is purely to win more deals.

The reason you lost your last sale is because a competitor presented a better sales pitch than you!

So let’s take a look at what we need to consider before creating the most amazing sales pitch ever:

What is the client seeking – what is their pain ? What are they asking for ?
What benefits does your product offer the client?
Clearly and concisely, what is your point of difference in the marketplace?
What value proposition can you offer the client?
What is your after-sales process – what happens if the client is not delighted?
What guarantee or warranty do you offer?

Learn more about crafting a powerful sales process at the valuable 2-Day training event

A closer look at each of these questions in detail

What is the client seeking – what is their pain? What are they asking for?
Most orders are lost because the salesperson fails to build a rapport with the prospect and find out what their pain is. Finding out what the client is seeking, and why they are in the market is a crucial part of the sales process. Unless you know what their pain is, how can you solve their problem ? We like to rush in and offer the client a product and price, before we have really started to understand what their needs are.
Example: A dentist’s client may be asking for straight teeth, but what they may really be asking for is social acceptance, confidence, or a shot at fame.
Stepping into your clients shoes and worldview, what is the underlying cause of their pain?
When they are buying your product or service, what are they really asking for?

What benefits does your product offer the client?
Rather than just offering a product, why don’t we tell the prospect what the features are of the product. Let the prospect know what the benefits are to them. I can tell you that the best sales teams in the world know every feature and benefit of their product and know how to explain it to the customer in terms of what it means for them – so for example, “stainless steel fasteners” alone does not persuade the client, but “Stainless Steel Fasteners” means that “ the product will not corrode and will not require ongoing maintenance’ and in turn this means more uptime for you !”
What are the features of your product?
What are the benefits of these features?

Clearly and concisely, what is your point of difference in the marketplace?
Who are you? Why should I deal with your company? Are you Australia’s only distributor of Authentic Indigenous Artwork? What is your real difference – No one knows what your point of difference is except for you – so you will need to spend some time reviewing who you are and why I should buy from you.
What do you have that no one else in the marketplace have?

What value proposition can you offer the client ?
If I buy your product can I feel safe if you are the cheapest or the dearest ?
Have you evaluated your product in the marketplace – where do you stand ? If you are the dearest, how can you justify to me the price difference ? If your product is one of the cheapest in the marketplace – how can I be sure that your product will serve me ?
What price point is your product and how does it compare in the marketplace?
How do your clients know they can trust you at this price?

What is your after-sales process – what happens if the client is not delighted?
Small things mean a lot to customers – let them know what your after sales process is – does the product have a warranty? How long is the product warranted for? What is the process if it breaks down? Who do they call? Is it serviced locally? Let the customer know that you have a fine tuned process for making things good. And by the way, don’t forget to tell the customer about spare parts and accessories – this is often forgotten in Sales Pitches.
What is your after-sales process?
How do you/could you inform your clients about this?
If your client is not delighted, how do you find out and what do you do about it?

NEXT: Weave this knowledge into your sales pitch

Once you start to understand more about your product and its position in the marketplace you can start to weave this into your sales pitch. Once you can articulate to your prospect the points as discussed above in a persuasive manner you will then be able to tighten your sales ratios and win more deals – that is what sales is all about.

Would your team benefit from learning more about crafting a powerful sales pitch?

The Synergy For Success 2-Day Sales Training Event, August 9-10, is valuable for all Sales Professionals.

Learn more about crafting a powerful sales process at Sales Training Program, B2B proven program used by National & Global Corporations on August 9-10 – perfect for any team seeking to level up in sales.

Related Tag: Sales Training Sydney

December 5, 2016July 24, 2025

Asking the Hard Questions

Questions come naturally, most of the time. However, the important questions are always the hard questions to ask. Let’s say you have the prospects attention on the phone, in your showroom, or at your sales counter. This is your opportunity to gather more information to increase your chances of winning the sale. We’re experts in asking the hard questions.

Take this opportunity to understand how the prospect found you, the reasons for approaching your company, what they are seeking, when they are looking at buying, and on what basis they will make a decision.

Finding out how the prospect found you is extremely important for a variety of reasons. Did they respond to a form of advertising, did they find you on a search engine, or were they referred to you by one of your existing clients? It’s important to find out what form of advertising they responded to. This gives you an idea as to what type of marketing is working for you.

Search engines

Search engines, we love them. They are a necessity to everyday life and our business. Most importantly they find out what search terms they put in to find our business. This gives you an idea of what was on their mind when they were looking for you.

Word of Mouth

Referrals, the best compliment one can receive. It is good to know who keeps continually referring you. You may wish to acknowledge the referrer, and it’s a good talking point with the prospects. It helps break down those barriers and builds a rapport. You will often find that the success rates on referrals is higher than from other sources of leads.

In the end

Asking a client what brings them into your showroom is a great way of narrowing down what their area of interest is, it is the first part of the questioning and qualifying process. Once you know what they are seeking specifically, you can continue to ask them more questions to further hone in on their needs.

It is appropriate to ask the client further questions to find out when they will buy, how they will be paying, what is important to them in respect to the specifications of the product, what colour, and what design preferences they have.

Some other questions that help in getting even closer to the client include:

Past products or designs have they seen/considered
What they have liked about these past particular designs
What else these designs offered that made them so attractive

These certain questions will give you a broad idea of what the client’s general agenda is. Finding out the clients time frame is another crucial aspect in sales, there is no point in offering the prospect a product or service that is not available when it is required.

Finally, we need to ask the important question we all dread. Although, you can do it very discreetly and nonchalantly. It’s done as simply by asking, on what basis will you be making a decision? The reason is to establish if they are quality buyers or purely basing a decision on price. This once again, allows you to hone in the correct product offering. As you can see, great questioning skills are the key to winning even more, sales inquiries. As you are really connecting with the prospect and finding out what it will take to win their business!

George Manolis is a speaker and author who delivers public and in-house training programs in sales all around Australia – you can contact him on 1300 791 571 or via email: george@sfsi.com.au.

December 1, 2016March 6, 2020

Duty of Care & Why it’s Your Responsibility

Offering “Duty of Care” – It’s Your Responsibility!

When was the last time you made a purchase and right at that pivotal moment when you agreed to buy the sales representative asked you the one question.

“Would you like to purchase the extended warranty that comes along with this product?”

Sure, it is very common. Sometimes we may even feel a bit manipulated by the sales process. However, have you ever stopped and wondered why the retailer, manufacturer or wholesaler attempted to add these extras to the sale? Obviously, one of the reasons is that the additional items make a simple low margin invoice appear rather tantalising with more line items and much more profit. Another reason, is that the product in question has a price point in the market. Therefore the marketing strategy is to offer the bare bones basic product, at a price competitive advantage. At that point, the client can then decide what add-on he or she may like.

Of course the other reason is that some of the additional add-on items offered are crucial to the item. The add-on supports the operation, longevity, and functioning of the product or article being purchased.

Here are some examples when we use the term “Crucial“:

The Big Bad Power Surge

Flat screen TV’s are offered with a power surge protector – the retailer is suggesting to the consumer that these items do fail due to power surges from our electricity networks. What would happen if you purchased a TV, took it home and then found that after 24 hours it failed due to a power surge? You would not be happy with the retailer. This is the reason that we call these add-on items, “Duty of Care” items.

Vroom Vroom

When you purchase a motor vehicle the salesperson hands you over to an aftermarket professional, who will attempt to sell you thousands of dollars worth of “Duty of Care” items. Once again, some of these items you will certainly be happy to have purchased. Items such as paint coatings that will prolong the life and appearance of the paintwork and more. Remember, I mentioned that items are made to be sold at a price point, and rather than inflate the price with the Rolls Royce quality, we allow the consumer to make the choice.

The Maintenance Shopping Spree

Booking your vehicle in for service is very simple. Although, it’s a secret shopping spree. A routine service becomes a shopping spree, what sounds like an attempt to take more money out of your pocket is really a “duty of care” that the servicing dealer is obligated to offer you. They will offer radiator flushes, wheel alignments, and in most cases, the services being offered will save you money in the long run.

Decide

What additional “add-on” items you have to offer you clients, put a price point on these additional items. Train your staff on how these additional “Duty of Care” items can be offered, and last but not least, make sure your staff are convincing when presenting the “Duty of Care” items.

Don’t just tell a client that you recommend that they buy the duty of care items. Explain what is in it for them. Will they save money? Will it prolong the life of the product? You need to be specific with your client! After you have asked the client if they would like to add the duty of care items to the sale, wait for the client’s response. Sometimes you may need to respond to the client with a supporting statement to assist them make a decision. Duty of Care items are a necessary part of the sales process. The level of attention you give is an important aspect of sales and can make a huge difference to your customers perception of your company as well as your profit margins!

George Manolis is a speaker and author who delivers public and in-house training programs in sales all around Australia. Contact him at 1300 791 571 or via email: george@sfsi.com.au. You may also view the comprehensive range of sales tools which include training videos for download. Visit www.salesforce.au.com

November 29, 2016March 6, 2020

Are Your Customers Happy, Will They Return?

We all have a range of customers, some who have been with us for years, and some who are relatively new. In addition, we hope that every business has a database of entries representing those customers that have purchased from us in the past. If any database is to be useful, it should contain information such as when the customer first inquired, when they purchased and what they purchased. It will also contain contact details such as email addresses and contact phone numbers.

Let us demonstrate how your business’s database is one of the biggest assets to your company. This asset will help you find out more about your customers to a very large extent. Once we understand what the customers experience has been in the past, you can change your service procedures and service offerings to ensure the flow of customers customer coming through your door.

Clever organisations survey their customers to find out what the experience has been like in previous transactions or visits to the company.

Some of the questions that should be on your mind should include:

What has the customer service been like in the past?
Did your company provide an amazing experience in the past?
Was the experience so grand, this is the reason in particular the client returned?
Did the product meet expectations of value and quality?
Is your company easy to deal with?
Most importantly, did the clients feel important and of value?

This information can be extremely valuable to ensure that we are well poised to serve our valuable customers again in the future. Mediocrity in past transactions is the greatest killer of future sales in any organisation.

How can we survey the clients of our business?

Make up a set of questions that will give a snapshot of different service levels, and the satisfaction of the customer. Consider what would work best for you, in terms of making contact with the customer.

Hello?

Call a variety of customers. Ask them for a few minutes of their time to answer a few questions over the phone. If the survey takes more than ten minutes, you may struggle to find customers that wish to participate.

If you have a 3rd party organisation call on the companies behalf, you’ll be surprised as to how much more feedback you will receive. Customers will be more honest if they are not surveyed directly by your company, which is a huge advantage!

Convenient & Boundless

Send the clients a survey in the mail. This is a less invasive way of conducting a survey. Also, it will give the respondent time to complete the survey on their own time and it will also give them the opportunity to write as much as they want. The rate of participation may be generally less than telephone surveys. However, it is generally more cost effective and you may gain more feedback.

In-Store Feedback

Ask the clients a few key questions directly after the sale. In addition, this can also be a simple way of gauging reaction to your service offerings.

Email Invitations to Your Surveys

Surveys can also be sent by email – this works well, and is even better if it is automated. Be sure the client has agreed to receive emails/offers from the business surveying. If they never agreed, they are more likely to mark surveying companies emails as spam or delete.

Goodies?

Offer an incentive for customers to participate in a survey. For example, offer a small gift, a discount on the next purchase, or enter their name into a drawing for a prize.

In the End

You will be very surprised by the feedback customers give your business. Therefore some of the feedback will leave you shocked, and some will impress you.

It is only when you get to the bottom of customer perceptions when you will truly be able to make the necessary changes to your sales processes. This will then pave the way for having your customers lining up at your front counter for more of your products and services.