I’m leaving for Taiwan early tomorrow morning to do Sales Ninja Shogun, a sales leadership program. In this issue, I would like to share with you the Sales Ninja MASTER Selling model. A very easy to remember sales process, sales methodology that I’ve developed and adopted by many of my in-house clients.
Many small medium companies do not have a sales process. A lot of models out there are messy and hard to remember. I recommend studying the MASTER model and make it your corporate sales model. You will see why in a while.
MASTER is an acronym for:
(M)eet people
(A)sk questions
(S)ell benefits
(T)ackle objections
(E) ncourage to buy
(R)elationship building
(M)ASTER
(M)eet people: Is the prospecting phase of selling.
There are 3 parts to (M)eeting people.
1-pre-call planning
2-prospecting and
3-positioning.
In pre-call planning, you do your research. Understand a little bit about the companies before you start prospecting. Prospecting activities can be cold calling, networking, cold emailing, trade shows, referrals, etc… Positioning… is how you open the sales call. How should you introduce yourself? What power positioning statement should you articulate so the other person is seduced to listen to you? How do you build rapport and how do you move into the objective of the sales call.
M(A)STER
(A)sk questions: Is the discovery phase. Also known as needs analysis, probing, interviewing or investigating. They are all questioning tactics to understand what the buyer needs and wants.
Common mistake people make after (M)eeting people phase is jumping into their product/service presentation. We recommend… (A)sking questions first. This is to determine whether there is a fit between the buyer and the seller to make sense whether to proceed or not. This ‘qualifying’ process <must> also be done in the (M)eeting people phase so you don’t go banging yourself in front of unqualified prospects, wasting your time and the buyers.
In (A)sking questions, 4 key areas you must ask. We use and train the STAR model. A very powerful questioning model for B2B sellers. S is standard question, T is trouble question, A is affected area question and R is reward question. There are 6 standard questions, budget, authority, time and competitors. Standard questions also include asking about the prospect and their business. Trouble questions are used to uncover troubles the prospect may be having either with their present situation or with their present vendors. Affected area questions are used to create an awareness how the troubles identified can be connected to… other areas, thus affecting the situation. Reward questions gives the buyer a buy in into your features and benefits.
The more complex your sales call is, the more effective the STAR model will be. STAR will also create a perceived differentiation because of the insight you create for the buyer.
MA(S)TER
(S)ell benefits: Is the presentation phase. It’s the persuading, convincing and mesmerizing area. This is the phase where you translate your features into the benefits that make sense to the buyer <based> on the things you’ve discovered earlier.
Here you should differentiate your ideas, state your positioning and establish credibility. In (S)elling benefits, you can do a demo, show testimonials or case studies and tell hypnotic stories so capture the attention of the buyer. You must also check what has the buyer understood of what was presented and ask which feature makes the buyer tick.
MAS(T)ER
(T)ackle objections: Is the phase where you address and resolve objections. It’s also the stage where you negotiate the deal.
Your ability to tackle objections may help or hurt your sale. Tackling objections is really listening to what concerns the buyer and then persuasively positioning your answers to address that concern and then check for an agreement whether the concern has been answered. Sales people dread objections because they are unprepared and unskilled in this area.
A lot of sales people also drop their price to soon. The moment they hear ‘your price is too high’, they go, ‘ok, I can discount.’ That’s not negotiation. There are 3 parts to negotiation. 1-you must live a certain negotiation philosophy 2-you must identify what negotiation trick the buyer is using and 3-you must know how to tackle and counter it. Lower price, unhealthy margin and low profits is the result of a poor negotiation.
MAST(E)R
(E)ncourage to buy: Is the closing phase. Closing is really asking the buyer for the order. It’s not that hard. People don’t close because they fear rejection and unskilled in it. Lose the C in CLOSER and you get loser.
Recognize buying signals and close. Tackle objections and close. Highlight benefits and close. When you ask for the order, buyers will say 1-yes, 2-maybe or 2-no. They say yes, you close. They say maybe, you highlight benefits and close. They say no, you tackle objections and close. Just do it.
Last phase of the Sales Ninja MASTER selling model is the (R)elationship building phase. It’s a phase of service and follow-up. Upon doing a good job, it’s time to solicit 1-testimonials 2-referrals. Both of these will help you in your future sales calls.
After going through this, do you see yourself using the Sales Ninja MASTER Selling model?
Meantime to more sales … with less effort! Cheers!
UNCONVENTIONALLY,
HANZO NG
Sales Ninja Grandmaster
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