This is part 4 covering one step to Mastering The Sell, an ongoing series that explores how to transform the process of selling to achieve champion level results. Make sure to go back to the original article titled the Sale Vs The Sell. Each of the articles in the series can be found there.
The salesperson I can reach the fastest has a big-time strategic advantage over everyone else. In our connected world, sometimes it’s almost impossible to reach a real human.
And many times, when you do, you know more about the product than the one answering the phone. This is a big challenge in today’s world.
Give them what they want
People are in a hurry today. People want instant answers and they know they can get them online.
But today with technology, sometimes businesses make it harder than ever to get through to someone. Many businesses do this without even realizing they’ve done it. Some do it on purpose. Sometimes for good reasons, but other times for not so good ones.
Technology has made it super easy for us as businesses to setup barriers to entry. We have all tried to call into a business and been forced to go through a gauntlet of button pushing and holding. Then you just get to a recording when all you needed was five minutes with a human.
This really provides a huge opportunity. And that is this; with even minimal effort, we can be more reachable than our competition. And even with minimal effort, because most people are used to these problems, it actually doesn’t take much to impress the daylights out of them.
But we have to be smart
Now, we also need to be smart about it. As a business, if you don’t have the ability to be on the phone all day, you can’t go giving out your cell phone. But, if you did it strategically in a well thought out way, you can get pretty close to this.
It’s our job to balance between efficiency while also making a clear path for our prospects and clients to get what they need. You need to qualify them quickly so you can route them fast and correctly.
Where businesses fall down is by not mapping it out to find a happy median between business needs and prospect desire to get to a human. Start by mapping it from the prospect perspective. Make as much of a sacrifice as you can without harming your business operations. Then work the business needs in around the prospect needs.
Here’s one way we do it
At audIT, for example, we installed a chat bot to make sure we’re super accessible. That chat bot comes right to me or my team. Whoever can get to them the fastest can jump in any conversation in real time.
The chat bot is connected to our support library. So, if someone asks a question in the chat and there is already a help article on that topic, the bot suggests that as an answer.
I’ve watched people chat with the bot about a problem or question. Then the bot suggests an article. Then the user goes to that article. And a few minutes later the user thanks the chat bot and tells it how impressive it was that he got an answer after hours that fast. And that he wishes all vendors were this responsive. And they never even spoke to a real person.
I connected this chat bot right to my smart phone. So, I always get notifications as long as I’m awake. And often times, when I get up in the middle of the night, I check it.
If the chat bot doesn’t solve the user problem or question, I jump right in. Many times, this also blows users away. They just are not used to real people speaking with them.
Here’s how it helps selling
From a sales perspective, I loaded the library with frequently asked questions. So, a site visitor who needs a few simple pre-sales questions answered, can easily get them through an automated process that looks and feels very human.
If it moves beyond what the bot can answer, I can jump right into the conversation. This has helped us at audIT to sell much more effectively with less effort. And the results have been amazing as we have experienced massive growth.
As a sales professional, whether you’re the owner or an employee selling in your MSP, the more reachable you are, the more sales opportunities you’ll get. And the more sales opportunities you get, the more clients you get.
Being reachable, makes a huge difference. And it is a big part of Mastering The Sell!