| It
also has been often said that sales is just a numbers
game. And I've often refuted that saying.
It's
not just a numbers game.
It's
a quality game, in the sense that you can't just crank
out calls and expect success if you're doing the wrong
things.
But,
sales is a game OF numbers. We use numbers to describe
degrees of pain, pleasure, profits, losses, income,
and time. And there are smart ways to use numbers on
the phone in your sales. Let's look at them.
REDUCE
IT TO THE RIDICULOUS
This
old technique refers to minimizing the price or difference
in cost between you and a competitor. "Ridiculous" refers
to how insignificant the amount really is when you put
it in daily terms. "Pat, we're really only talking about
a difference of two dollars a day to have the souped-up
model." (Or, ridiculous could mean how crazy someone
could get with this technique: "Chad, it's only 30 cents
per hour difference over the 10-year life of the machine.")
RAISE
IT TO THE OUTRAGEOUS
Conversely,
this is taking a savings and extrapolating it over a
longer period. It's useful in pointing out how much
someone will save, over a greater period of time, by
buying from you. "You'll save the shipping cost on every
order. On two orders per month at an average of $15
per, we're looking at $360 for the year."
CAN
YOU SAY "DOLLARS"?
When
you want to maximize the perception of a number, say
the word "dollars."
"With
us, your savings will be over three-thousand
dollars."
Conversely,
to minimize it, just say the number:
"To
upgrade will only be an extra one-fifty."
USE
EXACT NUMBERS
Stating
exact numbers adds more credibility to your statements
than using rounded numbers. For example,
"Our
program is in place at 358 dealerships," sounds authoritative.
"Our
program is in about 400 dealerships," leaves a feeling
that the number might be fudged a bit.
Likewise,
if you want to minimize the importance of a number,
you could use a rounded figure.
"We're
only looking at a figure for customization somewhere
in the 200 range."
PUT
PRICE IN A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
You
probably can recall those hair-pulling situations where
you've established the savings or additional profits
you could help someone realize, but yet, they don't
act on it. It's normally because they don't see the
number as being significant enough. So put it in terms
they can understand. "Paul, you're right, we're only
talking about $400 a month savings here. But I bet that
would make the monthly payment on one of your delivery
vans."
Or,
"The $200 cost reduction might not seem like a lot,
but let's look at it a different way. You said your
profit margin is about 10%. You'd need to do another
$2,000 in sales per month just to make the $200 I'm
basically offering you for free."
Art
Sobczak is President of Business By Phone Inc. and
Editor and Publisher of "TelE-Sales Hot Tips of the Week."
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