Ever used a sales script? Chances are that at one point or another during your climb up the sales ladder you’ve been exposed to the devilish ways of the corporate script.
The romance ended a long time ago however there’s a new kid on the block when it comes to sales effectiveness.
The checklist.
The aviation industry has been using the checklist for many years now (possibly the pioneers of the practice?) – the sole purpose of these checklists are to avoid trouble however if trouble does arise the checklists are also there to guide the pilots to safety.
Now sales and flying and completely different things but when it comes down to the checklist you’ll notice that they work in every industry (obviously some sort of adjustment/editing will be required to match up with company products/ideas and methods).
The use of a script initially has always been to give the operator a “guide” on how they should address prospects, how they should move the sales cycle along and how they should close. Like a robot.
Checklists offer opportunities to go off the beaten track but still remain completely in control – they also offer a fail-safe in that you can just go through the checklist when you’re in need of assistance.
That has always been the problem with a generic sales script, if the operator goes off track or the prospect leads them down a road that their script doesn’t provide an answer for there has to be a break in the process or “let me just get my supervisor”. There’s nothing wrong with this however it definitely does hinder the progress of the sales cycle – time is a valuable asset that you may now be wasting.
The Checklist
Firstly avoid these aspects of checklists when designing one at all costs:
- Long winded (aim to stick within 5-10 checks)
- Not spoken in the language of the professional
- Not concise
- Vagueness
Those are huge mistakes to make with checklists however it’s also vital to remember that no single checklist will ever be perfect without field testing. In simulation they’ll be perfect but in real life situations you’ll begin to find flaws and missteps in process. Don’t drop the idea but work with it until you solve the problems, which are usually minor.
Let’s create ourselves a sample checklist to get an idea of what you could potentially create:
Prior to the Sales Call
- Have you researched the company (Decision makers name, 2nd decision makers name, company profile, checked for notable news/notes).
- Made key notes regarding the prospect.
- Sent an e-mail with an introduction to yourself and the company prior to the call.
- Created key values that your product will provide to the key problems the prospects may have.
- Materials (If this is instead a sales meeting rather than a call): Laptop, charger, brochure.
- Understood and answered these questions: What is the purpose of the call? How will you achieve this goal? What is the next step after you achieve the goal?
As you can see this isn’t rocket science by all means but some of the “mundane” tasks in the checklist are often forgotten about simply because we place little value on it.
Imagine turning up to a meeting with an account when you realise that you’ve forgotten their paperwork or your laptop isn’t charged – they were mundane checks then but it sure enough makes you look a fool in front of the client now.
The checklist also offers the opportunity for the sales person to do what they need to do to gain access to the answers for each checklist, there’s no “go onto www.website.com and find your prospect…” and so on instead it gives the sales person the ability to create their own mini tasks to accomplish the checklist goals.
Try out the sample checklist or adapt it to suit your needs or just create a brand new one and test it, chances are you’ll start to pick up on things you may have missed before and even see an increase in deals and clients being won over.
