You face some objections so regularly, you know well in advance you will get them and you know how to answer them. You also have customers whom you have closed by overcoming those same objections. Here is a way to leverage those clients to overcome objections and close more sales.

To Start, Make an Investment
To start to build your book of testimonial letters, put your money where your mouth is, and close at the same time. Offer to, in effect, pay the prospective customer for the testimonial letter, while discounting the price and close for the sale. Here is a generic example:

Sales Person
“Ethan, if I understand you correctly, your concern is that our advertising plan may not bring you in the amount of new business I mentioned in the proposal. Is that right?”

Prospect
“Well, yeah. I mean, you SAY that the plan will bring me in 30 to 40 new customers a month, but I can’t really know that…”

Sales Person
“Ethan, I am so confident that the plan will bring you in that amount and more, that after just two weeks on our service, you will have so much new business, that you will be ready to write a testimonial letter for me. And I am so sure of that, that I will put my money where my mouth is.

Here is a proposal for you. Immediately after our service begins, start to keep record of new customers. Nothing elaborate, but when people come in, just ask them how they heard of you, and note how many say it was from one of our systems.

Then, I’ll ask you to write a letter for me about how many new customers the service brought in; a letter that I will keep with me to show other prospective customers.

I am so confident that your letter will say that our plan brought you in a ton of business and paid for itself overnight, that I will even pay you for that letter right now!

That letter is the best type of advertising we can use. It will help me gain more clients and save us on marketing costs. I will pass some of that savings on to you right now…

I will take £450 off your cost to show you that I am totally confident that you will give me a positive letter in two weeks. Ethan, will you write me a testimonial about how much business the system brought you?”

As always, that is not meant as a script, but a very generic example. Get commitments for testimonial letters as you close and use different objections. Make sure to let the prospect know exactly what the topic of the letter should be. Of course, that topic is the very objection they are using.

The Old Feel, Felt, Found
Now after some time, you have a portfolio of testimonial letters focusing on various objections. Now use those; again to get MORE letters and close MORE sales.

Sales Person
Sarah, I understand perfectly how you feel. Many of my best customers actually felt the same way. In fact, one of those clients owns a shop not far from here and he felt exactly as you. He was uncertain that the plan would work for him as well.

However, he found that it did a fantastic job; so much so, that he even wrote a letter…let me show you… “

Take it to the next level, and have happy and satisfied customers be willing to accept a telephone call from prospective customers.

Use testimonials and elevate “feel, felt, found” to another level!

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
MTD Sales Training

(Image by 89 Studio)

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Hi all,

It’s Louise here again, filling you in on the latest news from the MTD HQ. November has been a very busy month for Sean and the team as we held our first ever Sales Summit recently!

MTD’s MD Sean McPheat has had many successful experiences keynoting at business events and conferences across the country, and he thought it was about time MTD had our very own sales event…and what an event it was!

Our 2011 Sales Summit was held on Thursday 17^th November in Heathrow, and with over 100 UK and international sales professionals in attendance it certainly was a packed day.  

The Summit played host to 3 fantastic speakers who presented four must-see sessions on all manner of topics, from prospecting, networking and building value during a sales interaction, right up to influencing, negotiating and communicating with potential customers.

Sean kicked off the day with his first session on “The Ultimate Sales Audit”, where he helped guests to thoroughly rip their sales approach to pieces and really analyse the way that they currently sell. Sean encouraged his guests to make the most of their sales interactions and gave great direction on how to pre-sell their products.

The second session of the day was taken by international public speaker Simon Hazeldine, who had our guests rolling with laughter during his fantastic session on “Bare Knuckle Negotiating”. As an ex-bouncer from a former life, Simon had plenty of real-life experiences to share with our guests as he took our delegates through the negotiation process – sharing with them the strategies, tricks and tactics they need to survive and thrive when negotiating with a client.

Following a networking lunch in the beautiful atrium of the Radisson Edwardian Hotel, guests took their seats once again as Sean McPheat returned to the stage to present his much sought-after session on eselling®. Sean is the creator of the alternative sales approach known as eselling®, which helps businesses to prospect and sell online through the use of social media and other internet based services. Guests, of course, were very keen to see this session in particular, as this is fast becoming one of the biggest successes of Sean’s recent accomplishments.  

During this session Sean showed his guests how they can use the internet to network with key decision makers, listen for leads, prospect online and position themselves as an industry expert.

One of the main focuses of the eselling® approach is to teach sales professionals how to use social media within their business, and to gain a real and substantial return on their investment – so Sean treated his guests to a 20 minute LinkedIn video tutorial, in which he gave guests a guided tour of the benefits of using LinkedIn as a business tool and showed them how they can create valuable business leads via this medium.  

The day was capped off nicely by a very entertaining session from Sean’s number one Sales Trainer Mark Williams. Mark presented a session on The New ROI, in which he showed guests how to get a return on influence with their clients. Mark taught guests how to better understand and communicate with their clients, how to get clients on their side and how to influence people on a subconscious level.

In a final flurry of magic and mystery Mark even turned four grown men into a human table which went down a storm with the attendees!

Following the event, both Sean and the team have received some brilliant feedback from our guest, with many commenting that they are very much looking forward to next year’s Summit. Here’s what a few of our attendees have said about the Sales Summit:

“Sean delivers an excellent approach to selling that has helped me tremendously with my sales techniques. The conference he set up was great and I would recommend attending it to expand your abilities as a salesman.” – Andy Naisbitt, Business Development Manager at Gen3 Kinematics

“Sean is an inspiring and well prepared presenter. His ideas on today’s buyer are clearly well researched and his modern day sales concepts are backed up with practical examples and his own living proof that they work – Sean “walks his talk”. An expert in his field, Sean is also down to earth, personable and appreciative of his audience.” - Stephanie Keller, Sales Coach and Consultant at S2 Strategic Skills

“A fantastic and informative Sales Summit day, full of brand new content. I have learned more than in any other course I have attended in the past, the event was well organised and the speakers were amazing. I really look forward to attending some other courses with MTD Sales Training and thank you very much for your on-going email support which I highly appreciate and respect.” Kubilay Tunc, The Cumberland Hotel

Both Sean and the team have been thrilled with the feedback we’ve received from the event and we are now looking forward to the 2012 Sales Summit – bring it on!

Happy Selling!

Louise Denny

Marketing Manager 

MTD Sales Training

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have.

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…