Plan for your positive responses and make more sales
“If I can just see more people, I can increase my sales.” While it’s imperative to keep your pipeline full, this statement isn’t always true. Many sales are won or lost during the visit process. As we’ve mentioned in previous articles, the most important skills to master in sales are proper questioning and effective listening. Alas, at some point we must actually talk to our prospects and present our solution to their problems- and plenty of meetings are ruined if we don’t do this deliberately and correctly.
What is the “agreement staircase?” It’s a fundamental tool in any salesperson’s arsenal. The agreement staircase, properly delivered, will:
- Show the prospect that we’ve been listening
- Build a climate of agreement and trust during the meeting
- Make “closing” a natural part of the process
To do this correctly, simply build in mutually agreed upon conclusions in your visits, and ask your prospects if they agree each and every time. For example:
Q: Now in our workshop, we talked about the uncertainty of the market and the importance of principal protection. We believe every client’s portfolio must be protected. Would you agree?
A: Yes.
Q: We talked earlier about building a tax-efficient plan for your future retirement, happening in 6 years or so. We believe we should plan for that now by using tax-efficient vehicles. Would you agree with that?
A: Yes.
You get the idea; the more you build a climate of agreement by verifying points you’ve already discussed with your prospects, the more likely they are to agree with your planning solution, because you have stressed your points of mutual agreement during the meeting. That, in its essence, is the agreement staircase. The steps:
- Remind the prospect of mutual points of agreement
- Ask for and receive their assent
- Continue up to the solution phase
What’s more, any remaining objections will come up in your questioning- allowing you to make more complete, suitable sales.