Jeremy said:
Scott said:
I loathe demos and will only do them after every other objection is out of the way first.
Scott
Really, why is that? They've proved to be a valuable tool for me. They get you face to face with the customer & give you a chance to to show off how much of a "banana" you are in a Sea of Oranges.
The first rule of a successful salesman: Our time is of more value to us than the Prospect.
The second rule is: Not everyone is a qualified Prospect.
With these 2 rules in your head, you should have a paradigm shift of the absolute NEED to properly qualify every lead. I look at it like this: If I'm doing a demo for an unqualified prospect, I might miss a qualified prospect.
That doesn't mean we won't do demos; we will, but only after every other objection is out of the way and IF it's the only objection left that separates us from the sale. In my years of study and practice on getting commercial work, price is usually the primary concern. With residential, it usually starts with price, but the use of emotional response can overcome many residential client objections. Not so with most commercial. They have a budget and they're sticking to it.
If we can satisfy their budget, we have half the problem licked. Another quarter is likability/trust of you as their cleaner, and the last quarter could be anything from proof that what you say is true (demo) to your availability.
Try this, Jeremy. On your prospecting calls present half with a demo and half with objection management only, without offering a demo. See which group actually follows through with using your services and be sure to count up how many demos you did that did and didn't turn into work. I was shocked at my results and I think you will be too.
I've done this a long time and have found over the years that if I can qualify every imaginable objection over the phone, demos don't even come into the equation. If/when they want a demo, every objection will already be solved and I have saved lots of time by not having to run around chasing unqualified leads. Here's a good way to start the objection management process if they call in to request a demo:
"Sir before I come out for a demo, can I ask a few questions?"
They'll always say yes, so at that point you ask them pertinent questions that you can use to your advantage. Things like: if they have or had another cleaner, what they didn't like about them, do they have a cleaning frequency plan in place, etc. Then take their negatives and position your company opposite of everything they don't like. For instance if they say:
"yeah, we have Cleaning CompanyX but they're always late"
You would say something like "Sir, I'm sorry to hear that they're not timely. Unfortunately it's a common problem in our industry. If I were to prove to you that we have a 100% on-time guarantee that if we're late for any reason we'll automatically cut 10% from the bill, would that be of interest to you?"
Once you get good at objection management, demos become a thing of the past and selling over the phone becomes relatively simple. Make a list of every objection you can think of and solve the objections before you talk with another prospect. Objection management, or Socratic Selling as some refer to it, is like chess - you're always thinking ahead several moves.
Scott
