“The final step of the Kennedy Ross Sales P.R.O.C.E.S. – Securing the next steps”

…And already it’s the middle of Feb, more reason why you need to decide on what your best approach is to nailing all that business that’s out there, because if you don’t someone else will.

 

This month’s blog is a continuation of last month’s. Just to recap I mentioned in the last month’s blog whether you are super experienced or terrified of sales, the Kennedy Ross Sales book, out in April, will give you real life examples of the worst and the best behaviours to exhibit whilst selling to your customers. You will be shown specifically how to handle each step of our sales process in an easy and straightforward way. Most of all you will truly understand and gain the insight as to why these behaviours in our sales process work every time.

 

You see we believe everything has a process, from riding your bike along the Guild wheel on a Sunday morning to building the latest fighter jets at BAE, the better you follow the process the more you will achieve, sales is no different.

 

In fact considering how much selling we need to do in our day to day lives I find it flabbergasting that there isn’t a universal one fix all sales process. Well there’s no need to stress any further because we have one.

 

The Kennedy Ross sales process is called P.R.O.C.E.S., which stands for Planning, Reaching, Obtaining, Connecting, Elaborating and Securing the follow up. I explained in my last blog that the book will be available on April 1st via Amazon including a launch and a big giveaway. Last month we discussed the first step of our sales P.R.O.C.E.S. Planning, this month I’m going to give you an excerpt of the final step of our sales P.R.O.C.E.S.

S stands for Securing the next steps.

The book is set out in a way in which the reader can dip in and out of any page and immediately benefit from what’s read, this is the introduction to the ‘Securing the next steps’ chapter also known as ‘controlling the follow up’.

Insight

If you control a process you are more likely to get what you want out of it

We go to extraordinary lengths to find prospective customers, plan and approach, make an appointment to see them, enthusiastically deliver our Features Advantages and Benefits then ‘sell it like Tarantino’, only to be told by the customer at the end of the meeting, “Thanks for the information, I’ll give you a call next week”.

 

It seems that in this day and age, closing is a dirty word. It seems to evoke images of the kitchen salesman sat in an elderly couple’s house for four hours, insisting at 11.30 in the evening that they sign the dotted line. It also seems to be related to door-knockers trying to sell you something you don’t want. In fact, closing has the connotation that if I’m closing you, I’m twisting your arm behind your back and forcing you to buy.

 

My view here is that during the years of selling in the ‘land of milk and honey’, also known as 2003-2007, as a nation we became order-takers in the UK, and forgot the basic principles of sales, while disassociating ourselves from being sales people.

 

In America everyone recognises that sales people are heroes. They drive the economy, they improve profitability, and they connect buyers and sellers. Over in the UK, I asked my colleagues at Kennedy Ross the last time they came across somebody who had the word ‘sales’ written on their business card or in their job title? They told me they hadn’t for some time, and gave me the following examples of what they had seen as job titles:

  • Client Partner
  • Account Manager
  • Account Director
  • Facilitator
  • Business Development Manager
  • Engineer

And here lies the problem – by denying sales as a profession you deny the fact that it will only be conducted brilliantly if you have a sales process. You avoid accountability in your performance and your behaviours don’t represent the behaviours required to be a successful sales person.  In the old days, there was a lot less choice and a lot less information about your choice. You were able to close people on the day, at the meeting, over the phone. But this has changed, and in our experience what we now know is that there’s still nothing wrong in asking for the order. It’s just more likely that your client may say they want to think about it.

 

This is the introduction to the ‘Securing the next steps’ chapter and it is a process, all of which will fix your ‘follow up woes’. For now I hope it makes sense and I look forward to updating you on how the book is going in next month’s blog.

 

For more information on the subject, please contact Ailstaire Jama or visit www.kennedyross.co.uk