The L.A Fox Developer Newsletter

November 1995

Technical Perfection (Con? from page 5)

evidence of performance on your part so that they feel you have earned your keep. And you must be aware that esteem among their peers has to be maintained as no one wants to look foolish to their friends.

When a client buys is dependent on four issues:

or services, no sale can occur.

2. Money. Are they in a position to afford your product or service? If their budget can’t afford it, they can’t buy it.

3. Timing. Do they need you product or ser vices NOW? If not, a sale is unlikely to be made.

4. Authority. Does the person you’re dealing with have the horsepower to get the Purchase Order issued or the deposit check signed?

No sale is likely to occur if any of these issues can’t be verified.

Fruitless meetings with potential clients can be minimized if you initially qualify your contacts with these four issues in mind. Keep a card posted on the wall next to your phone with these issues listed on it, and don’t hesitate to check off each one as you’re able to confirm it.

The Selling Process

There are five steps in the actual selling process:

1. Sales Prospecting

2. Initial Contact

3. Fact Finding

4. Presenting the Proposal

5. Closing the Sale

We can waste a lot of time and money with Sales Prospecting and direct promotion techniques. We see direct sales promotions in computer hardware junk mail and we answer calls nearly everyday from some printer-ribbon telemarketer. These are direct promotion techniques. But it remains true that most clients will treat you only as a salesperson, unworthy

of their full attention, if you call them first. If the client calls you, you become the consultant, whose time and knowledge is valuable. Getting clients to contact you happens through indirect prospecting techniques. Referrals are the easiest method because referrals require no additional effort to generate the lead. Speeches to industry or business groups, articles, and seminars are also ways to create the image of expertise. The content of these presentations should provide your audience with valuable information. Any marketing hype in the content will likely reduce your image and generate fewer sales leads.

The Initial Contact will probably be over the phone. This is your opportunity to qualify a potential client. Granted, first impressions are important and are only made once, but skipping the chance to qualify a lead means you’ll have to find out if they’re a qualified client the expensive way - in meetings. Promote yourself in a low key manner, but ask qualifying questions that can keep your business on the right track. Remember that if a prospect doesn’t have the need, money, timing, or authority to make the purchase, your time will likely be wasted.

Fact Finding assumes a qualified client, and is the stage where the sale is actually made. Frequently, fact finding occurs in meetings with key client personnel, and focus is on the problems within a client’s business. Some consultants charge a fee for this phase of the selling process, but many times the situation is not such that a fee can be addressed. Information should be gathered and solutions to problems developed with the assistance of the client’s staff. In a fact-finding interview, a ‘mirror’ approach frequently works well:

“...so you’re saying that if a list of back-ordered medical supplies were available on a weekly basis, you would save the four hours a week you now spend to gather that information.” You should have fun at this stage, and every interview should be viewed as an opportunity to develop an ally within the client’s organization. The client (or client’s representative) will know whether or not you can offer solutions to their problems by the end of the fact-finding process.

If everything has been handled effectively to this point, the Proposal will serve to formalize the sale. You will also want to identify the details of the

(Con?, page 9)

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