Sales/Salesmanship
Many professionals, medical professionals among others, abhor the term “Salesman” and “Sales”. They shudder at the idea of anyone referring to their job as having anything to do with sales.
It is easy to see why this would be. When one considers a salesman, one often comes up with the idea of the sleazy used car salesman who will say anything to a gullible customer in order to get a car sold, no matter how poor the quality of the product. He doesn’t care if the car breaks the next day and leaves the customer in a sticky situation. He’ll lie, cover up defects, ask for a higher price than what he is willing to take for his product, use flattery, bargain, etc, etc, etc… And you know very well that all he is interested in is getting money from you. Yuck, right? You sure don’t want to be associated with that image, right?
Or maybe you think of the door-to-door salesman who is bound and determined to sell you a set of encyclopedias, a bible, a vacuum cleaner, or any other gadget you don’t need. He’s taking up your time, has a pitch you really don’t want to hear when frankly, you don’t need or want his product and maybe you’ll buy it just to shut him up and make him go away. You don’t want people to think you are like that either, right?
So the idea of someone referring to you as a sales person might make you feel sleazy and degraded.
However, the truth of the matter is that it is important to know about sales and to realize that if you don’t sell your product, people who are in need of it will not have it because you failed to enlighten them about the value of your product. You failed to SELL your product.
Of course, if your product is not valuable, if you sell a defective product, a poor quality product or a product that has no value to the person to whom you are selling it, you might fall into the category of the sleazy used car salesman or the door-to-door salesman.
The last thing you want to do is sell a euthanasia to a person who has a young, healthy, beautiful, sweet dog.
On the other hand, if the product you sell is high quality and totally meets the needs of the person to whom you are trying to sell it, it is a completely different story. If you have a person in front of you, (or at the other end of the line) who needs your product and you fail to sell it to him/her, then you are failing the prospect customer. If you don’t care enough about the person to sell your product, you might do him a great disservice.
For example, let’s say that someone calls you because their dog is dying and they want to be able to say goodbye at home, peacefully, and painlessly. Let’s say that this person thinks that a home euthanasia costs $200. And this person asks you how much our product costs. They want the ashes back and you slam them with a price of almost $1000. They could “squeeze it” into the budget, but they don’t see why they should. They don’t understand the value of the product. They think that maybe it won’t be so bad to take Honey to the vets in her last moments.
Honey is 90lbs, she has arthritis and it is excruciating for her to walk. She has not been able to get up for several days. She has been their faithful companion for the last 14 years and has given that family unconditional love all her life. The family is in a panic, devastated and just wants to see Honey stop suffering. They’re not thinking straight. They surf the internet and come across our service. They call us and all the CCS tells the caller is the price. The caller thinks it’s a bit much and calls their vet who tells them it’ll be $200 to put Honey to sleep in the office.
They haul Honey in the car. While doing that, they accidentally hurt her back and Honey screams in pain. They are already devastated and crying and they tell Honey how sorry they are. They turn on the street where their vet’s office is and Honey starts whining and they see that she is afraid. They arrive to the hospital and now they have to extricate Honey from the back of the car and in the process they hurt her back again and Honey cries again.
They get in the hospital and are shown to an exam room. Honey may or may not be required to be lifted onto the stainless steel table. The euthanasia is performed and the last thing they see is the fear in Honey’s eyes. And they are burdened not only with the memory of that fear, but also with that of Honey’s last visit, the pain she experienced in being lifted into the car, and anything else that may have happened to make her last day more difficult than it had to be. And they will be burdened with regret at not having chosen to pay the extra money and give Honey the gift of a peaceful last day and a painless transition in the comfort of her own home, surrounded by her loving family.
A good Home Euthanasia “salesman” would have been able to avert such a situation. He would have been confident in the value of his product. He would have known how to make the family realize that his product was exactly what the family needed in that particular moment. His sales skills would have pierced through the customer’s social carapace and his natural defense of his money. A good salesman would not have just let the prospect hang up after being told what the cost of the service was.
A good salesman knows that if he doesn’t sell his product, bad things are likely to happen to Honey and to her family. And a good salesman cares about Honey and about her family. Cares enough to take the time to enlighten the family about the value of the product, cares enough to take the time to make the family realize what might happen if they don’t buy his product. And takes the time to overcome the family’s financial objections because he knows that his product is worth every dime and that Honey and her family need it.
This is what selling is and what sales means. It means you care. It means you have a product which you exchange for money. It means that you must get the prospect to pay the money they need to pay in order to benefit from the product. It means you need to find out WHAT the prospect needs. It means that you need to find out about the prospect’s personal situation in order to acquire the knowledge you will need to enlighten the prospect sufficiently that he will realize that YOUR product is the best answer to his problem/situation. It means that if you don’t sell your product to someone who needs it and who can find a way to pay for it, you will leave the prospect with a lot of regrets and suffering.
This is why you need to be a good salesman/woman and this is why we quantify your value with the number of sales you did on any given period of time. Each sale means that you have helped a “Honey” benefit from a peaceful goodbye. It means that each sale you have done is less suffering. This is why we look at the % of closes and the number of closes that you, as a Client CARE Specialist have achieved. This is why your statistics are important. And this is why you must strive to become a better sales person.
And this is why it is so important for you to understand what a sales person is and what sales means.
A "close" in sales is the final stage of the sales cycle where a salesperson gets a prospect to agree to a purchase and commit to a deal. It's the process of converting a lead into a customer by moving them from a potential buyer to an actual buyer, often involving signing a contract, making a payment, or acquiring a signature. Closing is a critical step that turns all the preceding sales efforts into revenue.
Why a close is important
Secures revenue: Closing a sale is how a business generates revenue and fulfills sales quotas.
Culminates effort: It represents the culmination of all the work put into lead generation, discovery, and negotiation.
Finalizes a transaction: It's the point where interest turns into a commitment and a prospect officially becomes a customer.
What's involved in a close
Nurturing leads: The process begins long before the final ask, involving consistent lead nurturing.
Overcoming objections: A salesperson must address and overcome any remaining concerns the prospect has.
Negotiation: Reaching the final agreement often involves negotiation.
Getting the final decision: This is where the salesperson asks for the sale, and the prospect agrees to the terms.
Finalizing the paperwork: The final step involves securing the signature, payment, or other necessary actions to finalize the deal.