User`s manual

News
®
JULY 2009 www.chamberlainanz.com
Selling skills
Sharpen your sales skills with a
simple and effective technique
The most important person in the sales process is the customer
T
HERE HAVE been many publi-
cations over the years, from a
range of highly successful sales
professionals and sales organisations
about how to sell, selling skills and
sales techniques.
If you followed some of the com-
plex sales processes shown in these
publications you wouldn’t have the
time to cover the ground to make your
business prosper.
I’m not suggesting you ignore
what’s been written, but identify a
selling technique that works for you
and your business — one that you and
your sales team can easily apply in
most sales situations.
The most important person in
the process is the customer
So what is it that most customers want
to know when you are out there sell-
ing to them?
What’s in it for me?
This is something you really need to
remember about customer behaviour.
At a recent sales conference, the
Chamberlain sales team spent some
time discussing selling skills and tech-
niques as a part of our ongoing train-
ing program.
We focused on a process known
as A I D A, which is an acronym for
Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.
A I D A represents the natural
buying cycle. A professional sales per-
son must understand that the buying
decision will go through some crucial
phases before the sale can be success-
fully completed.
Gain Attention
Selling by motivation requires the
sales person to immediately gain the
favourable Attention of the buyer
with an opening that establishes some
benet for the customer. The use of an
initial benet statement will allow the
prospect to understand — “What’s in
it for me?”.
Raise Interest
Skilful questioning of the customer will
raise the level of Interest by showing
that you care about their concerns,
needs and wants. Probing questions
should unearth what the customer re-
ally wants, and this should form the
basis of your presentation or pitch.
Create Desire
Motivation can only work if the bene-
ts of the product or service to be sold
are accurately matched to the buying
needs of the customer — “Matching
Builds Desire”.
Desire is a powerful emotion,
and it determines the level of “want”
in customers to have their buying
needs satised.
Stimulate Action
The stronger the desire to buy, the
easier it is to close. Closing is the
nal stage, getting the customer to
agree to buy is engineering Action.
Action will only take place if objec-
tions have been answered to the cus-
tomer’s satisfaction, and the negotia-
tion of variables has been undertaken
successfully.
When you think about your own
business and your customers, this is a
really simple process to follow — the
beauty is that it is a process, and one
that can be easily remembered and
applied in all selling situations.
So when you’ve worked
out what’s in it for them,
you’ll nd out what’s in
it for you.
Good Selling.
Tony Sinclair, Sales Manager
Australia & New Zealand
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Gain Attention
Buy one car
Get one free
The close…
Simple,
elegant,
effective.
And it works
The Merlin MR850
roller door opener
CHAMBERLAIN’S objective is to
make door and gate opening prod-
ucts that do their job better than
specied and with the minimum of
fuss. To then apply the principles
of great design to their openers is
what helps set them further ahead
of the rest of the competition.
This quality was recognised re-
cently at the 2009 Australian Inter-
national Design Awards when they
awarded the Merlin MR850 with
an Australian International Design
Mark.
A Attention
I Interest
D Desire
A Action
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