According to the new book Top Dog Sales Secrets, there’s a missing link in most sales processes (80-90% of them, no less!). Just what is that often overlooked step? The “confirmation step.” Jeb Blount provides an excerpt from the book that presents scenarios in which a sale was lost due to lack of confirmation by the seller. I’ve included a section that highlights why this step is crucial to success and how sellers can be sure they are in the small percentage that actually utilizes this missing link.
“… I believe there is an additional step that most trainers and 80% to 90% of sellers leave out. This is the step I learned from my dad. Executed correctly, this one step, with the exception of qualification, will have a greater impact on your closing ratio than any other in the sales process. In this step, which comes after Discovery and before your Presentation, you sit down with your prospect or customer (sometimes this means multiple people in an account), and confirm and verify the information and problems you have uncovered. In the Confirmation step you allow your prospect to correct any mistaken assumptions you’ve made, fill in any gaps, and most importantly you allow him to prioritize the issues that are most important to him.
Usually this step only takes a 15 to 30-minute conversation over the phone or in person and is set up like this, ‘Hi Bob, this is Jeb Blount, SalesGravy.com, thank you for taking so much time with me to help me understand your needs and issues. I can’t wait to present my solutions at our meeting next week. Before I do that though, I want to be sure that I don’t waste your time with unimportant things. Since I’ve uncovered a lot of opportunities to help you I was wondering if I might have 15 minutes of your time to review my assumptions just to be sure I’m on track to help you get what you want. Would 3 p.m. tomorrow work for you?’.”
Do you fall in the 80-90% of sales people who miss this part of the sales process, or is confirmation always a must-do for you?
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