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The simpler you make the decision making steps for your prospects the higher your sales close ratio will go. When there are too many decisions people will procrastinate.
• Reduce sales decisions to the simplest, most linear steps to the close that you can.
• Keep the decisions to one at a time.
• Have a clear offer
• Have a clear, step by step path to the close with only one decision to be made at each step.
KYSS—Keep Your Sales Simple
The more choices you give someone the lower the positive response rate to your marketing efforts and sales close attempts. For instance, in my direct mail if I ask the prospect to either go to my website or give me a call. That is two options. The response rate is lower than if I just ask them to call.
What happens is that you’ve put one more decision between you and them. First they have to decide that they will contact you, but then they’ve got to decide which way they will use. Sounds simple doesn’t it. You’d think it would be anyway. But you just put one more step between you and them, one more decision that just might not be done right away, or put on the procrastination path. Make it simple and watch the response rate go up. Ask them to do only one thing.
When you ask for more than one decision at a time you increase the probability that a decision won’t be made. You’ve put one more obstacle in the path, and your goal should be to make it as easy as possible to buy. Remove all obstacles.
I have a client that had been very successful, up until he increased the number of items he sells. At the time he was doing a presentation that was so powerful that every prospect was wowed and just about everyone in the room decided to stop using every competitor’s product by the time he had finished. At the time he gave them one product and they bought.
But he had a huge line, so he decided to start giving them a catalog right after the presentation. After all, he thought, now that they’ve got a greater choice they are more likely to find a product that would be a match for everyone and he expected his sales to increase.
Not only were there a LOT of different packages in the catalog, each package increased in complexity and price until you almost couldn’t tell what was in the package from the picture for the clutter of pieces. It was a chaotic picture of so many choices.
His sales plummeted and he couldn’t understand it. He was looking for every other possibility except at the complexity of the sale he just created.
After the presentation, the husband and wife prospects usually had decided to buy, but they spent the rest of the evening arguing over which product they’d buy, and usually walked away saying, “We’ll think it over. We’ll get back to you after we’ve made our decision.” Usually no decision was forthcoming.
There were too many choices.
• Which package, and since there were a lot of items in each package that generated a lot of interest in wanting a piece from this
package and a piece from that, therefore they could see a reason to go with almost any package. Normally that would result in indecision . . . in other words no decision.
• Price—Of course each package increased in price and there were sooooo many choices.
I want this in this package but it’s too costly, but the one I can afford doesn’t have what I want.
Too many choices, too many obstacles There are too many obstacles to making a decision. Too many obstacles between you and your prospect’s decision. Change that. Make it easy to make a decision.
In this case, they had already decided to buy. Get that commitment by taking them through the decision steps. Don’t assume that they will come to the conclusion when there are so many options. It won’t happen. Guide them to the answer through a logical step by step process.
• Do you agree that what I showed you is a major problem? …Yes!
• How big of a problem do you think it really is? [establish a value]
• How important is this to you?
• Big enough that you’re going to make a change?....Yes!
• If you found an answer to the problem would you act?
• Does it look like [my product] would solve that problem?
• Is price an issue?
• So what will be your next step?
And even better is to turn these questions into open ended questions where the prospect is discovering the answers himself.
For this client I asked him to define his two best selling items, and to put only those two on the handout he gives prospects at the end of his presentation.
He asked me what he’d do with the rest of the line. Here’s what I suggested.
• Get a commitment that he had the answer and they were interested.
• Show them the two choices. A simple which one answer. Their only choice is: do I buy, and then which one.
• Occasionally price becomes an issue
• They can’t afford it.
So ask them, if I could provide any of these packages to you at YOUR price would you be interested? You are to help them get what they want at ANY price. You are there to help.
Ask them if they really want it, how much can they afford to resolve [their problem]? Then you reveal the OTHER products that they can afford. You’ve already gotten a commitment they want your product. Then they moved to price, so help them get it at their price and you’ve got a sale.
• When price isn’t an issue, or they can afford more
If they want this item or that item that may not be in either package, then show them the next package up in price that has the items they want. They have only one decision to make and you are up selling them one step at a time, not confusing them with pages of products.
KYSS—Keep your sales simple Reduce sales decision to the simplest, most linear steps to the close that you can.
• Keep the decisions to one at a time.
• Have a clear offer
• Have a clear, step by step path to the close with only one decision to be made at each step.
Your sales closes will go through the roof.
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