Sales professionalism 8
Sales professionalism 8
By: Dr. M. Shehab
All rights reserved to the writer
Now we are about the second stage of sales cycle where the sales person or medical rep will be face to face with his customer this is called call stage. We remember you that call stage contains 4 steps which are approach, presentation, handling customer response and close.
First step is approach means meet and greet the customer and start the relationship with him. This simply means opening the call. Medical rep appearance and his way of opening has a great impact on starting and building the relationship with customer in this early step of sales call .
Salesperson must get the customer attention and curiosity. Not only that but also stimulate customer interest (awareness) and provide a smooth transition into the presentation
This step takes few minutes or seconds so you must make a good favorable impression to your customer.
In all training sessions all salespeople in all sectors ask me about the ways to do this. I answer them briefly by three words; it’s the way you Look, Act and Speak with your customer.
Look: Be careful of your appearance you must be shaved, clean and neat. You must wear formal dress with simple colors (Dark color trouser and cool color shirt).
Act: Your actions with customer have a great impact on impression like regular visits keeping on your promises with customer and don’t over promise him.
Speak: Your way of speaking, don’t use jargon, your voice tone will reflect your enthusiasm and self-confidence.
Sales person can use intelligent ice break with his customer in the first visit where there is a tension between the two persons in the start. This tension decreases by time so sales person or medical rep can start with some things not related to business like; clinic decoration, location, weather or an article about his customer published in newspaper…Etc.
Now how can sales person or medical rep use different techniques of approach? If we look to the call: Who attend it? The sales person, the customer and a participating thing between the two which is the product.
The customer has his own needs, the sales person has his objective and the product has its own benefits.
So medical rep can approach his customer in three ways:
- In a form of his objectives
- In a form of customer’s needs ( known or un known )
- In a form of product benefits
Under these three objectives we can classify approach into different types:
1- Introductory approach: mention your name, your company and your visit purpose.
2- Product approach: A unique product action or benefit (USP unique selling point)
3- Shock approach: A rate of percent or incidence of diseases or research finding.
4- Patient’s benefit approach: Tolerability and compliance of the product.
5- Survey approach: Reference from medical centers or FDA.
6- Question approach: Ask your customer about his Practice, preference or answering an inquiry.
7- Referral approach: Citing satisfactory experiences of leaders.
8- Flattering approach: stimulation of ego.
Each type of these approaches is suitable for one customer and not suitable for the other. So remember them we will come back to them when we discuss customer’s styles.
Finally keep in your mind that:
First impression is the last impression; the way you look, Act and Speak.
Sell yourself first before you sell your product through:
– Personal appearance.
– Smile.
– Best time to visit.
– Enthusiasm and self-confidence.
– Eye contact.
– Use customer’s name.
I will be happy with your comments: