Sales occur at the point of persuasion. Businesses that continuously sell more document their persuasion process, not their sales process, because they refuse to let a prospect’s decision to buy to chance. They lead their sales prospects through the purchase consideration process so that more people buy from them. They do this because they know profits won’t come until people buy.
Overview
A Persuasion Process is a defined sequence of steps taken to convert a sales prospect into a customer. A typical persuasion process has eight core phases that build on one another. Each phase has an objective, actions to take, and a deliverable. The purpose is to help those who have entered your sales funnel take a prospect through their journey of purchase consideration, from initial contact to purchase.
Before implementing a Persuasion Process, you must be clear about what your ideal customer looks and wants. By creating an ideal customer profile, you are better positioned to separate suspects from prospects. You do this because taking any potential customer through your sales process costs time and money. You don’t want to waste either time and money on suspects who are highly unlikely to buy and do not fit your ideal customer profile.
Below are the eight most common sales process phases a target customer who fits your ideal customer profile would be taken through:
- Prospect – engage the target to begin the sales process
- Qualification – determine if a sales opportunity exists
- Rapport – build common ground leading to like and trust in each other
- Discovery – needs analysis via data gathering and information exchange
- Solution Presentation – demonstration of solution fit and capability of delivering
- Commitment– obtain the decision to buy the identified solution at the proposed price, then deliver
- Follow-up – where a desire for repeat sales exist follow-up to ensure purchase satisfaction
- Ask for Referrals – invite the customer to introduce us to others we can help
Note that the persuasion process does not end with the purchase that converts a sales prospect into a customer. It includes follow-up to ensure satisfaction with their purchase and the ask for referrals. This is done because the cheapest way to grow sales is to get new customers to buy again and introduce you to others who can benefit from what you do.
Because most small businesses don’t have the resources to invest in training their people to sell, an established persuasion process with supporting tools to use in each phase helps take prospective customers through awareness to knowledge, affinity, purchase, and repeat purchase.