1. Someone wants to buy something.
2. A want or need requires fulfillment.
3. An emotional connection is made between the buyer and the seller.

A great salesperson is someone who is committed to helping others. That person is not interested in pitching their product because they want to sell you something. They are interested in finding out how and if their product can make a difference in the buyer’s life. The first method of selling is self–centered and less effective. Daniel Goleman, author of Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, describes that inward , self–centered pitch approach as something that makes your world contract and limits your opportunity to connect with others. That lack of connection makes it difficult to sell anything. Conversely, when you are customer–centered, your world and opportunities naturally expand. This isn’t anything you have to learn. It’s comes with caring about others and helping them with their buying needs.

At the highest level of sales, whether you sell a Pepsi or a BMW, the emotion between the buyer and the seller can make all the difference. When people are buying an event at your center, you better believe the emotional impact of that purchase is right at the top of the buyer’s mind whether they know it or not. No one wants an event to flop. Whether it is a company party, a reunion, a birthday, or a bachelor’s party, the event planning buyer has a lot at stake. As the event planning seller, you have the responsibility to help your buyer feel completely comfortable and excited about the prospect of having their event at your center. You can do that with these 5 simple rules.

1. Have confidence in your product. You must be a product expert in order to exude this type of confidence.
2. Qualify (Click here to download the SALES TOOLS Section of Training the Front Line guide FREE)
•   “Mr. or Mrs. Customer, please tell me more about your event. If you could picture it perfect what would it look like?”
•   “Tell me a little more about your group. Is it families, all men or women, or a mix of adults only?”
•   “Depending on the time of day, we have several food options. Were you planning to provide food, or are you mostly interested in fun?”
•   “Were you wanting to come on the weekened or a weekday? Daytime or evening?”
3. Assure. With enough information in the qualifying segment of the conversation with your event planner prospect, you now know what to offer or pitch. If you had started selling before now, you may or may not have provided the best information to plan the best event possible for this guest.
   •   ““Ms. Customer, I think I have enough information so that we can plan the best experience for your group. I want to make it easy for you to decide to have your special group event at our center.” When you use a word like special, you convey as a sales person, that you understand the emotion of this purchase.
4. Present and review the agreement with the confidence that you have met this customer’s needs because you understood the goals of the group event up front.
5. Get the deposit and celebrate the excellent decision this customer has made by booking their event in your center.

I sincerely believe that good salespeople really care about the people who buy their products and have a belief that their product can do something for the buyer. It’s good to be sold on what you are selling, but it’s better to be sold on what the buyer wants to buy! Do you know what your product does for others? I’d be interested in learning the ways that you know your product helps others. Please use the blog as a forum to sell us, you, and your customers on why they should be having their next group event at your center!

If you would like additional information about this topic feel free to join us tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. for our free webinar – Handling the Group Sales Call.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Sales Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.