Start-Up Smarts by Barry H. Cohen & Michael Rybarski

Author:Barry H. Cohen & Michael Rybarski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Adams Media, Inc.
Published: 2010-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

SALES ADVICE FROM THE REAL

TRENCHES : Selling Gravesites

There is little doubt that some products are easier to sell than others. Selling glamorous, luxurious, or fun products that people really want, like BMWs, may have its challenges, but let’s face it, the buyers are already interested in your product. There are other products people just don’t want to talk about—life insurance comes to mind as a more difficult sell. We’re not sure, but among the most difficult products to sell must be cemetery property. If you can sell cemetery property, then you probably have systems and approaches that would be applicable and even more effective with products that are more, shall we say, enlivening.

When we’ve worked with Denny Sabatini, vice president for large group sales at CMS-Mid-Atlantic, a cemetery management company with cemetery properties in the New York and New Jersey markets, we’ve always been impressed by his approach. Over the past thirty years, Sabatini has done it all in cemetery sales: door-to-door, cold calling, one-on-one family sales, group presentations. He has also trained and managed hundreds of new sales people, most who have gone on to have very successful careers as well.

So how does Sabatini do it, and what can an entrepreneur learn about selling from a man who specializes in gravesites? Most radically, perhaps, he redefines when a sale occurs. “Everyone teaches that good salespeople practice great customer service, and that great customer service leads to happy customers and additional sales and referrals. I couldn’t agree more; I just believe that customer service begins BEFORE THE SALE. In my mind, finding a way to serve a customer, even before he or she buys something from you, is the key to getting a formal purchase.” In Sabatini’s mind the keys to the success he’s had come from a few simple principles:

• Find ways to serve the customer before you sell the customer. One of the most powerful things Sabatini does is sincerely try to find ways to serve his potential customers before he brings up any sales issues. “A great opening question in any meeting is to ask, ‘How may I serve you? How may I help solve a problem?’ By putting himself into a service mode before the sale, he shows his customers just what a relationship with him will be like. After all, if he’s this concerned about their issues before they buy they can assume he will be even more concerned after they become customers.

• Avoid impatience and the temptation of the quick hit. The greatest barrier to real sales success, according to Sabatini, is the effort to make quick hits. Not that this can’t generate real sales, initially. In fact, Sabatini notes that two of the salesmen who used to work for him were great at getting sales on the first meeting—but often in ways that left the customer wondering what had just happened. The sale may have been made, but no trust was generated, no relationship built, no ongoing referral process developed.

• Face time is key: You have to see them to sell them.

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