As Mark and I have been traveling around Maryland and even parts of the country to talk about B.A.N.K. as a sales tool, I’ve been realizing that it’s just that… a tool to fit into an existing sales process.

Let me say that again.

An existing sales process.

You can’t just wing sales. You have to have a process through which you take your prospects. Not just so that they feel taken care of and confident in YOU, but so YOU can feel confident in YOU.

If you’re just winging it, then you’ll miss something, make a mistake, say the wrong thing, forget the important part (like ask for the sale!), or you’ll fumble… and your prospect will notice.

Here’s the very basic structure of what you need in a sales process:

1. Present what you do and offer to the prospect.  This could be your 30-second elevator speech, what you say at a networking event, or a cold email/call.
2. Initial conversation.  This is where you go into more detail about what you do or offer.  You need to ask questions to determine your prospect’s needs, pain in the realm that your product or service solves, decision-making ability, and budget.
3. Connect the dots.  Explain how your product or service solves their problem or challenge. Show them the logic and how to get from here to there – and how your product or service will help. (This is where B.A.N.K. comes in.)
4. Offer options.  If it’s just one thing, then your prospect can answer Yes or No. However, if you have two or three options, then the choice becomes A, B, or C, not just Yes or No.
5. Explain how your product or service solves their pain and meets their needs.  Otherwise, why should they buy? And the cost of investing in your product or service needs to be less than the return – the return of less pain, more money, more time, saving money, etc… all those 12 reasons why people buy.
6. Ask for the sale.  Too many people just present what they do or offer and then shut up.  They’re too scared to actually ask the prospect to buy, so they figure if they just mention they do this thing, then the prospect will figure it out and want it so badly that they’ll initiate the buying portion of the conversation.
7. Follow up. Unless the prospect flat-out tells you No, keep following up.  And following up.  And following up.  Most people appreciate the fact that you reached out (again) to put your service or product back in front of them.  Remember: once you leave the conversation, they have 100 other things pushing to get to the front of the line of their attention.  You have to remind them that you exist.
8. Follow up.  See #7.
9. Follow up.  See #7 and #8.
10. After you’ve followed up and closed the sale, bring your new customer/client on board and provide amazing customer service.  Most customers become repeat customers… IF they’re treated well and have an amazing customer journey.

Do you have a sales process? If not, use this as your template and follow it.