What are the main steps for completing and maintaining a sale?

"After identifying a prospect, the salesperson explains the reason for wanting an appointment and sets a specific date and time. At the same time, the salesperson tries to build interest in the coming meeting. One good way to do this is to impart an interesting or important piece of information—for instance, “I think my product can cut your shipping and delivery time by two days.” The presentation and demonstration can be fully automated, completely unstructured, or somewhere in between. In a fully automated presentation, the salesperson shows a movie or slides or makes a PowerPoint presentation and then answers questions and takes any orders. In today’s business world, in which relationships are most important for long-term sales, canned or structured presentations are not well received, nor do they support the idea of building a great bond with the customer. A completely unstructured presentation that has no set format is a much more successful approach. It may be a casual conversation, with the salesperson presenting product benefits and assisting the customer in solving his or her problems, like a partner on the client company’s team, in a way that might interest the potential buyer. Almost every sales presentation, structured or unstructured, meets with some objection. Rarely does a customer say, “I’ll buy it,” without asking questions or voicing concerns. The professional salesperson tries to anticipate objections so they can be countered quickly and with assurance. The best way to counter objections is to have a thorough knowledge of the product offering so that a solution can be found that overcomes the objection. After all the objections have been dealt with, it’s time to close the sale. Even experienced salespeople sometimes find this part of the sales process awkward. Perhaps the easiest way to close a sale is to ask for it: “Ms. Jones, may I write up your order?” One of the best techniques is to act as though the deal has been concluded: “Mr. Bateson, we’ll have this equipment in and working for you in two weeks.” If Mr. Bateson doesn’t object, the salesperson can assume that the sale has been made. The salesperson’s job isn’t over when the sale is made. In fact, the sale is just the start. The salesperson must write up the order properly and turn it in promptly. This part of the job may be easy for many consumer products, but for B2B products or services, it may be more complex. An order for a complex piece of industrial equipment may include a hundred pages of detail. Each detail must be carefully checked to ensure that the equipment is exactly what was ordered. After the product is delivered to the customer, the salesperson must make a routine visit to see that the customer is satisfied. This follow-up call may also be a chance to make another sale. But even if it isn’t, it will build goodwill for the salesperson’s company and may bring future business. Repeat sales over many years are the goal of professional salespeople."