How do I get to the next step in the sales process?

A few weeks ago we polled you with a single question:

As a non-salesperson, you still have to sell your services. What, if anything, makes you anxious about selling?”

If you haven’t answered the poll, you can do it now by using the pop-up appearing below. We’ll be providing our take on how non-salespeople can address some of these common anxieties about selling so you can start moving down the path towards becoming what we call a “sales hero” – this is a non-salesperson who has the knowledge, confidence and skills they need to get the sales job done well.

Today’s sales anxiety is here:

Not achieving the next step in the sales process – e.g. making sure I get the next meeting.

Here’s how we approach this common sales anxiety

Does this scenario sound familiar? You have a first appointment with an important prospect. They’ve had some problems with their current provider, and are ready to change. You’re understandably enthusiastic and confident that you will be able to impress the prospect to the degree that they will want what you offer.

You introduce yourself and the first thing they say is “let me hear your pitch, what can you do for me?” You think this is great, because you can get right down to the features, advantages and benefits of your service or product. Whilst the prospect looks receptive to what you are talking about, he cuts you short after 20 minutes and says he has another meeting and could you give him some brochures. You finish the meeting thinking “that went well, he seems really interested..

All good right?

Not exactly. The fact is, you’ve not accomplished anything that you couldn’t have achieved with a quick telephone call and mailing the brochures in the post. And worse, the prospect is probably thinking exactly the same thing. That was nice, but not really productive.

It was Duane Sparks, author of Action Selling, that first introduced me to the concept of the Commitment Objective.

A Commitment Objective is the goal that we set for ourselves to gain agreement from the customer that moves the sales process forward.”

Our principal mission, when selling anything, is to get the customer to commit. That’s why selling exists. If we’re not planning for the customer to commit to something, we might as well not even be there.

Maximise your chances of getting to the next step in the process by having a planned action that you want the customer to commit to, at every single interaction. What could these commitments look like?

I want the customer to

  • agree to have a meeting with me
  • agree to have a proposal meeting with me
  • schedule a needs analysis
  • agree to set up a meeting with me to the decision makers
  • agree to check a proposal and show their agreement within a time frame
  • agree to the sale

Duane Sparks says you can shave 25% off your sell cycle time by having a Commitment Objective in mind for every call or appointment. That’s like giving you 3 extra months to sell your products and services every year.

The next time you are planning an interaction with a customer – whatever that interaction is – ask yourself: “What do I want them to do?” Plan for this and make sure you make that the focus of your interaction, and you’ll maximise your chances of getting to the next step in your sales process.

NOTE: The best way to answer that nagging question about practice growth or marketing or patient volume in the back of your mind is to book a free 15-minute compatibility call. Get some options and go away with a clear idea of what’s possible.

About the author

Rod Solar
Founder & Fractional CMO

Rod co-founded LiveseySolar and acts as a Fractional CMO for our customers. He’s on a mission to help transform the lives of 10,000 people through vision correction surgery by 2024. To achieve that, he inspires his customers to make confident decisions that will help 50,000 people take the first step towards vision correction.

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“In a matter of weeks, we already saw results with LiveseySolar. Far before we were even finished with our project.”

Erik Chotiner, MD, FACS, Ophthalmologist

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Dr Nick Mantell , MBChB FRANZCO

“They’re very professional. They know what they’re doing, but they also put us at ease. This helped us to cut through what’s needed to get what we want.”

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Dr Anton Van Heerden, MBChB; FRANZCO, Ophthalmologist

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Meet our Founders

We’re passionate about helping leaders of high-quality, growth-minded practice owners double their practice revenue

Rod Solar

Founder & Scalable Business Advisor

Rod co-founded LiveseySolar and acts as a Fractional CMO and Scalable Business Advisor for our customers. He’s on a mission to help transform the lives of 10,000 people with vision correction surgery by 2024. To achieve that, he inspires his customers to make confident decisions that will help 50,000 people take the first step towards vision correction.

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LiveseySolar completely transformed the way we were approaching this… We’ve gone from having just the dream of having a practice to having a practice up and running with people making inquiries and booking for procedures… It’s extremely pleasing. We feel lucky we connected with LiveseySolar.

— Dr Matthew Russell, MBChB, FRANZCO, specialist ophthalmic surgeon and founder of VSON and OKKO

Laura Livesey

Founder & CEO

Laura Livesey is the co-founder & CEO of LiveseySolar. She has developed powerful refractive surgery marketing systems that increase patient volumes and profits for doctors, clinics, and hospitals, since 1997.

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Rod and Laura know as much about marketing surgery to patients as I know about performing it. They are an expert in the field of laser eye surgery marketing. They know this industry inside out. I believe that they could help many companies in a variety of areas including marketing materials, sales training and marketing support for doctors.

— Prof. Dan Reinstein, MD MA FRSC DABO, founder of the London Vision Clinic, UK