The Third Call of a Three Call Selling System—Solidifying Belief
By Bob Berting, Berting Communications
Throughout this 3 call selling system, we have been stressing that this is a process by which the customer is being led to the conclusion that they can believe in the credibility of the advertising salesperson, trust in what they say, and finally on the third call, solidify their belief in what the salesperson can do for them.
The third call is a critical call and should be done in a relaxed, confident manner. It is critical that the comprehensive spec layouts be shown at the outset—ahead of any plan being presented. The selling axiom is “sell with emotion, and justify with logic (or facts).” At this point, it is important to guage the emotional reaction of the customer. Hopefully they will comment
on how well the layouts reflect the image they want to project which translates into more potential business. Remember on the second call we wanted to do rough layouts with them and get their ego involved in the content of the ads.
Presenting the plan
The plan for their advertising program should be relatively simple and not pages of demographic figures, graphs, studies, etc. It should be a yearly program broken down into quarters showing all the ways you think they should be using your publication which will include weekly display ads and website banner ads, quarterly pre-print inserts, point of sale materials, and possibly sales promotion items. The only other item to be in the plan might be participation in a yearly promotion schedule as part of a collective merchant program—either an area promotion or a subject promotion.
The bottom line total of this plan is the amount which was the portion of their yearly advertising budget you have allocated for your publication. The alternative to this yearly plan might be a highly seasonal business which may only settle for a 6 month plan.
Objections
It is my experience with proper research ( history of the account) and earlier fact finding, most objections can be alleviated. Sales manuals devote tons of space about how to overcome objections. The key is to do such a good job with your spec layouts and plan that objections will be minimized.
Closing
The key elements in closing are: always finding ways to get the customer to say yes—and making decisions they will agree with.
Here are other key points to consider when you are entering a closing phase with the customer:
1. Establish value before closing
2. Don’t make closing so obvious
3. Study how to show empathy—problem solving and not be a sympathizer where you are responding and reacting to all their plights
4. Talking pad—show answers to their problems by sketching or diagramming
5. Testimonials—show what their competitors have said about their success in your publication
Conclusion
The whole purpose of this 3 part series on the 3 call selling system is to show how advertising salespeople can successfully walk through a proven process to close a prospect or customer by the third call. This system has resulted in averaging 2 cold contracts a week for 15 years in the business.
It has produced contracts that show a 90% record of 52 week contracts or 1000” at will contracts during a year. Finally the same application has been made to sell 20 regional shopping centers on a yearly contract basis.
I hope the reader has enjoyed seeing this 3 call selling process. It works.
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