( next episode 79 series 25 Channel 4- April 11 2012 tonight 5p.m and 4oD)
In some ways, a good salesperson needs to be much more than a domestic dinner party host but rather have the skills of
the maître d ( maître d’hotel) .
Indeed a sales executive’s job description and personal profile
have a number of parallels with a maître d.
The responsibilities
of a maître d’hôtel generally include supervising the waiting staff team ( similar to organising
resources of back office, production ,etc.), welcoming guests ( akin to prospecting,
networking) and assigning them to tables ( like account management) taking
reservations (equivalent to taking orders), and ensuring that guests are satisfied ( customer
service).
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| The IRM foormula Ingredients, Recipe and Menu of your offer analysis |
In large organisations such as hotels or cruise ships with
multiple restaurants, the maître d'hôtel is often responsible for the overall
dining experience including room service ( on line buying and telephone sales) and
buffet services ( taster days, seminars etc.), while headwaiters or supervisors
are responsible for the specific restaurant or dining room they work in. ( maybe field engineers)
In restaurants where food is partly prepared at table, the
maître d’hôtel may be responsible for such operations as boning fish, mixing salads,
and flambéing foods. ( Demonstrations, training, presentations)
Like the maître d , a salesperson has to communicate
persuasively the chef’s recipes. This means translating the language of the
Kitchen – not just the Gordon Ramsey expletives !!! but words such as ‘ covers’ are jargon that diners don’t use. So
‘covers’ become portions.
Ingredients
and cooking steps are translated into the language of the menu appealing not just to the rational
motivations of nutrition health and safety and cooking functionality for the diner but to the
presentation of the meal - the eating and drinking
of the entire dining experience.
This skill in communication enable them turns the words of
the menu ( the equivalent of sales
literature , brochures etc.) into persuasive communication.
This is how Philip Stanley and I facilitated a set of sessions developing and presenting Offer analysis for a group of twenty delegates at an open course PRO PAYBACK Selling for TACK INTERNATIONAL last month.
We make the session very pacy , fun and highly active
We make the session very pacy , fun and highly active
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| Hugh Alford and Philip Stanley , TACK International |
The maitre d is a trained professional who knows what to say beyond the
words of the menu, beyond the blurb on the wine bottle.
The untrained waiter does not know what the specials are or what the soup of the day is, what are the vegetarian options? or whether there are nuts in the ingredients- ever been there fellow diners?!
A salesperson today needs
to have more knowledge that what the clients has gleaned from the website,
literature etc before the call with the salesperson. They need to be trained.
Actually most salespeople have the knowledge but not necessarily at the ‘fingertips’ . How often after a sales call that maybe did not go as well as you hoped?
Yet when you leave the meeting, put down the phone, sign off from the sales webinar and the ‘pressure ‘is off you realise you missed explaining something “ If only I had remembered to say X., Y or Z….” you say to yourself.
i.e. It was not a problem of lack of product or sales knowledge but rather of having the information to hand at the time in the front of your mind. One way to develop this skill is to derive a detailed analysis of your offer.
Whatever the level of
experience of a sales professional it is good to go back to the basics. Star
sportspeople train, opera stars warm up actors rehearse so salespeople ( however
advanced they see themselves to be) should go back to the fundamentals.
What is the most fundamental question on any buyer’s mind?
Not price ( although that will be high on the list of
course) but relevance
What will it
do for me?!
i.e. What is
your offer
Once in a while it is a really good exercise to get some flip chart pens and paper and commit your offer to paper. You can do it indoors - You can do it al fresco.
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| You can do it with you breakfast orange juice to hand |
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| You can do it outside with a cup of tea or coffee |
Once done.
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| explaining her offering |
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| standing up all gets you to enthuse more about your offer |
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Enlist the help of colleagues to put your
Offer Analysis to the test
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| presenting his offer |
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| being challenged by his colleagues |
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| Fay answering a "So what?" challenge |
Don't throw out your strongest benefits too cheaply. Thes are often the benefits of your offer with rspect to savings in the client's TIME, savings in resources or savings in Money or improved Return on Investment.
An example of Offer Analysis work by delegates at the TACK International PRO April 2012 PAYBACK selling course at Coventry. The delegates generated a lot of great work. Philip and I wallpapered the room.
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| Passing out parade of newly qualified sales maitres d at course in Coventry , Warwick University Conference's Scarman House |
