Using Finance as a Competitive Weapon in Sales

Training in how to close BIG business

Just selling the technical advantages of your product will never guarantee you any sales. It’s a necessary part of most selling processes but it isn’t sufficient by any means. The ‘bells and whistles’ that you may have this quarter, may be matched or even overtaken by your competitors next quarter. The technology itself may account for less than half of the actual selling process. I bet a lot of you though only visit technical people within your client base because it’s your comfort zone. Then, later, you wonder how the competition somehow “stole” the order away from you despite your knowing you have the “best” product at the “best” price. Learning how to sell at the financial level is not an art; it is a science and an easy one to learn. You can learn it too.

It is extremely rare that a technical client will be the ultimate decision maker even if they carry titles as senior as CTO (Chief Technical Officer). They will, of course, be a very influential gatekeeper but only as far as the technology itself. The product has to meet certain minimum criteria technically; after that it’s a question of the return on investment the product will create. How will it increase their revenue, reduce their costs, help prevent their costs from rising and give them a competitive advantage in their marketplace? This means your potential customer will evaluate the true cost of buying your product and will compare it against your competitors’ costs.

If you don’t understand how these comparisons are made, or why, then you are severely handicapped in being able to counter any objections. Further, you stand no chance of blowing your competitors out of the water before they have a chance to do the same to you. Furthermore, many customers will do these comparative assessments incorrectly which may disadvantage you unfairly. If you can’t debate these points in a professional manner with their financial people, you’re dead and gone.

This course will teach you how these comparisons are made, how to make them, how to discuss and debate the findings and how to make your proposals look financially sweet.

You don’t need a degree in mathematics to do this course although you do need to be numerate and understand basic arithmetic well. If you can’t operate at this level you are severely disadvantaged in selling anyway. The techniques will be explained slowly and simply using many practical examples until you are very familiar with the methods. Unfortunately, Finance Directors don’t use just one method to evaluate projects so ALL the methods will be explained.

In addition you will be given a good grounding in how to read Company Accounts and how to extract the basic vital information from them about your potential customers AND your competitors. This will give you an additional armoury of weapons with which to attack the opposition and close the deal. You will earn a reputation for being a professional business person and you will have no fear of meeting the finance people in your clients. It won’t make you a Chartered Accountant but it will make you a business person who is very capable of having a sensible, articulate and meaningful conversation with one.

To round off the course, you will also be trained in really understanding the meaning of revenue, gross profit, net profit, margin and mark-up. You will then be coached in how to use these to develop a discounting strategy such that you really know what you are giving away when you casually discount your prices. You will also see how to use clever discounting to make it look like you are giving away more than you really are. Better YOU use these methods than your competitors!

You will also be taught about how YOU may be able to offer your financially-strapped customers the money to buy YOUR products and services so closing “unclosable” deals and paving the way to a tight relationship with the customer. Sounds crazy? Wait till you learn about “Vendor Financing”.

This course will change the way you sell in a hugely positive way and will elevate you to a higher plane of selling. It’s not until you have this knowledge that you realise how disadvantaged you were before. You will gain knowledge, power and confidence in your business dealings and will never worry again that you might be wrong-footed because of some financial gobbledeegook. You will increase your sales, make selling easier and gain a great reputation within your own company and your customer base.

Remember, in selling “There are no prizes for coming second” .

Contact John Bond now on +44 8704717323 or email or fill in the - lets start winning.