There is nothing more frustrating for a sales manager or business owner than not being able to afford to make a new sale. Meaning, the opportunity is there for the taking, the purchase order is there, if only you had the necessary funds to pay your suppliers. If only you could deliver!

Meeting supplier payment demands is one of the biggest challenges that owners and their sales people have. Your suppliers want to get paid immediately or upon delivery. Your commercial clients want to pay you 30 to 60 days after receipt. The math does not work and you’re left in the middle. Unless you have a well heeled bank account, your options may appear limited.

If you are like most business owners, your next call will be to your banker. And unless your business has solid financials, three years worth of audited financial reports and a lot of collateral, there is little chance that the bank will offer any business financing. Even the now common letter of credit requires the same bank underwriting criteria as a loan. This puts it outside the reach of small and medium sized companies. So, where can you obtain working capital if you have a strong sales potential but lack the funds to turn the potential into reality?

There is a little known form of financing that allows you to use your purchase orders (from good customers) as financial collateral. It’s called purchase order financing and your bank probably does not offer it. Purchase order funding enables you to deliver on your large orders from your best customers and enables you to make those sales. It’s easy to qualify for and is available to small and medium sized businesses. It is available to those businesses that have no apparent collateral, except a roster of strong customers.

The arrangement is fairly simple. Once you have a purchase order, the financing company provides your suppliers with a letter of credit that guarantees their payment. With the letter of credit in place, your suppliers can deliver the product to your clients, usually by drop shipping it, and you can close the sale. Then it’s a matter of waiting 30 to 60 days for the customer to pay their invoice and the transaction between you and the financing company is then settled.

Purchase order financing can be a great tool that allows distributors, wholesalers, product suppliers and trading companies to grow beyond their expectations, by capitalizing on their purchase orders.

Now the question is - if you had unlimited working capital, how many sales could you close?

About Invoice Factoring Group

We provide business financing through factoring, purchase order financing or a letter of credit. Marco Terry, the president, can be reached at (866) 730 1922

Commercial Capital © 2006 All rights reserved. Article may be reprinted only if not modified and all links are included live

In my youth I landed a job selling encyclopedias door to door. I worked for commissions. If I didn’t sell anything, I didn’t get paid. Trying to sell a high ticket item such as encyclopedias door to door was no small task as you might imagine.

I was desperate to make a sale and I’m sure my desperation showed in my rehearsed sales presentation. I told my potential prospects all about the features of the item, but I didn’t tell them how the product could benefit them specifically. Needless to say, by using these sales tactics, I didn’t sell one set of encyclopedias.

Your potential prospect is only interested in what the product, or service can do for them. Sure they’re interested in the features, but how will those features “serve them?”

The harder you try to sell the less interest your potential prospect will have in your proposition.

They will see your desperation and think…”They’re not interested in helping me; they’re just trying to make a sale.”
Show your potential customer “what’s in it for them.”

Unless you let your potential prospect know how the product benefits them they will be ready to say “NO” before you have a chance to finish your sales presentation.

The 5 fundamental “states of mind” in selling.

Curiosity:
First you have to get your potential prospect curious about how your product, or service will benefit them.

Interest:
Next you have to get your potential prospect interested in knowing more about the product, or service.

Conviction:
You have to convince your potential prospect that your product, or service is something they need and want.

Desire:
You have to create the desire in your potential prospect to own ‘it’, or to be a part of ‘it’.

Decision and Action:
You have to get them to make a decision. You have to get them to take action.

Is it possible to get people to buy without selling?

It sure is. Study your target market. What is there about your product, or service that will appeal to “them?” Just because you are interested in a particular feature pertaining to your product, or service doesn’t mean your potential prospect feels the same way about it. Look at it from their viewpoint.

Does your potential prospect want to resell your goods, or service for a profit? Are they going to use your goods, or service for their comfort? Will it save them time and energy? Will it save them money? Will it make them look and feel younger? Will it improve their health? Will it make doing their chores easier? Find out what your prospects main interest is in your goods, or service then concentrate on telling them how that aspect will benefit them.

Take the vacuum cleaner salesman.

Salesman:
“Mrs. Howard, how do you normally clean your carpets?”

Mrs. Howard:

“I use a broom. That’s been getting the dirt out pretty well, but it’s very tiring.”

Salesman:
“Mrs. Howard, although you get some of the dirt and dust off the surface of the carpet with your broom, you don’t get it “out” of your carpet. Do you know how much dust and dirt you sweep into your carpet everyday? When it gets walked on the dust and dirt is trampled into the fibers and in time the dust and dirt wears and ruins the fibers of the carpet.

Our power vacuum cleaner will not only get the dirt and dust off the surface of your carpet like a broom does, but it will clean deep down into the pile, loosening and sucking out the dirt and dust that’s been embedded in the fibers. This will prolong the life of your carpet saving you the expense of buying a new one.

And when you use a broom a lot of dust and dirt is moved into the air. This dust and dirt not only finds it’s way onto your furniture and drapery, but into your lungs as well. By using our power vacuum cleaner the air in your home will be healthier and everything will remain cleaner because unlike using a broom the dust and dirt isn’t moved into the air, it’s sucked into our power vacuum cleaner. Our machine is also lightweight, so it’s easy to handle. It glides across the floor effortlessly (he demonstrates the movement of the vacuum cleaner across the floor). You won’t have to work hard every day to get out the dirt and dust like you did when you were using your broom. This power vacuum cleaner gets the job done fast and easy.”

Mrs. Howard:
“How much does it cost?”

Salesman:
“I can let you have it for 12 easy payments of $43.25. Your total cost is just $519.00.”

Mrs. Howard:
“Oh yes, I need one of these. Do I give you the $43.25 now, or do you bill me?”

Salesman:
“We can start you off right now, that way your first month will be already paid for. Your next payment will be due 30 days from now and every 30 days from that until paid off.”

(The salesman closes the sale.)

Mrs. Howard purchased the vacuum cleaner from the salesman because the salesman told her how she could benefit from such a purchase.

And when the salesman was telling Mrs. Howard about the vacuum cleaner they didn’t seem desparate to make the sale. They were speaking to her like a good friend would when they give advice. They were simply giving her some facts to help her make a “buying decision.”

When you make your potential prospect realize that the benefits from purchasing the product or service is worth more to them than the money it costs, they’ll be willing to pay the price you ask. You’ll get them to buy without selling them anything because the product, if it has good benefits for the prospect, will sell itself. Here are the qualities you should look for in a product you sell direct:

*It should be an item that has broad market appeal. An item every man and woman can use and need right now.

*A quick and easy demonstrator.

*Sells at a price everybody can afford.

*You should be able to purchase it at rock bottom so you can make big full profit on every sale.

*And it should be a product the customer comes back and buys again and again.

With these elements in place you will have a product that sells itself. And by putting the needs of your customers first, you will get repeat requests for your product or service without selling.

Copyright © Gloria Whitehorn-All rights reserved

About the Author:

Gloria is an article writer, business owner, author of two books, salesperson and seasoned mail order pro. Visit her site for information on a great part-time, full-time-anytime business. She knows what she’s talking about.

http://www.dovemang.com

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Several months ago, I was working in New York State with a group of salespeople. During an exercise designed to identify what obstacles stood between the sales force and their number one prospect, a salesperson related a story about a major prospect who wouldn’t give him the time of day. The problem as the salesperson described it was that several years ago the company’s credit manager suspended the customer’s credit privileges because he was not paying his invoices on time.

As a result of the credit manager’s action, the decision maker swore that he would NEVER do business with my client again. The salesperson’s question to me was, “What do you recommend I do to turn this prospect’s thinking around?”

I don’t believe I have ever conducted a sales training program where someone didn’t offer PAST SINS as a key obstacle to doing business with a key prospect, so I know that this objection is prevalent in just about all markets.

So what are past sins, you may be thinking. A past sin is something that someone in your organization — not necessarily a salesperson — did perhaps several years ago that offended a customer, and in an attempt to get revenge, the customer made the decision to never do business with your company again.

A suspension of credit privileges can certainly sting; such action can certainly be embarrassing for a customer, but is it reasonable and logical to suspend all dealings with the offending company — FOREVER?

Well, in my opinion, of course not. But then again, we’re not dealing with a decision I made. We’re dealing with a decision maker who is a grudge holder. We’re dealing with someone who perhaps doesn’t know how to reverse his rather rigid position and while doing so, save face.

Haven’t you been guilty of making a similar statement? I know I certainly have. Just a few months ago I had a bad experience with a local camera shop. I had purchased a small camera that had a design defect, but because it was out of warranty, the camera shop said that it would cost more to have it repaired than it would cost to buy a new camera. So I took their advice and purchased a new camera.

After about three months had passed, the LED display clouded over on the second camera to the point that it was illegible. When I took the camera back to the camera shop, they told me that I needed to bring in my receipt or the manufacturer wouldn’t accept it. I looked in my receipt file, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. I did bring them my American Express bill that showed the amount and date of the purchase, but the manager told me that I had to have the original receipt or his hands were tied.

“You guys are a national chain,” I said in an attempt to persuade him to help me out. “Couldn’t you use your clout with this manufacturer (Canon)?”

“Nope, without an original receipt, I can’t help you.”

“I’ve done the last business I’ll ever do with that company,” I told my wife.

So I can certainly relate to how the customer felt when his credit privileges were suspended. I’ve been there, as have many of you reading this article. But the question is how do you deal with customers who have stayed angry for years?

Try this approach:

Step 1: Do your dead level best to divert the prospect’s anger away from your company and onto the specific individual who offended the prospect. It wasn’t the entire company that made the credit decision, it was one person — the credit manager. If the offending employee is no longer with the company, it makes the job a lot easier.

Step 2: Say something like, “I’m a human being. I’m also a salesperson. I make my living selling my company’s products. Please don’t penalize me for something another human being did to you.”

Step 3: Compliment the customer by explaining to him what a key “player” he or she is in the local market. Explain that your company is a major player, too, and that it seems reasonable that two major players would be better off burying the hatchet than they would allowing a single incident to fester to the point that the two companies can’t do business together, making you both lose out on potential win-win opportunities.

What you’re doing is playing upon his ability to be “reasonable.” But still to “save face,” it’s usually necessary for the angry customer to become convinced that there’s something in it for him if he does bite the bullet and acquiesce.

Is there any guarantee that this approach will convince the angry former customer to forget his vendetta with your company? No, there is not. There are few guarantees in sales, but this approach sure beats doing nothing.

As salespeople, we are paid by our companies to be persuasive. It’s our job to deal with customers at all levels and in all sets of circumstances.

If you have a prospect that is no longer doing business with your company because of a “past sin” that someone in your company committed at some time in the past, you might want to give this approach a try.

If it works for you, please send me an email to Bill@BillLeeOnLine.com with Past Sins in the subject line and fill me in with all of the details.

Bill Lee is author of 30 Ways Managers Shoot Themselves in the Foot ($21.95) and Gross Margin: 26 Factors Affecting Your Bottom Line ($29.95)plus $6 S&H for the first book and $1 for each additional book.