Wombat Book --- NewSell
by Dr. Michael Hewitt-Gleeson
P>This html-coded online version of the Wombat Final 15/5/06 9:12 AM -- wombatbook.pdf, was prepared by Darlene Sartore with some additions, clarifications, minor adaptations, color texting, and numbered paragraphs to make the text easier to use in follow-along reading and referencing during dialogs.... This version is for use only by course presenters certified by An Ever Better World Internet Academy. Permission granted from author on March 5, 2007.

Chapter 7. TCB: Taking Care of Business
Pdf pages 82 - 86
Why is ‘taking care of business’
more profitable
than ‘closing the sale’?

1. If oldsell is the problem, let’s look at the solution. But before going onto newsell in Part Two, experience has shown me that we should take a moment to talk about the ‘closing the sale’ issue. Newsell is simple, but some people’s brains, infected with oldsell, can have real difficulty when they first hear about it. The oldsell virus may be so strong that they just cannot imagine any alternative to ‘closing the sale’.

2. So, to help clarify it I ask these people the following question, ‘Do you always get a YES from your customers?’ They admit that they don’t always get YES, often they get NO. In other words, they get a mixture of responses from their customers, a mixture of YES and NO decisions. Yet, even though they know, from their own experience, that they really don’t control the customer’s buying decision, they still cannot see what could possibly take the place of ‘closing the sale’.

3. There are two comments to make here:

Just because one cannot imagine an alternative to ‘closing the sale’ does not mean that such an alternative cannot exist. It may simply be a failure of imagination.

If ‘closing the sale’ is a bad idea, the fact that a lot of people believe in it is not enough to make it a good idea. There are those who believe snake handling is a good enough idea to pass it on to their children. But that doesn’t mean it is.

4. The reason for newsell is because oldsell has failed us. Our confidence in oldsell is misplaced. If oldsell did work then I could still offer newsell as an alternative but one might say, ‘Why bother changing when the current sales strategy works so well?’ . . . but it doesn’t! Eighty per cent of the nation’s gross sales in 2005 were still made by only 20 per cent of the sales force.

5. There has been more nonsense written about selling than in any other area of business. Each year, Australian companies spend many millions on corporate sales meetings, corporate sales training, sales seminars, sales training collaterals, sales incentives and other sales development expenses. Unfortunately, very little change in the 80/20 situation is derived from these massive corporate expenditures.

6. The facts prove that most of what is promoted as ‘sales training’ is pure old-fashioned nonsense. Well meaning, perhaps, but nonsense just the same.

7. If we are to change all this in the new millennium we have to admit that our traditional theory of selling has been crude and primitive, inadequate and expensive, and sometimes dangerous and destructive.

8. The high costs of creeping overheads, the evercompetitive market and the chaotic economic environment demand that a serious, credible and scientific approach be given to the basic business strategy of selling. Few companies can continue to afford the missed sales opportunities and lost profits caused by archaic sales doctrine and hardened thinking patterns.

9. TCB

10. We can wrap up this Part One discussion on The Close with a simple answer to the question:

What is an alternative to The Close?

Answer: The TCB.

11. The TCB stands for Taking Care of Business and we all do it quite naturally all the time. Daily human commerce is all about taking care of business. We are all familiar with making decisions, choosing amounts, considering options, refusing or accepting offers, listening to propositions, seeking advice, thinking things over, changing our minds, acting on impulse and so on. We’ve all done these things so many times. This is the normal daily taking care of business or TCB. You simply ask a question and you get a response:

TCB – What time is it? . . . It’s just turned noon.

TCB – Would you pass me the sugar? . . . Sure, here it is.

TCB – Which way to the nearest bus stop? . . . Sorry, I’m from out of town.

TCB – Do you want to go to the movies tonight? . . . No thanks, I’ve got to study.

TCB – Tea or coffee? . . . Just a glass of water, please.

TCB – How will you pay for this? . . . I think I’ll use my Amex card.

TCB – Here are the contracts. . . . Thanks, I’ll give them to my lawyer.

TCB – Do you need anything else today? . . . No, but can you help me to the car?

TCB – Press the SEND button on the screen for your ecommerce cyber-transaction.

TCB – Mate, can you spare me twenty cents? . . . Here’s a dollar.

TCB – Would you like to be considered for an invitation? . . . Yes, please.

TCB – Do you want to bring a guest? . . . Let me think who. I’ll call you back.

TCB – Would you like our How To Vote card? . . . No thanks.

TCB – Take a number and join the queue. . . . No, I’ll go next door.

TCB – We’ve got some new stock in, do you want to take a look? . . . Yes, but not now. I’ll come back later.

12. Whenever, as a customer, our attention is drawn to an offer, we respond by taking care of business. This may involve refusing the offer or accepting the offer, a simple YES or NO. It may involve negotiating over terms or seeking further advice. We might get competitive quotes or take time to think it over. The timing might be good now or better next month. All of this is normal TCB, taking care of business. With or without closing techniques we do what we want.

13. Whenever, as a customer, an offer is presented to us we TCB. But the key point here is this:

It’s not The Close
that gives us the opportunity to TCB
it’s The Start.

This html-coded online version of the Wombat Final 15/5/06 -- wombatbook.pdf, was prepared by Darlene Sartore with some minor adaptations and color texting, for use only by course presenters certified by Ideal Network Academy. Use permission herein granted from author Michael Hewitt-Gleeson on March 5, 2007.

Hardcopy book and pdf format sources NO longer online, might be available from links at
http://www.schoolofthinking.org
WOMBAT SELLING: How to sell by Word of Mouth

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