Welcome to the Dove Direct Print and Marketing Blog. Today's post, "The Art of Assignment Selling," examines a very impactful marketing and sales tool that educates prospects before the meeting, via a digital platform, website, or printed materials. The term "personalization" continues to be a strong selling point as we move through 2020. However, sales, in general, have been displaced as the world grapples with the constraints of the pandemic. As they say in Hollywood, "The show must go on," which is where we find most people today.
Our Quote of the Day:
"Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder."
- John F. Kennedy
Assignment selling is a process that involves the creation of educational content around products and services to help explain, resolve, and answer questions that prospects may have during the course of the sale. The process provides a deeper dive for the salesperson to better prepare for the pending sales meeting.
Why Assignment Selling
When a salesperson takes the time and effort to create content for a prospect, the seller is priming that prospect to be more receptive to the offerings. A more informed prospect will always be further along in the sales funnel and closer to making a decision. Studies have documented that well-informed prospects are not only more likely to close, but also have a propensity to close at a faster rate!
Through assignment selling, sales teams save time by providing information up-front, answering FAQs, and by being customer-centric and responsive. Conversations that are built around sales increase in efficiency, and are limited to prospects that have an informed understanding of the product set, and how those products or services can help their organizations grow.
Assignment Selling Questions
To effectively implement assignment selling, brands must ask several questions to create an assignment selling proposition. To do that, brands need to generate sales presentations that reflect the nature of the prospect's business and how the brand's offering can satisfy those objectives.
Sales presentations, of course, take time to create and present. In most cases, depending on the nature of the prospect's business model, it will require a substantial investment of time and resources initially.
The primary question that will arise is where to get the material that you will need to create assignment selling materials? Start with your company's website. It should contain materials and content that can be rewritten and purposed for your targets.
Other questions that are of top of mind include:
- How much research is required?
- How much research is too much?
- What is the best timeline?
- What is the best collateral to present?
Applications
In today's world, we have multiple ways to connect with prospects, including a request form, live chat, or by scheduling time on a calendar to start a conversation. When a conversation is necessary, a 10-to-15 minute telephone call may suffice for the opening salvo. In that conversation, you should answer the following questions:
- Do they need the brand's offering?
- How committed are they to making a purchase decision?
It's important to remember that both of these questions provide data that you will likely use to craft the assignment selling proposal.
Taking Action
Let's take a look at the second question first, "How committed are they to making a purchase decision?" In the context of an email preparation post, it could be similar to the following example:
Hello [prospect's name],
I'm [your name], and I am looking forward to connecting with you. To use our time effectively, I've included a few articles that will assist you in becoming more familiar with our organization and our approach to sales and marketing. I hope that this info will help you determine if we're the right company for your company's consideration.
https://www.dovedirect.com/solutions/variable-digital-printing.html
https://www.dovedirect.com/resources/blog/2020-projected-print-marketing-trends.html
Follow this link to my calendar. Please book a time that is convenient for you.
The introductory email serves as information that places the prospect and the salesperson in sync. It also provides an opportunity for the prospect to be more familiar with your brand as it relates to their needs. By providing an introduction and helpful articles, the salesperson can also address any preconceived concerns or objections during the initial call. The initial call is also the time to ascertain if the brand is a good fit.
This process also qualifies the lead, builds trust, and reduces time in the sales funnel. And as salespeople are well aware, it's a much better proposition when salespeople spend time with qualified leads.
The Net-Net
Assignment selling is more important than ever as businesses navigate through the coronavirus pandemic. While we adapt to a new normal, assignment selling can help to shorten the sales cycle.
We hope that you found this article helpful. We will post more sales techniques in upcoming posts. Thanks for reading "The Art of Assignment Selling!"
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Dove Direct, your Atlanta based print and mail solutions provider, offers organizations end-to-end data, printing, and mailing solutions: Data Management, Variable Digital Printing, Lettershop and Fulfillment, Fully Automated MLOCR Presort Bureau, Marketing and Production Management Support and Secure Data Life Cycle Management.
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