Didenado and the Sales Funnel

Last week, head football coach Didenado was a guest speaker in our class. He talked to us about his past and his experience in the sales force and how we can improve ourselves in selling and what steps we should take to do this.

One of the most important things I believe that coach Didenado discussed was the Sales Funnel. This sales funnel is a guide and basically drives how you should approach selling. The sales funnel has 5 steps:

Pre call analysis:

This is where you do research on the company or person so you have some background knowledge on them. One thing that coach Didenado said which stuck with me is whenever he is in an interview with a prospective student or an adult looking for a job and they do not have any questions for him or know any background about the school, that’s a red flag for him. He said if a person doesn’t take the time to do the tiniest bit of research or background check on something they are interested in, then he said that reflects their character.

Need analysis:

This is when you ask the customer what their needs are. Most of if not all of the talking should be done by the customer at this stage. the best way to keep the customer talking is by asking open ended questions and trying to make a connection with the customer. Didenado did a great example of this by asking a few students closed ended questions about Grove, and then asking a student an open ended question which then created a common connection (i.e., they both had older brothers attend GCC)

Third is need awareness:

This helps customers realize what needs they have and how they can be fulfilled. Again, the customer should be doing most of the talking in this stage and the best way of that is by asking them probing questions.

Fourth is Need Solution:

This shows the customer how your product can fulfill their needs. Didenado gave us four words to help us remember this stage: “Features tell benefits sell”

And lastly there is need satisfaction: or also known as closing:

In this stage, Didenado told us not to be afraid to ask for the business. You went through the above steps and did well so why not close it out and ask for the business. Didenado did reiterate that we need to approach closing the right way by taking the right steps because too many people get focused on the close and do not actually care about the customer.

I think coach Didenado gave us some really good insight which will definitely help me in the future!