In the most general sense, high ticket items are products and services of sizable value. In the digital world, these include high ticket items such as e-learning, online coaching, and consulting services for small to medium size business. That being said, the value of a given product or service may also be subjective to prospective customers/clients due to rarity, scarcity, and/or sentimentality, although there almost always is a significant price tag attributed to it.
In the analogy world, high ticket sales occur on a traditional showroom or gallery floor. An on-premises environment generally allows sales staff to engage with prospects on a deeper and more personal level, reacting to body language and other subtle cues that make closing a deal more viable. However, digital transformation and remote working have thrust the sales process into a new era. Prospective customers and clients not only prefer the noncommittal courting provided by online and tele-solicitations, they expect it. Even curators of rare antiques and fine art intend to make their assessments, decisions, and subsequent purchases over the digital highway.
This new era presents a challenge to sellers and their teams. Consequently, organization owners and managers are looking for remote high ticket sales training support that can increase closing rates. You’ve come to the right place. Connect our sales training company platform right away, or read ahead first for more information.
Prospective customers are being asked to make a significant financial investment in the product or service you are selling. They rightfully expect the salesperson to have the answer to every question, comment, or concern about said product/service. If a salesperson ever replies to questions with “Let me get back to you on that,” they will lose the prospect on the spot. If they have a generalized knowledge of what they are selling but don’t communicate using the correct industry terminology, they will lose the prospect on the spot.
In our online sales training program - Plaibook® - we call this Awareness of Your Services. Your level of product knowledge/expertise in the items you are selling can directly impact how successful you will be at high ticket sales. The better you understand what you are selling, the better you can align the values of the product with the customer’s needs. Secondly, the sales staff needs to know how to tailor their pitch. If selling executive coaching to management professionals in Dubai, you need to know how to frame the coaching service in relation to the culture, beliefs and value systems of that market.
This immersive education must be provided when onboarding staff and when new products/services become available. Education should be refreshed semiannually (if not quarterly) to ensure that there is no learning loss as time passes.
Within the ethical guidelines regarding data privacy, ensure that staff is empowered with as much public information as they can get on a prospect. The more they know about the prospect, the more they may develop an understanding of what is important to the individual and the better they will be able to connect with them. Again, in our online sales training program - Plaibook® - we call this Awareness of Your Prospect.
CRM systems will provide for some of this, but if there is no existing CRM data on a new prospect, research can be conducted using a basic online search. At a minimum, high ticket prospect lists will have provided names and contact information. This can be used to reference social media profiles that prospects themselves have made publicly available. From these profiles and Google searches, you can assemble what your prospect cares about, from product preferences, hobbies, interests and other lifestyle choices.
Leveraging knowledge about your prospect during a sales call actually serves them better because it allows you to:
We realize that data gathering of this nature is time/resource intensive and does not always make sense for all products and services, but for high ticket items with high profit margins (and large commissions for staff), it is invaluable.
Pro Tip: One unique characteristic of high ticket sales is that the leads are already highly qualified. That means the salesperson will already have a lot of information about their prospect prior to contacting them.
Prospective customers want to negotiate the price of high ticket items. Remote sales staff must be prepared to do so without pulling out the “Please wait while I ask my manager” response. That pause gives a prospect all of the time they need to rethink and retreat from their temptation to buy. Provide staff with a hierarchy of price points that they can concede on, based upon how valuable the product/service is and whether or not the prospect has the potential to become a return/loyal customer. If you’re uncomfortable with allowing staff to make these decisions, then they are not prepared to sell high-priced items, at least not yet. Let’s help you out with that (keep reading).
The above tips for optimizing remote high ticket sales are tangible and ready for execution. But things get more nuanced when it comes to closing because, as alluded to in the introduction, communications with a prospect occurs over web conferencing. Your virtual staff does not have the benefit of reading the room the same way when a meeting takes place in person. What if the prospect is taking the call with their camera off or from their car? Things like body language and other visual cues get missed. Successful high ticket closers must, therefore, exhibit a combination of specific skills, knowledge, and mindsets. Traits of remote high-ticket closers include the following:
We know the above traits are nuanced, which leaves you wondering how you are going to turn your remote sales staff into high ticket closers. While these traits can be developed over time with experience and mentorship, the best, most efficient, and timely path forward is through customized training for high ticket sales and continuing education. Customization is a key feature of our sales training company’s development program.
If you are looking to train, mentor, reinvigorate and/or scale your staff of remote high ticket closers, The Sales Connection can help. We’ve trained over 15,000 sales professionals in more than 100 countries.