Street Talk: Are You Using Spell Check in the Sales Cycle?

Spell check is a standard application that helps prevent you from sending out communications with spelling errors. A sales cycle is the sequence of stages a person goes through when going from prospect to customer.

So why is spell check important in the sales cycle? Every stage of your sales cycle should be strong, fluid and error-free. Nothing illustrates this better than a true story.

I’m Ready to Buy….

Let’s talk cars. For most people cars are a major investment. In this scenario, after thoroughly researching the product a prospect has decided she’s ready to purchase. She went to Ford’s website and reserved a Fiesta for purchase. At this point a representative contacted her through email.

Before moving further there are three important details you need to notice here.

  1. The customer never called a dealership and never spoke to a representative: all of her product research was done on her own using the customer education and communication tools available to her online. How many potential prospects do you miss because your company is not providing information at this critical awareness stage?
  2. Ford did a good job making the information she needed available. As a result, their company made a favorable and memorable impression.
  3. Their website gave her an option that worked for her.

…Or I Was

A reserved car and email communication with a representative–so far so good. Now, all Ford has to do is maintain this positive momentum in order to secure the final sale. Their representative brings a brick-and-mortar dealership into the relationship so the customer can go down and make the actual purchase.

This is a hand-off point…where one level of the organization hands the process over to a final salesperson. There is much more at stake than a car. The salesperson represents the company, the Ford experience, the entire Ford brand in the eyes of the customer is now in the hands of the salesperson.

Do you have a similar “hand-off” in your organization? If prospect calls customer service are they being treated with care? Does your sales staff embrace the same ideals and level of knowledge as other departments in your organization?

Let’s see what happens between Ford and our prospect. The representative copied the salesperson from the brick-and-mortar dealership onto the email with the prospect. This allowed the representative to introduce the prospect to the salesperson and complete the hand-off.

The salesperson sends the prospect an email (names have been changed and some parts have been deleted for privacy purposes):
Subject: YOUR NEW FORD FIESTA!!!!!!

GOOD DAY JANE…
JUST WANTER TO TAKE A MOMENT TO INVITE YOU TO STOP BY TO ORDER YOUR FIESTA.PLEASE GIVE US A CALL TO SET UP A DATE AND TIME THAT IS GOOD FOR YOU TO STOP BY TO COMPLEAT YOUR ORDER.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR VALUABLE TIME,
MR. GREAT SALES MGR
FORD LINCOLN DEALERSHIP

Here is where spell check along with a few other lessons in email etiquette would be helpful.

  • The excessive use of exclamation points in the greeting makes the prospect feels smothered.
  • Writing in capital letters is the equivalent of screaming. After reading this the prospect’s ears are probably ringing! (Note the single exclamation point.)
  • “Compleat” is completely misspelled. The ellipsis points are misused. There is no space between the two sentences that make up the body of the letter. Evidently, despite Mr. Great’s enthusiasm, he felt making a good first impression with this prospect wasn’t important enough to merit a simple spell- or grammar-check.

Wondering what the prospect is thinking after this email? Here are her words, “So do you think he’s enthusiastic enough? This email makes me not want to buy the car from them. But (sigh), no other options for Ford around here.”

Ouch.

Ford made the sale but at what expense? Incidentally, what do you think this process looked like from Ford’s perspective? Probably flawless. Think about that.

The Takeaway: every stage in a sales cycle must be checked for details, accuracy, and sensitivity to your potential customers. Your thoughts?

Mike Krause is the Chief Sales Architect and owner of Sales Sense Solutions where he gives business owners the stellar sales they want by implementing the tools, tactics, and high performance strategies they need.