Use Bill Gallagher’s Guerrilla Selling System to Capture More Sales

According to author Bill Gallagher, his hot, new how-to sales bible, Guerrilla Selling, can help any salesperson increase sales by at least 20 percent. In an exclusive PSP interview, Gallagher explains just how his approach works and why it’s so effective.

For some the term “guerrilla” may sound intimidating or overly combative. However, Bill Gallagher, co-author of Guerrilla Selling: Unconventional weapons and tactics for increasing your sales,* explains, “It’s just the opposite. I see guerrillas as gentle warriors in the battle against their customers’ problems. For me guerrilla means unorthodox, creative, unusual. It’s also an effective term to describe doing battle with the competition. True guerrilla salespeople are also at war with the snake-oil salesman stereotype.”

Despite the book’s warlike title, Gallagher holds that Guerrilla Selling, which he co-authored with Orvel Ray Wilson, teaches a fresh, creative, win-win approach. This approach depends on such concepts as supporting the customer’s right of choice, helping the customer maintain free will, and showing the customer options for not buying your product or service. Sound revolutionary? That, it seems, is what the author intends.

“Guerrillas want to build long-term relationships with the customer,” explains Gallagher. “They never view the customer as the enemy. The guerrilla sales professional knows that the days of manipulating and prodding the prospect are long gone.”

To support this contention, Gallagher suggests 1) being willing and ready to give your prospects free, valuable advice, 2) exploring your prospects’ wants, needs and expectations before launching into the wonders of your offer or the technical stats of your product, 3) walking — yes walking — out the door if your product or service either does not match or is outside the budget your prospect has outlined, 4) when it’s time to write up the order, offer a reason or two why the prospect should not buy your product — yes, you bring up an objection.

Should these concepts seem foreign, imagine the American colonists, clad in buckskins, darting from behind trees, fighting guerrilla-style against an organized, codified, lined up British Army wearing red coats so they stuck out like so many signposts saying, “Shoot me!” The salesperson who storms into a prospect’s office bearing a phony smile and weighed down with a bag of tricks dating back to the ’20s will surely meet with resistance.

Gallagher includes, as part of the new guerrilla selling style, what he calls the NaB and CaPTuRe approach to the sales cycle. Each capitalized consonant in the acronym NaB and CaPTuRe represents a stage in the process toward closing a sale. These stages are: 1) Needs Analysis; 2) Budget; 3) Commitment; 4) Presentation; 5) Transaction; and 6) Reward.

1 NEEDS ANALYSIS —

“First and foremost,” Gallagher explains, “a guerrilla is a professional who sticks to professional tenets of behavior and performance. The guerrilla salesperson always asks questions to uncover needs, analyzes problems and offers solutions specifically suited to the needs of the client. In the same way that a medical professional wouldn’t suggest an expensive procedure where none was required, a guerrilla spends time listening to a prospect to analyze his or her specific needs. If a prospect gives you an appointment, there must be a need for a service or product. The guerrilla salesperson’s job is to ask the right questions to isolate that need and then work out a solution to satisfy it.”

2 BUDGET —

“It’s perfectly OK for salespeople to talk about money with a prospect, provided it’s done in the context of the prospect’s need. As the problem-solver, once you’ve uncovered a need you can satisfy, you have the responsibility to determine if prospects can afford the solutions. But you should also expect them to be vague about money. Prospects rarely want to open up to a salesperson about their budgets. Be very specific about your proposal and whether the prospect has the budget for that solution. If you get a response like, `We have between 25,000 and 125,000 dollars,’ narrow the figure down until you know exactly how much you’re dealing with.”

3 COMMITMENT —

Gallagher challenges the belief that salespeople should avoid or gloss over any prospect objections. “Problems exist,” he says. “They won’t go away just because you ignore them. Address the objection immediately. Maybe the prospect wants it in blue and you don’t have it in blue. Or he wants delivery in 30 days but you can only get it there in 90 days. You can tell the prospect that you’ll bust your butt but you can’t guarantee 30 day delivery. Ask how big a problem that is. This is where the guerrilla demonstrates a willingness and ability to turn control of the sale over to the customer.”

Before proceeding any further, the guerrilla makes sure the prospect has the authority to approve the sale. “You want to find this information out as delicately as possible,” cautions Gallagher, “so I recommend asking, `Who besides yourself has the authority to make these changes?’ This question presupposes someone else but also acknowledges the person you’re talking to. After this stage you’ve finished with the NBC of NaB and CaPTuRe and have effectively closed the sale before even making your presentation.”

4 PRESENTATION —

A guerrilla’s presentation is atypical because, for one thing, it’s shorter than most. Gallagher explains that most prospects don’t want to hear the intricate details of a product. They want to know how the product will satisfy needs with respect to budget. “At the end of the presentation,” recommends Gallagher, “say, `Well, that sums it up. Do you have any questions?’ The prospect will probably say `No,’ and then you can say, `Well, what do you see as our next step?’ The prospect then says, `Well, don’t you have to write up an order?”

5 TRANSACTION —

“That brings you to the Transaction stage,” continues Gallagher, “and because you’ve put control back in the prospect’s hands, there is no need to use closing gimmicks like saying, `What’s today’s date?’ just to be writing something down. I used those standard closes for years but with guerrilla selling they’re unnecessary.”

6 REWARD —

Next the guerrilla hands the order to the prospect and does what would have been unheard of in the pre-guerrilla selling days — asks again about the prospect’s earlier objection. According to Gallagher, to avoid trouble later on reiterate a problem the prospect brought up before: “If the prospect still has a problem with the color, delivery time or anything, you’re going to have to deal with an unhappy customer and buyer’s remorse at some point in the future.

“So face the problem. This has the effect of creating trust and bonds with the client that will hold over time. A guerrilla knows that 60 percent of all marketing efforts should be based on current customers and referrals. Building trust establishes a contact that can be a source of more business for you for years to come.”

According to Gallagher, most salespeople, once the transaction is completed, are ready to forget about it and move on to the next prospect. Not so the guerrilla. “In accordance with the trust you’ve built with this customer,” says Gallagher, “to distinguish yourself from the pack and make that customer feel special, do something extra. I call it the reward. Some examples include a free set of headphones for a new stereo buyer, a pair of tickets to next week’s basketball game or even something seemingly little as a handwritten thank-you note. The reward distinguishes you from the crowd and solidifies the personal bond between the two of you.”