ADAPAC – Sales techniques
Among sales techniques, the ADAPAC method makes it easy for a novice salesperson to memorize the stages of a sale. ADAPAC – Sales techniques: steps The approach The approach corresponds to the first few seconds of contact, when you create the right climate for the rest of the sale. This translates into : The discovery […]
Among sales techniques, the ADAPAC method makes it easy for a novice salesperson to memorize the stages of a sale.
ADAPAC – Sales techniques: steps
- Approach
- Discovery
- Abstract of the solution
- Proposal
- Argumentation
- Conclusion
The approach
The approach corresponds to the first few seconds of contact, when you create the right climate for the rest of the sale. This translates into :
- Identifying your contact
- Our identification: who we are, what our skills are in the customer’s field of activity
- The purpose of the meeting and what you can bring to the table
- A topic to break the ice and engage in non-professional communication to begin with, for example by congratulating him on his décor, the view from his office, a sport you play together, an association you’re both members of, or even better, a school where you met as youngsters.
The discovery
The discovery phase is the most important part of the sale, enabling you to find out what the customer needs, and also, through skilful questioning, to get the customer to put together his or her own sales pitch.
There are two parts to the discovery process: the technical part, to find out the technical characteristics of the solution they need, and the psychological part, to find out what motivates them to go ahead with the purchase. You shouldn’t move on to argumentation until you’ve completed psychological discovery, using a technique like SONCAS.
Abstract of the solution
In the ADAPAC technique, you first propose a general proposal to check the customer’s receptiveness to this orientation before going into more detail. The advantage is that you don’t have to waste time costing a proposal before the customer accepts it. The other advantage is that it’s easier to convince a customer of a general idea than of technical details. This can be likened to the SOS technique, which advocates selling the customer the achievement of his objectives first, before proposing a technical solution to achieve them.
Proposal
In this step, you’ll detail the technical aspects of the proposal, as well as the process: who’s going to do what, where, when and how. This step validates the presentation of the general proposal in the previous step. The idea is to go step by step.
Argumentation
You can then convince the customer that this is the best solution for him:
- General benefits
- The specific benefits they will derive, ideally those they expressed during the needs analysis. These benefits must also correspond to the psychological motivations you’ve identified using the SONCAS method.
Generally speaking, the sales pitch is a way of showing the customer that he can achieve his objectives.
Closing the sale
At some point, you have to help the customer make up his mind. As long as the sale isn’t closed, there’s no result. You can’t do the job and then let a competitor come in after you and take the credit. Here are a few closing techniques:
- Ask the customer for the sale, but he may say no.
- End with the alternative, asking for a choice between two solutions that are favorable to you.
- Assume that the customer agrees, and take action by issuing the contract signature or invoicing documents.
Advantages and disadvantages of the ADAPAC method
This method has the advantage of being simple and of reminding a novice salesperson of the key steps, whereas experienced salespeople will prefer more advanced methods such as SPIN, PSAI or SOS.
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