A Monthly Newsletter Focusing on Important Issues for the Automatic Door Industry
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In this Issue:
Optex Technologies, Inc. 3882 Del Amo Blvd. Suite 604 Torrance, CA 90503 Tel: (800) 877-6656 www.ot-inc.com |
Optex Door Sensor Division Grows in Sales and Staff
Adam Ward
Jim Sargent
In an effort to assist our customers succeed, we will include the "Improving Your Sales" section periodically. "Improving Your Sales" will provide quality information for Sales Professionals to assist with improving performance. We hope you find this issue valuable.
THE STALL - A Decision not to make a Decision
By D. Forbes Ley, MBA
Prospect: "I'd like to think it over." You've just been hit by The Stall. The good news is that the prospect does have some desire for your product (after all, he came this far in the sales process with you). The bad news is something is stopping him from buying now.
What are the odds?
If you accept his stall, hoping he'll buy at a later date, you will lose 95% of your prospects. Rarely do they "think it over," and only 50% of them actually "shop around". A stall signals conflict. The conflict is the agony of indecision between the desire to have your product versus feelings of uncertainty and anxiety. When the desire to have your product or service is great enough they will usually buy.
A stall normally means your prospect does not have enough reason to buy NOW - he doesn't sense a need or have the urgency badly enough. You obviously need to do something, but what?
Focus on the positive emotions
One of the most undeveloped selling strategies is keying in on the prospect's positive emotions about your product or service. Removing an objection (a negative) can neutralize a block in the decision process. However, that's not enough. The prospect will buy only when he or she feels a strong positive benefit. Your job is to discover what those benefits are and help the customer focus on them. You might do that by asking questions such as:
- How would you benefit from our product or service?
- What do you find attractive about our product or service?
- What advantage do you see in our offer?
What's your next move?
Try to find out the reason the prospect feels he or she might need more time to "think about it." You might ask:
- What do we need to do to earn your business?
- What is blocking you from going forward?
It is the combination of focusing on their positive thoughts of your offer as well as identifying their blocks that offers the best opportunity to overcome stalls.
Rebuild the prospect's desire
You may find the prospect wants the product and is convinced of its benefit, but he doesn't see why he should buy now. He may not be feeling urgency!
It's up to you to create the sense of urgency by selling his problem back to him. Build the desire by reminding him of the problem and all its possible consequences. Get agreement on how bad it really is, and then rescue him with your solution - building on the positive benefits he identified earlier.
Legitimate stall
Of course, there are times when you are legitimately stalled, for example, when you or the prospect must do some further analysis of his needs (i.e., a large capitol purchase). Then you employ strategies to sell the next appointment and keep his interest and involvement high.
Put the stall to rest
Whether on the first or final sales call, the stall is the classic sales killer unless you create a sense of urgency to buy now.
With a bit of practice, you can become adept at questioning to uncover the reason for the stall, and helping the prospect to understand why he can benefit from your product or service and your solution NOW.
Adapted from The Best Seller, which the American Management Association calls "…the finest book ever written on selling!" The author, D. Forbes Ley, MBA, is Executive Director of the Sales Success Institute. For more information, contact Sales Success Institute, 425 Vista Flora Ave., Newport Beach, CA 92660.
By: Jim Sargent, Technical Support Representative, Optex Technologies Inc.
Jim Sargent
Over the last nine years I have found that many technicians, salesman, estimators and proprietors do not truly understand how the safety beam works in conjunction with a swing door overhead presence system. The following explanation will help clear up any misconceptions.
First, lets discuss what an overhead presence system does on a swing door. A swing side Overhead Presence Sensor (OHP sensor) is a dedicated safety system. It keeps a fully closed door from opening and a fully open door from closing. This is often referred to as MAT or CARPET Logic. This stems from the use of safety mats. While the door is in motion (opening and closing cycles) even though the OHP sensor sees the door in the safety zone and sends a mat safety output, the signal is ignored or inhibited. Control boxes are designed to ignore a mat safety signal on the opening cycle. However, on the closing cycle the control box will not ignore the mat safety signal. Unless the mat safety signal is inhibited during the closing cycle, the doors will safety closed, not allowing re-activation of the door until it reaches the fully closed position. Therefore you must have some sort of a lockout device to inhibit the safety signal while the door is closing to allow reactivation when someone approaches from the non-swing side. Some control boxes (such as the Horton 4190) have an internal lockout that ignores the mat safety signal until its adjustable lockout time expires. Other controls require an external lockout device (such as Optex's PC3B, BEA's LO-21 and MS-Sedco's RL-2) to perform this function.
With a lockout, the OHP sensor safety output is inhibited on the closing cycle. Therefore if someone were to enter the swing path while the door is closing (for example, exiting from the wrong direction), and the control box were to receive an activation signal, the door would re-activate into the person on the swing side (Not Good).
The safety beam works in conjunction with the lockout. The beam is mounted on the swing side at a distance just past the door panel at the full open position. The output of the safety beam is tied into the lockout device. While the door is closing the lockout time is counting down and inhibiting the OHP sensor output. If someone approaches from the swing side and breaks the barrier of the safety beam, the beam sends a signal to the lockout, which in turn ceases the lockout time and allows the OHP sensor output to reach the control box. The door will safety closed not allowing reactivation until the OHP sensor zone is cleared. In addition, the lockout may send a safety signal while the safety beams are blocked.
There is another option however. An appropriate door mounted sensor eliminates the need for the safety beam (or equivalent). Door mounted sensors will be discussed in a future article.
Things to consider when retrofitting an existing OHP sensor system to meet the upcoming standard:
- Currently almost all control boxes with internal lockouts do not have a safety beam input that will allow the safety sensor back into the system. This means you will need to add a lockout module to your quote.
- Not all lockouts have a safety beam input. You may need to replace the lockout.
- Some safety beams and sensors may have a wet output. Some lockouts require a dry output. Be sure to match the safety beam or sensor output to the lockout.
- Some lockouts act as a switch and inhibit the OHP sensor output from reaching the control box. Other lockouts send a data output to the OHP presence sensor to inhibit the sensor output. Be sure to match the appropriate lockout to the OHP sensor.
Traditional problems associated with providing sidelight safety for Automatic Sliding Doors are Solved in the new Optex i-Sensor.
The Optex "i-Sensor" is one of the world's only active infrared automatic door sensors to provide both threshold and sidelight safety in a single sensor. Until now most automatic door distributors did not install sidelight safety unless it was requested by the end user. The primary reasons for this were the added cost associated with installing extra sensors and the possible damage and injury that could result when the door is held in the closed position or opened slowly because of someone in the sidelight area.
The i-Sensor can accomplish full sidelight protection without adding additional sensors and without inconveniencing the users of the door. The unique detection area of the i-Sensor completely covers the threshold and sidelight areas of a standard single or double sliding door. Anyone entering the detection area either directly or from the side will cause the door to open before the person can enter the sidelight area. This virtually eliminates the possibility of someone being hit by the door in the sidelight area. If someone remains near the threshold or sidelight area, the i-sensor will keep the door open and keep the person safe. Gain competitive advantage in your market by offering added sidelight safety for every installation.
Other features include:
- Full Area Adjustability
- 3 year full replacement warranty
- 110% performance guarantee
- Better overall performance (based upon customer response)
