Happy Saturday all my friends!
It smells like football and I am getting excited / nervous for the season to start. I am a Michigan fan since I can remember with the famous coach “Bo” yelling and throwing his headsets. It has been hard for me the past ten or so years seeing I grew up watching my team dominate the college football scene. Hope seems to come alive every fall and then let down happens. But I digress. This is a blog on sales and leadership instead of my college football therapy!
I was listening to a podcast that was discussing how to help entrepreneurs to focus on their offerings. The scope was based on the fact that you should not be everything to everyone, instead narrow down your offerings to be an expert. This is something that I agree with, the only issue I have is that the tag line used was “What does your customer want?” It’s great to get sales people to think about the customer, but I think that needs to be changed to a better question. What does your customer need?
Have you ever been watching a commercial, infomercial, walked past something in the store and said something along of the lines of…I need that! That thing will help me fix this issue, or if I get that I will gain efficiency? Sometimes we stumble upon things that we look at and say wow that is needed. We sometimes have emotional triggers that push us towards needing that widget, software, ski boat, etc.
Knowing that we don’t always know all of the solutions which is why YouTube has been so huge with how to videos on fixing things. The same thing applies to us always knowing what we need. Sometimes the customer does not know what they need when they are searching for a product or service. That is why we need to be the expert to help them.
One of the things that I have always prided myself on is that I am there to advocate for the customer and help them any way I can. I have even helped the customer procure something that I don’t sell. This gained me trust and they call me to ask my opinion quite often on products and services to pick my brain. Sometimes I tell them that what they are looking for works good for x, y, and z, but there may be something else out there that might help them hit this extra need that they informed me about. Usually the response is wow I didn’t think of that and that they were glad that I was able to point them in the right direction.
When it comes to customers sales people should be there to serve them, not just take orders for the product that the sales person is representing. Far too often that is the case and that is why the sales profession has received a bad rap. Fortunately, there are far more good sales people than those bad ones wheeling and dealing to make a quick buck.
When sales people go out and sell they need to be focused on what does the customer need. They need to know the customer’s needs in depth so that they can be and expert to help them. Having a servant mindset is a must to be a great sales person and leader. You have to be focused on doing what is best for the customer. To do that the sales person needs to know the customer extremely well. This comes from time, interaction, rapport building, doing the right thing, and building trust by under committing and over producing! The customer will not ask your opinion if they don’t trust you.
When they do trust you though you will have influence that you can help them. If your product helps them move forward and doesn’t just move sales from another product or service they offer then you are on the right track. Be there to help them grow their business and gain that influence they respect. Then you can show them your product that they may never have thought would help them in a whole new light. They will be grateful when that moment arrives as well.
Make sure that your focus is on what does my customer need and you will do well in the long game.
I hope this helps a bit. If you have questions or would like to carry the conversation on please leave a comment below.
Until then have a great Labor Day weekend!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Sales and Leadership Enterprises