Ever attempted to buy a car, furniture, or some large electronic device and the sales person asked how you are doing and immediately dives into trying to sell you something? At this point you have likely decided it is time to plan your escape. Hopefully not with the sales person holding on to your leg saying, “Please Stay!!!”
Far too often sales people jump right into the deep end of the pool and start trying to sell to customers before they understand the customer. How do they even know the situation before they make that leap? Most often times sales people are spitting out all sorts of features and benefits of the product / service they offer in hopes something will make customers say yes and close a sale. What most sales people forget is that customers buy to satisfy needs, not features and benefits. It’s a simple concept, but hard to put into practice unfortunately.
When I train sales professionals, I have to make sure that I highlight this fact each time I start the training. We as sales professionals need to stop launching right into a sales pitch early on in the sales process. The customer is actually put off by this practice of selling. I know some sales people at this point think that sales is just a numbers game so keep it up and a sale will happen.
Most customers will wait for the presentation to end patiently and then thank the sales person for their time before making a way to the exit as fast as possible. People want to feel heard and understood. Too many times sales people leap into action and sell something because they are looking for that next kill. Most sales people think of sales just like hunting for something.
I started selling like this, but quickly learned that sales is actually like farming. When we hunt we can eat for a day if we end up achieving our goals. When we farm and plant the seeds, take care of the soil, we will harvest a feast for a long period of time. We start small and grow our influence with the customer over time.
By changing out mindset and focusing on how to serve the customer well we will gain more influence and generate more sales. We need the customer to buy off on us before they will ever think about buying our product or service. That’s right people will not buy from us if they don’t know, like, and trust us. Here’s another fact, the larger the sale, the longer it takes to understand the customer’s needs. That means the sales process will take longer.
I have structured multi-million, multi-year contracts and every one of these deals took years to come together. Not one of these customers has ever stopped on my doorstep and said please help me, I need you to sell me your product without growing the influence with them first. I had to grow influence before they would look at me as an option to help them with their larger investments. They gave me opportunities for smaller deals and then as they grew to trust me and trust that I understood them well enough they gave me larger opportunities.
Apple has done a great job of getting people to line up for their new products, but back when they started, hardly anyone wanted their products. It took years of the correct leadership, marketing, and growing influence to get to where they are today.
Each day there are new strategies on how to sell to a new sophisticated type of customer, but most of these new sales strategies are trying to do the same exercise of growing influence with the customer. Shortcuts may work for the short term, but long term they fizzle out and influence erodes. I have used the same process for almost two decades to sell to different industries, and in different parts of the world. It’s a simple process and it helps the sales professionals walk through the customer’s five buying decisions that they must answer before they will purchase our products or services.
We have to meet the customer’s needs and then we will be rewarded with their business and grow influence with them for future sales.
If you’d like to take the opportunity to learn this easy to utilize process to increase your sales click here.
Have a great day!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”