Welcome back to your equivalent of ‘Cliff Notes’ on becoming successful in Sales!
The last thing we discussed was to establish the right person to talk to; in Sales we call this person ‘The Decision Maker.’
This is SO significant I will reiterate; this is a critical part of your ‘reconnaissance’ and you need to establish who makes purchasing decisions.
Now in addition to your looking like a sales professional in probably your ‘business casual’ attire as you step out of your immaculately clean company car you are going to need to be carrying something.
This is called a ‘Sight Seller’ and may be in the form either glossy brochures on your products or sample of it plus your business card! Remember, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”
So, you are now going to meet ‘a buyer’ and ‘sell them’ something eh?
Absolutely wrong!!
Right at the beginning of this blog series I stated that ‘The Western World’s economy would grind to a halt unless someone sold something a profit.’ So, the key word here is profitability and how you are going to maximize it…. for the customer11
So, at this point let’s recap. You know you are geared up to engage in the art of professional sales when:
1) You are looking the part and so your dress is ‘business casual’
2) You have absolute knowledge of your company’s products and also
3) You have a good understanding of your competitors’ products in comparison to your own
4) You have something relevant to leave your customer / client to connect back to you (Brochure & Business card) … and most importantly you know you will be meeting with someone who can authorize a purchase from you – the ‘decision maker!’
5) You know how to effectively cover your sales territory or ‘patch’
6) You have a good work ethic of being on your ‘patch’ for a full working day
Now the first stratagem is to qualify the customer for the benefits that you can offer them… meaning you really have to understand what it is that particular customer is looking to achieve for themselves. This will, of course, vary according to the industry you are in, the particular needs of the company and also the personality of the customer / buyer.
So now you as the sales professional have the task of not only understanding what your customer wants but also ‘overcoming objections’ that you will encounter when you’re presenting your product. (This is part of your ‘recon’ mission!)
Hopefully you can immediately see how knowledge of not just your own company’s products, but the competition’s products will become a critical part of your business. In larger organizations there are specialized personnel whose role is simply to purchase the best quality products for their business at the lowest cost. In other circumstances it may be one of several designated roles for an individual.
Now the next critical feature of your training is to develop that which is actually invisible:
Your mindset
Although you are, of course, a salesman, you must see yourself as the ultimate ‘problem solver‘ for your customers – both current and potential – and someone who happens to have products that can help them achieve their goals!
Remember your role as a salesperson is to help your customers achieve their goals, so in all intents and purposes you should consider yourself as a problem solver for your customers.
So here are probably the three most important words you will ever hear as a salesperson:
Matching Builds Desire
Let your mind dwell on that three-word phrase right now …and I want you to consider some of the advertisements that you are deluged with every day. I can guarantee that those that pique your interest are the ones where the purchase of a product matches something you are interested in!
It is in the accomplishment of a goal, desire, dream that causes the customer to make the purchase from you! Understand your role is to establish what it is that your customer really needs and then offer a means for them to fulfill it!
In sales we call this ‘The Hot Button’
Every consumer has a ‘Hot Button’ and your task as a professional sales representative is to find that ‘Button’ and to push it!
An acronym I use to help me identify anyone’s motivation is the word:
W I I F M
(This stands for What’s In It For Me)
When I was working for the forms printing division of NCR, I would often speak to my customers about price and delivery of the products they wanted with limited success. However, when i spoke to them about forms design and ask the buyer what type of design or company logo they would want to see on their company’s invoices. My ‘tickle’ was that ‘a well-designed invoice attracted attention more than a boring plain one and therefore was more likely to get processed quicker.’
The rationale was that invoices that get processed quickly increases the rate of revenue flow back to the customer’s business, however the ‘attraction’ was getting the buyer to decide his/her choice of an appropriate design!
Then working with a graphic designer, we generated a ‘mockup’ design which incorporated the buyer’s ideas… and Bingo! The sale was made! The selling point for me was often the buyer’s ego as I was promoting their design to be seen on the 10k to 50k of the company’s invoices. This stratagem allowed me to make sales even though the price I was offering was higher than that offered by my competitors!
For other customers the Hot Button issue was quality, for others just the price and sometimes simply being available to call in to see them quickly at their behest.
Avoiding THE classic ‘selling error’
Early on my Sales training with the Alfred Tack organization we learned this key phrase:
Telling is not Selling.
If a customer’s ‘hot button’ is how quick is the delivery time after an order is placed, then hearing about manufacturing quality, warranties or superior quality over competitors is unlikely to spark interest that will result in a sale. So, this means that you have to ask questions to discover what is the decisive point that will allow you to ‘close the deal’? Failing to find the hot button will quickly cause your potential customer to lose interest in you and your products!!
In other words rattling off your products specifications, company delivery schedules, discounts without matching those to the needs of the customer is pretty darned useless. This means that your number one strategy when you meet the decision maker is to ask questions… then match the answers to your product’s specifications.
You don’t sell a ‘product’ you promote a “benefit.”
This really is an art form in its own right… and there are many good books on this subject that may be found in stores like Barnes and Noble, or on Amazon. Like every professional you will probably need to review and be conversant with what are the sales techniques called ‘overcoming objections and closing strategies’ which apply to your product area.
Here in this blog, I am giving you what are (excellent) overall principles to apply. So perhaps another way to remind you is from this statement:
“The best way to sell sausages is … to sell the sizzle!”
Remember that people don’t Purchase Products … they Buy Benefits
In my final blog we will pull all these themes together so that when you launch yourself into the dynamic world of professional sales… you will be as successful as possible…