What is selling, if not being focused on solving customers’ problems by understanding their needs?

February 24, 2012 Leave a Comment

When I read Steve Job’s Biography I was struck by some of the anti-sales rhetoric. I was inspired to write this after reading August Turak’s Forbes piece:  5 Ways that Steve Jobs, Steve Denning, and Peggy Noonan are Dead Wrong.”

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Revealed: 10 big Apple Store secrets

1. It’s not about selling
Several customer service manuals note that employees should focus on solving customers’ problems, not selling them new products. “Your job is to understand all of your customers’ needs — some of which they may not even realize they have,”…  
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I have read things like the above in several places. Apple retail store employees are supposed to be focused on solving customers’ problems, not selling. I beg your pardon, what is selling, if not being focused on solving customers’ problems by understanding their needs. That is what selling is all about.  If you are focused on anything else you are not selling. 

This is Apple propaganda at its finest. Try and sell us on the idea you are not selling us. Sales is a concept that seems to have acquired a bad reputation. So if you want to practice sales, you have to pretend you are not or claim you are doing something else. 

Filed under Marketing, Sales, salespeople, Selling

Has sales ever changed?

February 24, 2012 Leave a Comment

I keep reading that there is a new sales model or paradigm. The times change. The ways we communicate change. The culture changes. Sales is a constant. Sales has not changed. Or rather the attributes that make up sales has not changed.

Sales is a conversation. It is not a monolog. If you are in sales and find yourself doing most or all the talking, you are not selling. Good sales conversations are engaging, bring things to light, build on past conversations, demand listening. Good sales conversations explore what buyers and sellers care about.

Sales is also building trust. Relationships are the way trust is built.

Technology can change how we have the conversations. It can change how we build and maintain relationships. But is does not change the fact that conversations, relationships and trust are constants in sales.

Salespeople who do not adapt and integrate changes in technology and culture will be at a disadvantage. Salespeople who don’t focus on the basics of conversation, relationship and trust will be at a worse disadvantage.

Filed under Marketing, Sales, salespeople, Selling

The confident sounding customer

November 12, 2011 1 Comment

Torsten was driving. We had left Bielefeld in the North of Germany that morning in his fast Audi A6 Avant. We made great time and I thought we would be early,that is until we got closer to our destination in Southern Germany. I recognized we had become lost. The signs were all there:

1. Male

2. Unwilling to look at a map or

3. Ask for directions.

“Torsten, let’s stop and get a map or ask someone? We’ll never find the place at this rate.” Torsten only growled at me. He was lost in his own country, this must have been too painful to admit.

Torsten was a big German. When he spoke it was with resonate confidence. “We are not lost”. This was said as if it were a statement like “German’s love beer”, something that could not be argued with.

“Torsten, we need to stop at the next gas station. I need to, you know, go…”

Torsten waited in the Audi. When I got inside the gas station I bought a map. Studied it and saw how to find our destination. I never intended to use the restroom.

When we were back in the car, I casually suggested a course change as a “hunch to humor me”. Which Torsten accepted and we arrived only a few minutes late. I never told him I “cheated” and looked at a map – it was just luck. His pride never had to suffer.

How often is it that a logical decision is never arrived at because someone is too proud to admit they don’t know or don’t know they don’t know?

How often in sales, in life, do we encounter someone who resists what seems like a very logical choice? They give you all the signs of confidence in their “no” position. And they can’t admit the real reason they can’t move forward. To cover up this not knowing or being able to see, they create all sorts of pride protecting narratives.

Confident sounding and acting customers have fooled many salespeople. With both salesman and customer too often losing.

That day I was able to help Torsten find the way. It helped that I was in the car and could see we were lost. Recognize the signs by positioning yourself to see beyond your customer’s confident assurances. Be ready to provide a replacement narrative.

Filed under Sales, salespeople, Selling

Don’t tell prospects they have made a mistake

July 1, 2011 Leave a Comment

When we make choices we like to think we have made the best possible decisions with the information available.  Maybe it was the choice of a new IT services vendor for example.

It amazes me when salespeople with a competing vendor tell the prospect “what a mistake you’ve  made” going with the competition. And telling in painstaking and exacting detail of the supposed folly.

If the best possible decision was made for the choice of vendor, how could it be a mistake?

Implying or pointing out to a prospect that they have made a “mistake” or “poor choice” is likely to produce a “defend the decision at all costs” response from them.  And once they are defending, the salesperson pushing harder only hardens the prospect’s defense. Sale lost. End of story.

A more successful strategy for a salesperson with a competing offer would be agree with the prospect that they made a good choice based on the information available, but now there is  “new information” to consider.  New information which translates into improved benefits or a better value means a change in vendors can be made without anyone being made to feel stupid.

If your offer is compelling you stand a good chance of making the sale.

Filed under Sales, salespeople, Selling Tagged with , ,

Why shouldn’t no be what salespeople want their customers to be saying?

June 30, 2011 Leave a Comment

Why is no such a bad word for salespeople?  Why shouldn’t no be what salespeople want their customers to be saying?

First we need to set the stage for no. No has to be the automatic default when it comes to buying.  While we need to buy things, we can only buy a small fraction on all the possible things there are to buy regardless of how much money we have.

Take something as simple as coffee. You say yes to a Starbucks decaf Grande. But you have to say no to Peet’s, the Maxwell House, to McDonalds, to hundreds or thousands of other possible brands, varieties, sizes. The Starbucks might also mean no to tea, Coke, etc. One yes, a heck of a lot of nos.

Most people and organizations do not have unlimited resources, so no is also a function of living within a budget and taking care of what is considered important. What is valued.

No, should not come as a surprise.

Most of us want our customers to stay our customers, loyal customers that appreciate our solutions and service. Customers that buy year in and year out. That would mean that your customer has to be saying no to your competitors.

Customers that are too easily convinced to try something different are likely to continue to be easily convinced to try something different. That means if you are easily in, you are likely to also soon be easily out.

When you are looking a solid no in the face you might just be looking at a customer that once sold stays sold. Yes, you have your work cut out. That what sales is all about.

Filed under Sales, Selling Tagged with ,

Desirable attributes of salespeople.

June 29, 2011 Leave a Comment

Not in any specific order.

  1. Treats everyone, everywhere, all the time, with respect and courtesy. From the receptionist at the client’s office, to the clerk at the grocery store. Does not have to “turn on” being interested in people when making a sales call.
  2. Always is qualifying and requalifying – relentless.  Minimizes making assumptions. Is rarely blindsided by change as the change was anticipated. But when faced with the unknown will dive in and make the most of circumstances  encountered.
  3. Lives by the 80/20 rule. The clients will be doing 80% of the talking. Has the ability to shut up.
  4. Is an engaged listener. Asks questions related to answers. Does not interrogate. Sales are made in conversation, not lectures.  Turns presentations into conversations.
  5. Benefits and value are the core concepts used to close sales. And the only benefits offered are the benefits that address the expressed needs of the client – always judicious when talking benefits.  Establishes value before price is discussed.
  6. Uses stories and metaphors when ever possible to illustrate points.
  7. Is honest – but does not go into describing the workings of the “the sausage factory.”
  8. Stays calm. Remembers to breath.
  9. Knows and believes that clients need strong, profitable vendors that are in a position to provide after-sales, support.  Does not become kidnapped by a customer’s or prospect’s one-sided point of view.
  10. Takes care of his or her health. All things being equal, the salesperson who is rested, fit, and nourished has the advantage.
  11. Has a life in balance. Even if work is the most important thing in the salesperson’s life, knows that effectiveness will be increased with time spent not working – recharging.  Obviously there are short periods of time that one can maintain “heroic” behavior. But heroic behavior should not the rule.
  12. Has a strong desire to learn, to understand. Is very curious about just about everything, especially prospects.  When practical researches clients before engaging them.
  13. Reads widely, reads often.
  14. Understands that management is a customer too. And management also needs to be sold.
  15. Does not do prima donna.
  16. Gets an intense high when closing a sale. Might not be able to admit that a closing business high is better than any other high.
  17. Influences the  influencers.
  18. Learns and works with the prospect’s buying process.
  19. Avoids using force to close a sale. Knows that force can create needless resistance and can jeopardize current and future business.
  20. Is authentic. Not a clone of someone else. When you start out in sales one might channel the energy or patterns of other salespeople you admire or respect, but this should quickly melt away as the authentic person shows up.
  21. Follows up.
  22. Has goals beyond any goals provided by others.
  23. Has common sense and makes use of it.
  24. Not every customer can or will say “I want to buy”,  asks those that don’t.
  25. Considers objections as a sign of interest and an opportunity for better understanding the prospects needs.
  26. Knows that working with people means politics and politics means paying attention and taking nothing for granted.
  27. Might not forget but forgives and forgives rapidly and often.
  28. Strives for excellence, not perfection.
  29. Remembers to be grateful and express it to clients, colleagues, spouses etc.
  30. Has a sense of humor and can laugh with his customers and at him or herself.
  31. Is willing and able to ask for help or coaching.
  32. Creative and free thinking. An idea generator.
  33. Considers “no” to be a temporary state of mind.
  34. Assertive not aggressive when working with people.
  35. Confident without hubris.
  36. Has a Pollyanna tattoo. Always optimistic, the bright side is the only side.

Filed under Sales, salespeople, Selling Tagged with , ,

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