Everything You Always Knew About Sales, And Didn't Know How
to Do It
The secrets to sales success are obvious. For over 50 years, anyone
involved in sales has known:
·
It's the relationship with the client that's most important
·
Knowing the client is more important than knowing your product
·
It's all about identifying their problem and providing a
solution for it
·
Listening is a more important sales skill than talking
Yet, when most salespeople get in front of a prospect, what do
they do? They talk, and talk, and talk...about their product. Which is evidence
of my theory that is based on observing thousands of salespeople: what is stopping
most salespeople from achieving their potential is NOT knowledge of what they
should do...it's knowledge of HOW to do it.
The Knowledge Overload Phenomenon
Clients have too much information available to them nowadays.
The situation is the same as that described in the BBC satirical series of the
1980s called Yes Minister (and, later, Yes
Prime Minister) where
the manipulative government bureaucrat, Sir Humphrey, gave the Minister seven
briefcases of papers to read every night. The important papers were always
given to the Minister, but they were in amongst so much 'junk' information that
Sir Humphrey knew they were unlikely to be read.
Before the internet became the primary source of information for
most of the world, customers would say, "Tell me about your product."
And they needed you to because they knew little apart from what was said in
your advertisements. Nowadays, they have researched your product website and
every other webpage that mentions your product. They have read the comments by
your satisfied - and dissatisfied - clients. There's a good chance that they
have read more about your product than you have. Yet, they still start with the
same line: "Tell me about your product." And you do...and, in the
process you exacerbate their information overload.
No matter what they say, customers mostly do not want you to
tell them about your product as if they know nothing. If they do, it's probably
to test your product knowledge! Often, more information makes decision-making
harder for a customer - and you want the buying decision to be easier, not
harder. So, when a customer asks you to tell them about your product, your
response should be, "To save me wasting your time, what do you like from
what you've seen so far?"
What customers want most is for you to help make sense of what
they know already. Is that feature important for their proposed use? Why is
that brand consistently cheaper? Will the benefits of that justify the
additional cost? Doing this builds their decision-making confidence; whereas, ironically,
giving them more information can often have them scurrying away to do more
research.
The Listening Problem
As a society, we are poor listeners. We spend 48% of our waking
communicating time listening (the rest is spent speaking, reading and writing);
and where we have all had some formal or informal training in the other three,
virtually nobody has ever 'learned' to listen. And one of the worst professions
at listening - sales. And it's not because we don't listen - it's because of
the way we listen.
All sounds that we hear go through a filtering process before
they are listened to. This is why you can ignore the hum of the office
air-conditioner at your desk or why people who live near a railway line don't
hear the sound of the trains after a while.
With salespeople, their products become the filter. Everything a
client says is scanned for a clue - a 'hook' that you can attach one of your
product's features to. Now, obviously, some qualification is necessary to
determine if you've got anything to offer this customer; but, if it's done too
soon, it severely limits what you hear from the client. There's an old saying:
"If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a
nail". You need to forget about your product in the early part of the conversation
- certainly, keep any samples or brochures out of sight - so you can really
listen to what your customer is saying.
So we all know salespeople should build stronger relationships
and listen better; but it's the ones who find a way to actually apply this in
the field that will be successful in the future.
Kevin is an experienced conference speaker, workshop leader,
facilitator and MC. He has twenty-five years experience as a corporate trainer
and fifteen years experience as a professional speaker.
He runs his own business from Brisbane, Australia, speaking at
conferences and seminars across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and in the UK
specialising in the areas of sales, customer service, humour in business and
communication skills. His clients include some of Australia's largest
organisations, politicians, members of the judiciary, Olympic athletes and
elite sports people.
He has co-authored nine books on communication skills and humour
in business that are used extensively throughout Australia, New Zealand, Asia,
the UK and South Africa. He writes regular columns on communication skills,
sales & customer service and humour in business for a number of industry
magazines. His articles have been printed in major daily newspapers in
Australia and Asia.
Kevin is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) which is the
highest possible level in professional speaking and the only one recognised
internationally. He is the Immediate Past National President of the National
Speakers Association of Australia.
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