Weekly Bulletin February 2012
In these times of uncertainty, budgets are being squeezed like never before. It's also true to say that the sales job is tougher particularly because people don't have a lot of respect for sales people. For cultural reasons in the UK, one of the reasons for this indifference is that many people think sales people are untrustworthy: they believe they are trying to con them.
Many people, who work in sales, often have a pre-conceived idea that selling is about learning the features and benefits of their product or service and being able to recite this to prospective customers. Selling is not about persuading people to buy something they don't need, it's about “Helping a customer to visualise how they could use your products or services in their world”. Michael Bosworth, the guru of Solution Selling, defined Selling as “the ability to help prospective customers to see how if they had your product or service, it could solve a problem, achieve a goal or satisfy a need”.
If someone doesn't have a need, in the Business to Business world, then it is highly unlikely that they are going to buy from you. Equally as important is that if they don't understand your product or service, they will definitely not buy from you. Normally a sales person would have to approach the budget holder or more senior decision makers in order to place the order, but if that person doesn't understand what you're selling then there is no way they will be able to persuade the key decision makers to go with it.
People would rather do nothing than try and persuade colleagues to take something that they won't understand. Whatever industry you are selling in, it is vital that Sales people talk in the language of their customers.
Selling is all about solving problems, not learning the features and benefits.
Helping customers to visualise how they could use your products and services in ways that are applicable to them is just one of “The Twelve Guaranteed Steps for Sales & Marketing Success”. To read the entire whitepaper click here.
If you would like more information on how Terry Forsey Consulting can help your sales team to be more effective and win more business call 01536 771440 for a free no obligation discussion or visit my website www.terryforsey.com .
