May 22, 2012 | Customers, Sales
For years with my sales consulting hat on I have pushed the notion that when selling a product or service that requires the B2B buyer to exercise some level of consideration, so it excludes the everyday, commodity purchase, there are only three ways to get the sale:
- Demonstrate how your product can assist them to increase their sales
- Demonstrate how your product can assist them to reduce their costs
- Demonstrate how your product can increase their productivity.
This has worked well over a long period, in a wide range of situations, but recently the socilaisation of business driven by the web has added a fourth headline sales driver that to date I have always included in the first:
Assisting a potential or current customer to grab an opportunity.
The world is changing so rapidly that a successful sales operation needs to understand very well the competitive and strategic environment in which their customers compete. In gaining and renewing that understanding, you will see opportunities for your customers that they may not necessarily see themselves. Whilst this is part of helping them increase their sales, the new tools of communication and collaboration that enable the development and leveraging of IP/IC are such that few can stay on top of them all. Therefore being a part of their business development process, by providing valuable insight, and perhaps a view informed by a different perspective, will deliver a stronger relationship, and contribute value to the process that will translate into sales.
May 4, 2012 | Sales
Your high potential new customer, the one you thought you had brought into the fold, was about to sign up, the one you had assured the boss would place their first order next week, suddenly, at the 11th hour, inexplicably, they go elsewhere.
Are they mad? Did they not understand the benefits? Why did they lead you up the garden path?
Truth is, they may have been confronted by your sales approach, and did not trust you, did not believe what you were telling them. Too pushy, sliding over their objections, not listening to their real needs, concentrating on your price rather than value to them, or one of the many other common failings of sales people leads to this sales killing response.
When confronted, many people avoid the conflict, they simply agree with you, and walk away, leaving you with the misleading understanding that the sale is done.
The task therefore is to conduct the sales engagement in such a manner that the potential customer is the one exercising the power, they are not given the opportunity to conclude they do not believe you. The best way to do that is to conduct the selling process by asking questions. All you have to do then is just respond to the answers with simple observations, and another question that addresses their evolving understanding of their problems, or opportunities for improvement, and therefore your opportunity for a sale.
When a prospect believes you, and in you, selling is easy.
Apr 27, 2012 | Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales
The costs of advertising only get counted when you do lousy advertising.
When you place an ad, and you get a great response, the costs are never considered, but place a lousy ad, getting little response, then the cost is alarming.
Therefore the task is to be sufficiently compelling to a targeted audience to bring a quality response, then the cost is not considered, because you get an outcome that (presumably) makes commercial sense.
My son recently sold a car on line, it was a good car, but not one that would be for everyone. He thought he would just put up an ad, and it would just sell, easy, because it was a good car, and the price offered good value.
Failure, this first ad got almost no response, and those that did respond were not interested in the car, just getting it at half the advertised price.
We had another shot at writing an ad, putting in much more detail, and then placed it more specifically to attract a specialised buyer, one to whom the particular characteristics of the car beyond the provision of a transport device would be of value.
It got a number of responses, several very good ones, and it sold very quickly at the full price.
The cost of the second ad was irrelevant, but he is still complaining about the first placement.
Mar 27, 2012 | Customers, Sales
I walked into a retail store last week, the salesperson wandered up, big smile, “How can I help you” he said. Good start, better than the usual “Can I help?” which has as a possible answer, “No thanks, just looking”.
I told him the product category I was looking for, and he then asked “how much do you want to spend?”
Perhaps a logical next question, but the wrong one.
Why should I trust someone I do not know, whose job it is to sell me as much as possible for as much as possible, with the boundaries of my budget?
Obviously, had I said $2000, he would have shown me items at $2100, just a touch over my budget, an easy step up of just 5%, and think of all that added functionality, instead of items at $1000 that may have suited my needs just as well.
What he should have done is ask questions about what job I needed done, which features I needed, and which ones would be just nice to have, did I have brand preferences, and what about the aesthetics?
Had he done all that, he may very well have sold me the $2100 unit, and would almost certainly sold me something, and I have been pleased with the result, but as it was, I thanked him and went down the road.
And we wonder why retail sales are so flat!
Mar 14, 2012 | Customers, Marketing, Sales
Rarely does anything happen behind a desk, so why do you spend so much time there? Just like the old saying “the harder I work, the luckier I get” small business owners should say “the more customers I see, the greater chance of an order”
Most small business owners are usually specialists of some sort, they are not often sales people first, they are something else first, and it takes an effort to get out and sell.
Do the preparation, know the customer know how you can add value to his/her business, and get out there.
Mar 8, 2012 | Customers, Sales
As a marketer my basic mantra has been “see it through the customers eyes”, simple and effective.
Recently while mentoring a great young sales person for a client, I noticed that even though she asked the right questions at the right time, and used the information returned to progress the sales process very well, she had less success closing than I would have expected.
On reflection, she was failing because of the language she was using.
Her language reflected that of her employer, and in it were embedded the jargon and descriptive nuances that were used to communicate a complex product amongst themselves, and it was not necessarily the language her prospects used amongst themselves. Although the differences were small, they were important, not just for the clarity of understanding that was communicated, but importantly for the comfort of the prospect, who was reassured that there was no ambiguity at play.
It became clear that in addition to the marketing mantra, there needs to be a sales one as well, “speak using the customers voice”.
By so doing, you avoid the pitfalls of the same words having slightly different meanings and implications in different contexts, and by using the customers voice back to them, you enhance the opportunity to build the rapport so important to building a relationship.
