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by Leigh Ashton
What does that mean — Selling is not about selling? It means simply the art of selling has moved on from the ‘always be closing’, ‘sell anything to anyone and to hell with the consequences’ era.
My thesaurus says selling is about ‘persuading someone to buy’. Persuading? Not in my book. No one should be ‘persuading’ anyone to buy. For me selling is a two way process of questions and answers, information sharing, finding common ground between buyer needs and the product — and the buyer ultimately making a decision based on the match of the product NOT how persuasive the sales person was.
The sales person will ultimately be successful more often that not when they truly understand the client’s perspective. When they understand that every buyer is different, they can then drop the standard sales pitch and do some proper selling — where the welfare of the client is paramount.
Consider many car sales people (though I quickly point out not the ones we train!). They have their speech ready and waste no time in delivering it — itemising the spec of the car, its top speed, mpg etc the list goes on. They have no idea about me, my previous experiences, my previous cars, my car buying motivation, where I am in the purchasing cycle, nothing. They’re in their own map and assume that if they throw everything and the kitchen sink into their pitch, enough will hit the target and I’ll buy the car. Right? Wrong!
The right way would be for the sales person to acknowledge that, though themselves might be speed junkies, they appreciate that only a relatively small proportion of car buyers are. By finding out about someone’s car buying map they would quickly ascertain that space is needed for the children, extra body strength for safety and security, superb in car entertainment for the family as they take lots of long journeys together. Oh and what about the son who is 6’4″ tall at 17 years old so needs space in the back. I could go on but the message to all sales people is — please realise everyone of your potential customers will be different in many ways. Just acknowledging that will give you some empathy with the customer you would not have had previously
Sales is a massive subject and what I have touched upon today is a very small although significant area of selling. If you would like regular sales tips then please register for our Tricks of The Trade eshots and we’ll send you sales and marketing tips directly to your inbox.
Click here to register.
In the meantime enjoy your day and remember — less persuading, more selling please!
Until next time. Leigh
PS: Hope you’re not guilty of this mistake…
For previous ‘Tricks of the Trade’ go here
About the author
Hi I’m Leigh Ashton of The Sales Consultancy
Whether you’re a small business or a leading brand, an area manager or a Chief Executive, whether you’re new to sales or an experienced sales professional. Even if you’re not in sales at all but want to understand it, you’ve come to the right place.
The World of Sales is changing.
Today’s conventional sales training doesn’t address the psychological barriers that get in their way.
My approach takes your sales team through a process that:
* Helps them identify their psychological barriers and gives them the tools to overcome them * Teaches them how the mind works so they can keep motivated and stay focused * Gives them the ability to identify the psychological patterns of their clients and prospects so they connect with them at a deeper level and close more sales
And at a higher level…
* It creates more success in other areas of their lives so they are happier generally…and happier sales people generate more sales
Wherever you are on your personal sales journey what’s the best course of action for YOU.
– Sales Training – that actually gets results – Leadership and Management – Personal Coaching and Mentoring – Sales Mentoring Programme – NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and how it can help you accelerate your success – Keynote Speaking