Great sales people know how to get listened to and get people to act.
Do you want to know how it’s done?
Firstly, listen to your client and work out:
- What sort of person are they? Are they outgoing, shy, conservative or, something else?
- What do they like and don’t like about your type of business?
- What problems do they have that they want to solve in their own business?
- What have they considered doing about those problems?
So before you start talking and boring people, here’s some essential information.
The radio station every person listens to: WIIFM.
As in, What’s In It For Me. Let’s face it, this is the radio station that everybody listens to.
What this means for this conversation, is that you need to frame things in a way that makes your prospective client want to listen to you. In a way that gives you and what you are saying credibility.
You tune into this radio station by connecting your solution (what you do and how you do it) with their problems and what you have found out about them and the types of solutions they might consider.
You do this by focussing on what your potential customer thinks has value. People will buy things that they think will solve their problems and things that have inherent value to them. Then they will be prepared to trade something else of value (cold hard cash) for a solution to their problem.
You don’t get the value you are providing
One of the first questions I get from non-sales people is how to understand value. I call this getting “crunchy”.
If you can show concrete ways that you can help people then they will want to buy from you – right?
But it has to be ‘crunchy’ – no motherhood statements allowed.
What I mean by this is do some research so you know that the real impact of using your product. Give tangible data and examples. Being able to say you can decrease costs by 14%, is tangible. You need to know the return on investment for your customer in terms of cost savings, increases in revenue or reducing risks, or a combination of these.
If you truly think that what you are providing is going to add real value to your client, then convincing them to buy from you will be honest and sincere; the greatest selling tool you have.
You will be credible because you believe in what you are doing and that what you are doing will give value to your client. Then it’s a fair trade for the price that you are charging them.
If you don’t know where to start with this, go and talk to your current customers and ask them why they buy from you. Ask them what value they get from using your product or service and, what they think the key difference is about you versus your competitors.
It really is that simple.
Frances Pratt founded KISS To Sell to help demystify sales for people who hate selling. If you have a sales question – she will answer it.
