March 2010
The new rules of successful salespeople How to move beyond selling features and benefits The sales process has morphed and changed over the past decade as customer focus and buyer needs became necessary parts of the sale. What used to be ‘the perfect product’ has become ‘a solution that fits’, since at the core of every close is the prospect’s need. Successful salespeople have adapted their trade to suit the changing buyer environment. These are their new rules of selling. We’ve all heard the old sales adage that goes “Sell the sizzle, not the steak”. Unfortunately this statement has long become outdated and plain wrong in the sales sense. What top performers are doing right now is not selling sizzle or steak, they’re selling satisfaction. Hunger satisfaction. With chips. In order to sell into a buyer’s need, there are a few things you need to know. Firstly, you need to be able to uncover the client’s real need – the need beyond the surface effects that the client is experiencing. Then you need to position your product as a need-filler that will save them cash. And then you need to say thank you for the business. How to uncover a client`s needs A recent study by RainToday.com found that the second most common problem clients have with salespeople is that they did not understand their needs (30% of respondents). The most common problem (at 38%) is related: "The seller did not listen to me." As simple as it may sound, one of the less common practices of salespeople is qualifying the client’s need. A prospect is qualified if they have these two things; 1. They have an appropriate and relevant business concern that needs to be addressed. 2. They have an assigned budget to solve this business concern ... now. So how can you do a better job uncovering the client`s real needs? Start by considering the client`s needs at three basic levels: • Technical needs • Strategic needs, and • Personal needs. Meeting technical needs is obviously the focus of your business, and that’s where your experience as a salesperson and the reputation of your company in the marketplace play a key role. When clients are looking for your help, they tend to define their needs in technical terms, but you should focus on their underlying strategic and personal needs to add more value. Linking your technical solutions to meeting strategic needs can be a key differentiator. What you need to do is provide a comprehensive mix of business and technical insight into how the technical issues are impacting on their process, their productivity, their time and their business costs. In delivering your solution, know that the people involved in the buying decision--and the people you serve after the sale--bring their own personal wants and expectations to the transaction. Ultimately there`s an element of self-interest involved. Every individual buyer, either consciously or subconsciously, is asking: What`s in it for me? During a sales call or meeting, you want to make the most of the time that you’ve got, so here are some guidelines to keep the process of uncovering the needs moving along quickly: Guideline #1: Plan your questioning beforehand. Review your relationship with the customer and identify gaps in your understanding of their business. Guideline #2. Target your questions appropriately. There are six “lines of inquiry” that can help you understand exactly what the customer needs: 1. What is the current state of the customer’s business? 2. What is the desired state of the customer’s business? 3. What challenges prevent the customers business moving from 1 to 2 above? 4. Which business and personal motivators that influence the final decision? 5. What are the resources, authority and budget that can be committed to moving from 1 to 2? 6. What in the past has been tried (but failed) to move from 1 to 2? Guideline #3: Have a conversation, not an inquisition. For new accounts, you should strive to find out as much as the customer will tell you. For existing accounts, pick one or two questions. Guideline #4: Don’t rehearse your questions. Have a clear idea of the type of questions that you’re going to ask but don’t sound canned and rehearsed. Guideline #5: Listen (really listen!) to the customer. Don’t spend valuable face-time watching the customer’s mouth move while you think of what to say next. Instead, really listen to the customer, pause to think about what the customer said, and then decide where you want the conversation to go. Guideline #6: Ask leading questions in the abstract. Avoid ridiculously obvious questions like: “Have you ever thought of buying a product like ours?” Instead, ask “In a perfect world, what would your current vendor be doing to help you?” How to highlight cost saving - During conversations with people who are not the decision maker Ask admin assistants, others in your buyer`s department, PAs: "What are the initiatives in your division/group/department? Cutting costs? Increasing productivity?" "Has there been an emphasis on cutting spending lately?" Then, if you learn, or know, that cost cutting and expense control is important, you can work that into your call strategy. - In your opening statement Based on what you know about your prospects and customers, use words and phrases like these. "Ms. Prospect we help companies to ..." ...cuts the costs of... ...reduce expenses on... ...trim the fat from... ...lower the payments on... ...reduce interest rates on ... ...eliminate the waste of... ...minimize the number of ... ...prevent increases in ... ...reduce spending on... ...delay increases in... ...reduce their debt... Of course, there are many other ways to communicate how you can help control costs. Saving time is another major area. Think of ways you can include that as well. Questioning In your questioning, it`s important to help understand where they`re bleeding. Then, open the wound wider. "What`s that costing you?" "What other costs are you incurring?" "How is that affecting overall profits?" The language of cost is universal. It touches a nerve. If you can affect it, and it`s something that is important to them, that`s a recipe for your sales success. How to match your solution to their need People will always receive your offers, in terms of what is important to them. They can do no other; because their filters of comprehension are always tuned to taking care of their own concerns. Not yours. What’s really important here is to present your solution as a need-filler. Whether it’s time or productivity or money that you’re saving them, you need to highlight THAT. NOT the features of the product or the advantages it will bring them. NOT UNLESS those features and benefits are directly linked to what they are looking for. By all means run through the advantages of your solution, but present them with the client’s need in mind. And only do so once you have the prospect buy in – once they have committed to taking the conversation further. Stop selling and start solving problems. It’s as simple as that. Move quickly, be flexible and respond. Respond to them and design powerful offers that make them partner with you when the going gets tough. Make offers that address their needs. Make offers that take care of them. Make offers that help them in difficult times. Together you will see the dawn of increased revenue. Thank them for the business In the business of making a sale happen there are many people that are involved in the process. As a sales professional, be very sensitive to all who help you in moving these deals forward. Very often it is the “little people” that have the biggest impact. Be grateful for their role in the process of helping you close a deal. They will appreciate it and might just help you identify and line up the next opportunity.