What does the word ‘salesman’ mean to you? For most it doesn’t conjure up the most positive of images. What about an ‘expert’ or a ‘consultant’? If you were thinking about buying a product or service would you rather seek advice from a consultant or a sales person? Most people would rather seek independent advice from a consultant that be sold something from a salesperson. If you have a product to sell would you rather be seen as a consultant or a sales person – given the choice?
I have a friend who sells greetings cards – yet the shops he visits don’t see him as a sales person. He advises them on what layout will work best for them, he arranges the card so that they are in a logical and eye catching display. He updates their cards so that the prominent ones are for the most timely event. By sharing what he knows about the best way to set up cards, he sells more so the shop owner wins and he wins. Yet they don’t see him as selling. they see him as an expert (which he is) offering the best advice to a customer.
The best way to be taken seriously is to learn to alter your approach to winning business and use a consultative selling approach. Never try to sell anything until you have first understood what the person’s problem is. What are their problems? What has happened to them in the past? Why do they buy from your competition at the moment? Is price important, is it service, is it something else? What can you do to make their lives easier?
Steven Covey uses the expression “seek first to understand and then to be understood”; this applies as much in the area of selling as anywhere else. It only by understands their situation that you can understand how you can help. And only then can you recommend the best product or service to help their situation. If you only have one product, it will give you the understanding of how to approach selling it. There are a hundred ways of selling a product and most items have plenty of features.
Only once you understand what problems that the person has can you decide which of the features to tuned into benefits. Listen to what your prospect has to say, listen to their problems, ask questions about what they hope to achieve and where they have gone wrong in the past. What do they like and dislike, and how are they hoping to move forward?
Be like Columbo. Gather the facts before jumping to any conclusions. And if you can’t work out what the problem is, ask ‘just one more question’. Better to know to much about what a customer wants than jump in and offer a solution that is not what they are after. The best thing is after asking questions and learning about their problem, you can often offer solution that is A. obviously the best one and B. something that they would never have thought of.
Now you are no longer seen as a salesperson like all the others, now you are seen as some sort of mind reader / expert – so why would they not buy from you?
