The entrepreneurial salesperson’s struggle is to keep the focus on the prospective buyer, not on himself or herself or on the product or service they are selling.
Caught up in their own enthusiasm and love for their product, the salesperson is quick to spill all their information with boring details and long explanations in the hopes of educating their prospective buyer about their product or service. All the while, the prospect is thinking, “So what”. This is not buyer-focused “selling,” it is “salesperson-focused selling”.
There are two systems at work.
Selling is a dance where the participants are struggling to lead. The two systems at work are the buyer’s system and the seller’s system. The eager entrepreneur Salesperson easily falls prey to the buyer’s system. Have you ever heard salespeople wonder why no one is buying from them? Then they go into a long detailed explanation of their product or service and not allowing you to get a word in or let you ask a single question except, “How much does it cost? It must be expensive.” This is salesperson-focused selling, and it isn’t very effective.
What you know works against you.
Of course, you need to be an expert in what you sell, but you don’t show your expertise by what you “tell”. Your professionalism and expertise are communicated to the prospect by what you “ask” and how well you listen and understand. Our natural urge is to “show off” for the prospect. This is salesperson-focused selling and it provokes negative feelings from the prospect.
What are the reasons people buy your product or service?
In a recent mailing to entrepreneurs selling commonly used products and services, each entrepreneur was asked, “Why do the people buy from you? “ Each one answered with a litany of benefits and features of their product. Then they were asked, “Why did you buy the product when you bought it last?” As buyers, these same entrepreneurs bought for reasons barley mentioned when they were in the seller’s role. Seldom were the reasons for buying those espoused by the seller. People buy for their own reasons, not the seller’s reasons. Salespeople must discover from each prospective buyer the three to five reasons that his prospect will buy from them. These reasons for buying are called pain, because they have emotional content, they are very personal to the prospect, and they are often negative impact on the buyer. That’s buyers-focused selling.
Listen, Listen, Listen!
In buyer-focused selling the seller asks questions and discovers the pain behind the buyer’s questions. The seller must use good communication techniques to try to understand the buyer, not tricky, manipulative power phrases. It is the seller’s responsibility to understand first.
Find a good system.
Professional salespeople use a proven selling system. There are many systems out there. Some are better than others. When selecting a system, be sure it focuses on getting information not on giving it.
Only five percent of salespeople are natural born. Good entrepreneurial salespeople are often in this five percent, and they can’t understand why their hired salespeople can’t sell as much as they do.
No gutless avoidance of the difficult issues.
Professional salespeople meet the difficult issues head-on and up-front in the sale process. Discover the five to seven common objections to your product. Ask the right questions to discover if the objections exist. Overcome the objections alter only after you completely understand them. Complete understanding of and objection is often its solution. This takes all the questioning and listening skills you can muster.
Control the talk about money.
Professional salespeople are not afraid to talk about money early and often. This is not to say that you give your price right off the bat. Most of the money talk should be after you’ve found the pain. Bids? You have to decide if your time is well spent bidding.
Understand the buyer’s decision-making process.
Buyer-focused salespeople find out how both the “yes” and “no” decision is made. Are you talking to a person that can decide “no”, but cannot decide “yes”? Agree on the ground rules for the communication at the beginning. No pressure…these are the “90’s, pressure selling doesn’t work.
Buyer-focused selling is taking relationship and consultative selling one step further. The purpose of this relationship is to sell a product or service that is mutually beneficial. The sale is based on trust and understanding facilitated by the salesperson.
