Sales…Love It, Don’t Leave It
The sales person. Over the years, and many, many bad used car sales pitches, the reputation of the sales profession has gotten a bit…ok…a LOT tainted. And yet, the Chally Group states that 39 percent of B2B buyers select a vendor according to the skills of the sales person rather than price, quality or service features. Wow! My mission has always been, and always will be, to bring respect back to the sales person. I don’t need another motivating factor than this.
Selling = Making a Difference
That said, we’ve always discussed the importance of understanding your client. The 30 percent statistic is all the motivation you need. Sales means making a difference in the lives/careers of others. In other words, your customers’ needs are more important than just making the sale.
It starts with your humanity and level of empathy you illustrate to a client.
With so much available data clients have at their fingertips these days, the selling process has transformed to consulting and establishing a climate of “understanding to, in turn, be understood.” They can research your competitors, find other products out there, compare pricing, etc. But they can’t get the connection you will provide by listening, caring and tailoring a solution to their most mission-critical needs.
Show Them You Care
I remember making rounds with my father, a doctor, throughout hospital rooms. He’d sit bedside with a patient actually drawing the patient’s upcoming operation procedure on paper to illustrate precisely what would occur during the operation. This served two goals: first, it demystified the procedure and second, it showed his empathy/desire to be understood and trusted by his patient.
A bomb could have gone off in the room and my father wouldn’t have heard it, that’s how focused he was.
Well, the same applies to you and I.
Our level of empathy and carefully/thoroughly illustrating what our solution is from the deep understanding we show from our probing can win the day.
Check In With Yourself First
In 2015, if you commit yourself to these attributes, empathy and understanding, you can’t lose.
Continue to ask yourself these questions to check in and see if you’ve really captured what you need to in order to succeed:
“When I’m presenting my recommendations…am I inspired?
“If I weren’t involved in this client recommendation, would I be interested?”
Try it and let me know.
