Your New Sales Job Description
Rather than seeing your job as a salesperson, “selling to people”, start seeing the work you do differently. Stop selling to your customers and start representing them instead! Become their assistant buyer.
Becoming your customer’s assistant buyer fundamentally changes your job description. You are no longer responsible for bringing in revenue for your company. Instead, you now work for your customer. Your primary job description now reads: To help my customers select the products and services they need, at the best possible price, while always working to represent their best interest!
When you adopt the role of assistant buyer, you figuratively move around to the customer’s “side of the table” and become integral in the decision-making process. When you truly begin representing the best interest of your customers, the negative customer-salesperson polarization that typically develops when someone is “selling” something disappears, giving trust a chance to develop. And, when that happens, you’ll no longer be selling to your customers; you’ll be making decisions with them.
When you change your job description to that of an assistant buyer, you may be surprised at the sales results that follow. Everybody wins! The customer wins, your company wins, and you’ll win too!
Showing posts with label salesperson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label salesperson. Show all posts
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
The Kitchen Table
Separate Yourself From The Competition
Years ago, people conducted most of their household business at the kitchen table— not anymore. In today’s day and age, with the advent of cellular phones, wireless internet, and laptop computers, people are doing business wherever they feel comfortable. And yet, in many present day sales training programs, the salesperson is still trained to “move to the kitchen table” after the warm up.
Perhaps nothing screams more loudly to a customer that I AM HERE TO SELL SOMETHING TO YOU than to suggest that everyone ought to move to the kitchen table right after the warm up. You see, consumers are not stupid. Salespeople have been inviting them to their kitchen table for decades. They know why you’re doing it and you ought to stop it!
How about this: Instead of suggesting the kitchen table as the place to sit (or accepting their pre-conditioned “they see you as a salesperson” offer to use the kitchen table), why not separate yourself from the competition out there and genuinely ask them where they would actually be more comfortable? Why not suggest their front porch or back deck on a nice day or let him sit in his favorite chair if that’s where he’s most comfortable?
It you are really serious about “relationship building/selling”, you need to allow your customers to select the place in which they will feel the most relaxed while you are making your presentation. It will work to your great advantage. Your customer will know right from the very beginning how important they are to you and realize that there is no need to be guarded. The key is to keep your customer in control of the process throughout, and they will reward you handsomely for the consideration.
Granted, at some point in time, it may be appropriate to move to a table to complete the paperwork. That’s entirely okay. The distinction is that the decision will have already been made. By the way, most of us can handle doodling numbers and jotting down cost breakdowns without the specific requirement of a kitchen table.
Think about it for a moment longer. Do you really want your image to be stereotypically lumped in with all the poorly trained salespeople out there that can’t wait to get to the kitchen table and work over their customers? Or, would you prefer to be viewed differently— demonstrating that you don’t need a kitchen table to be a professional?
Years ago, people conducted most of their household business at the kitchen table— not anymore. In today’s day and age, with the advent of cellular phones, wireless internet, and laptop computers, people are doing business wherever they feel comfortable. And yet, in many present day sales training programs, the salesperson is still trained to “move to the kitchen table” after the warm up.
Perhaps nothing screams more loudly to a customer that I AM HERE TO SELL SOMETHING TO YOU than to suggest that everyone ought to move to the kitchen table right after the warm up. You see, consumers are not stupid. Salespeople have been inviting them to their kitchen table for decades. They know why you’re doing it and you ought to stop it!
How about this: Instead of suggesting the kitchen table as the place to sit (or accepting their pre-conditioned “they see you as a salesperson” offer to use the kitchen table), why not separate yourself from the competition out there and genuinely ask them where they would actually be more comfortable? Why not suggest their front porch or back deck on a nice day or let him sit in his favorite chair if that’s where he’s most comfortable?
It you are really serious about “relationship building/selling”, you need to allow your customers to select the place in which they will feel the most relaxed while you are making your presentation. It will work to your great advantage. Your customer will know right from the very beginning how important they are to you and realize that there is no need to be guarded. The key is to keep your customer in control of the process throughout, and they will reward you handsomely for the consideration.
Granted, at some point in time, it may be appropriate to move to a table to complete the paperwork. That’s entirely okay. The distinction is that the decision will have already been made. By the way, most of us can handle doodling numbers and jotting down cost breakdowns without the specific requirement of a kitchen table.
Think about it for a moment longer. Do you really want your image to be stereotypically lumped in with all the poorly trained salespeople out there that can’t wait to get to the kitchen table and work over their customers? Or, would you prefer to be viewed differently— demonstrating that you don’t need a kitchen table to be a professional?
Saturday, March 28, 2009
A Study in Cancellations
Preventing Buyer’s Remorse
If you want to find the salesperson in any organization with the highest cancellation percentage, look for the one that boasts most loudly about how great they are at “handling objections” and “closing” their customers. Unfortunately, those that define themselves as “great closers” often have the highest cancellation problems as a percentage of their sales as well.
One of the catch phrases you may hear in business when a customer seemingly cancels a contract for no apparent reason is that they had “buyer’s remorse”. This term is, at best, a weak attempt by the salesperson to shift the responsibility for a cancellation away from them and put the onus on their customer. This really makes no sense. What reason would a customer have to feel remorseful (i.e.; guilty, regretful, etc.), provided that they have made a decision to buy something based upon receiving all the information they would need to make an intelligent decision in the first place?
Cancellations, plain and simple, are frequently a byproduct of poorly executed sales presentations bolstered by hardcore closing tactics. Incompetent salespeople tend to rush through their presentation to get to the “handling objectives and closing” phase, missing countless opportunities to establish buyer need, build maximum product value, and strengthen the overall “buyer commitment” toward retaining the product or service they just purchased.
Realistically, regardless of how good you are, there will undoubtedly be some circumstances beyond your customer’s control that will cause them to cancel an agreement from time to time— an unforeseen financial emergency for example. If you have done your job well, however; thoroughly establishing the benefits of your product or service before your customer says “yes”, it will be far less likely that they will experience any “cancellation remorse” after you have made the sale.
The bottom line is this: Let go of hard core closing tactics and finger-pointing at your customers when a cancellation comes through. Instead, spend more time mastering your presentation and polishing your delivery. You'll not only close more sales, but you will also have far fewer instances of “buyer’s remorse” to have to explain away in the future.
If you want to find the salesperson in any organization with the highest cancellation percentage, look for the one that boasts most loudly about how great they are at “handling objections” and “closing” their customers. Unfortunately, those that define themselves as “great closers” often have the highest cancellation problems as a percentage of their sales as well.
One of the catch phrases you may hear in business when a customer seemingly cancels a contract for no apparent reason is that they had “buyer’s remorse”. This term is, at best, a weak attempt by the salesperson to shift the responsibility for a cancellation away from them and put the onus on their customer. This really makes no sense. What reason would a customer have to feel remorseful (i.e.; guilty, regretful, etc.), provided that they have made a decision to buy something based upon receiving all the information they would need to make an intelligent decision in the first place?
Cancellations, plain and simple, are frequently a byproduct of poorly executed sales presentations bolstered by hardcore closing tactics. Incompetent salespeople tend to rush through their presentation to get to the “handling objectives and closing” phase, missing countless opportunities to establish buyer need, build maximum product value, and strengthen the overall “buyer commitment” toward retaining the product or service they just purchased.
Realistically, regardless of how good you are, there will undoubtedly be some circumstances beyond your customer’s control that will cause them to cancel an agreement from time to time— an unforeseen financial emergency for example. If you have done your job well, however; thoroughly establishing the benefits of your product or service before your customer says “yes”, it will be far less likely that they will experience any “cancellation remorse” after you have made the sale.
The bottom line is this: Let go of hard core closing tactics and finger-pointing at your customers when a cancellation comes through. Instead, spend more time mastering your presentation and polishing your delivery. You'll not only close more sales, but you will also have far fewer instances of “buyer’s remorse” to have to explain away in the future.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
