How to Land a Knockout Punch as a Salesperson
Are you a salesperson? Shame on you.
Ok, I’m kidding, but there’s a reason lots of people are skeptical about salespeople, or just outright dislike them. Too many salespeople are weasels.
So how can you really impress me as a salesperson, and land that knockout punch? (without of course, knocking me out, it’s a figure of speech people, come on!)
It’d be too easy if the answer was just, “be honest.” Let’s face it, I might not even know when you’re being honest, and I might not even believe you when you say, “Ben, I want to tell you honestly…”
The answer is this: Tell me the limitations of what you’re selling. Upfront.
“You mean I should tell you all the problems with what I’m selling right off-the-bat?”
No, that’s not what I said. But I do want to know the limitations of what you’re selling, because they’re not always self-evident, and they could have a huge impact.
Let’s use an example. I’m going out to purchase a fairly complex piece of software. I’ll do my due dilligence but I can’t possibly figure everything out on my own. I’ll ask questions that are important to me, and if you see those questions leading down a path towards a limitation of your software product, tell me.
We used to have a salesperson in my company that didn’t do this. He’d get a lead who was particularly interested in a specific feature, and he’d omit certain details. No product does everything for everyone perfectly. It just doesn’t. So accept that fact.
On occasion, prospects that didn’t get the whole story would become clients. And this is when they’d come to me for implementation. Shortly thereafter we’d both realize that the limitations of the product were going to seriously affect the client’s use of it. What’s that equal to? One unhappy client. And how many of those do you want? Exactly.
Now we approach sales a different way. We’ll come out and tell you what the product doesn’t do. We’re OK with that. It doesn’t have to do everything. If it doesn’t do what you absolutely need, then I don’t want to waste your time or mine. I’d rather say, “This isn’t the best fit. I might recommend X or Y. Thanks for your interest.”
I’d rather have no client than 1 unhappy client.
So tell your leads what your product doesn’t do. Don’t hide that information. Knock ‘em out.
[tags]sales, generating leads, busienss, being honest, success[/tags]
I believe you are describing the difference between selling a product and selling a solution. The phrase “solution selling” is often misused because nobody wants to think of themselves as cramming BS down a customer’s throat in order to make a quota.
The basic difference is that selling solutions requires actually understanding a customer’s problem and then packaging technology + services in manner that fixes the customer’s pain. In some cases this requires a deep understanding of an industry and/or technology and few companies truly have compensation structures that reward sales people for taking the time develop this expertise.
On the other hand, selling products only requires a commission based compensation structure. But that said, sales is a much harder job than most people realize and I have a lot of respect for good salepeople.
There’s no question that good sales people deserve respect; it is a tough job and it’s hard to find great salespeople.
I don’t think I’m necessarily describing the difference between product and solution selling — although I agree with your points re: solution selling: it requires deep knowledge of the industry, can sound like BS, etc.
Granted, I am talking more about product selling than solution selling, but even tailored solutions aren’t perfect. If you’re selling a solution there are still limitations — tell me what they are, and I’ll respect you in the morning.
Thanks for stopping by Andrew and keep on coming back!