First, selling is about relationships and not just a transaction between a buyer and a seller. This is one aspect of sales but is merely the transactional part of the sales process and not the essence. The reality is that “People don’t want to be sold, but they do want to buy.” I believe that this is in no small part due to the fact that so many salespeople have long forgotten that sales is more about relationship and communication than simply completing a transaction or signing a contract. We want to feel connected with the person we are doing business with. Maribeth Kuzmeski, author of the book “The Connectors”, describes it this way “In sales, less of the memorized pitch and more of the informal conversational approach is exceptionally more successful.”
Second, selling is not simply just persuasion or negotiating terms with a buyer. How important is the art of persuasion in sales? “One 1995 study by Donald McClaskey concluded that one quarter of the gross domestic product is linked to persuasion.” Persuasion is indeed important but trust is far more valuable in sales. It takes time to build trust and usually takes more than just a single transaction. This is one reason why the sales process is often viewed and referred to as a “Sales Cycle.” Part of selling is indeed discussing terms of a contract or agreement but this is a small aspect and is not necessarily only confined to those in sales.
Third, selling is about communication. It is often incorrectly viewed by both salespeople and customers that selling is all about talking. These salespeople are easy to recognize because when they are done talking you feel like they verbally vomited on you. They give the impression that they like to hear themselves talk. The successful salespeople understand that they should do more listening than talking. However listening can only be achieved if you can get your customer to talk and this is accomplished by asking questions, good questions that is. We will dive into the art of asking good questions later on in this series but a way to start is to simply ask “how can I help you?” and then shut up and let the other person talk.
In the end selling is no different than most things in life; it comes down to the basics. If you are in sales, here are a few good reminders to help you become more successful by focusing on the basics:
1. Never over promise and under deliver. This is often done by inflating the positives and ignoring the negatives.
2. Become a resource for your customers. One way to do this is to ask yourself these questions: “how can I make them more successful?” or “do I understand the business problems they are trying to solve?”
3. Listen more than you talk.
4. Connecting with customers is more about substance than style.