Effective selling is about helping our prospective customers find solutions to their problems. This requires a customer-focused attitude. It’s possible for a salesperson to project as being self-focused; that is, more interested in solving their own problems than in helping solve the prospective customer’s problems. If a prospective customer senses that the salesperson they are talking to is self-focused they will turn off and go elsewhere.
Here are some of the mistakes self-focused salespeople make that lose them sales; avoid them.
Talking too much
Some salespeople believe that the more they talk the more likely it is that their prospective customer will buy (these are salespeople who admire “the gift of the gab”). They are wrong; the more the salesperson talks the more the conversation becomes a monologue and the more bored the prospective customer becomes. They will eventually ‘tune out’. Effective sales conversations are balanced and foster a two-way communication. This is a situation where less can be more; customer-focused salespeople know this and they take care not to hog the conversation.
Customer-focused salespeople also take care to structure and practise their sales presentation/demonstration to avoid verbosity while still retaining the zest they need to be effective. They constantly monitor the ‘talk ratio’ of their sales conversations to keep the conversations in balance.
Listening too little
Occasionally salespeople can be so intent on saying what they want to say that they fail to hear things that their prospective customer says. A customer’s comments will often indicate priorities and points of concern or interest that represent the key to the sale. However, because the comments aren’t heard the sales opportunity is walked past. Customer-focused sales people listen to their prospective customers because they know that the key to the sale is in the customer’s priorities, concerns and interests, not in the product or service that they sell.
Not asking sound questions
A sound question is a thought-provoking question that encourages the prospective customer to talk about their interests, concerns and priorities. This necessitates a ‘conversational questioning’ technique; not an interrogation. The ability to ask sound questions lies at the heart of sales success. The information sought may be about the prospective customer’s previous experience with similar products, services and/or suppliers. They may be about priorities, problems experienced, likes, dislikes and/or preferences.
Of course, having asked a question the customer-focused salesperson listens to the answer!
Not respecting the customer’s point of view
Self-focused salespeople try to sell the features of their product or service. Customer-focused salespeople try to sell the benefits that their product’s features provide. Customer-focused salespeople also recognise that not all benefits appeal to all customers. Therefore, they use their ‘conversational questioning’ to gain an understanding of the customer’s needs and wants and tailor the presentation/demonstration sequence accordingly. In this way they show respect for the customer’s point of view and avoid talking about benefits that have no appeal to that particular customer.
They have poor manners
Good manners are at the centre of good Human Relations skills. Good Human Relations skills are at the centre of good sales skills. Put another way a salesperson with poor manners will never achieve the results that they may otherwise achieve. This means that we must remember to use the magic words “Please” and “Thank you” - even if it’s considered uncool in some circles. It means using the other person’s name (appropriately that is – don’t overdo it) in the sales conversation. It also extends to things like being on time and avoiding interrupting others when they are speaking.
(The up-coming post for Friday 26/12 is Questions and answers. It's a further short reminder about 'conversational' questioning.)
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