Everyone has seen a movie where the new salesperson gets told…Sell Me This Pen!
Not only have I seen this in a movie, but I’ve seen it in sales training I’ve attended. AND I experienced it myself.
In my first sales interview, I was interviewing with the Sales Director of the team I was to be on and instead of saying “Sell Me This Pen” he said, “Sell Me This Remote”.
We were in a conference room with a flat-screen TV on the wall, and I knew two things about sales.
One, I worked as a waiter. Two, personality tests labeled me ENTP, which is good for sales.
So, what did I do? I immediately started bubbling my words…ugh, ugh, ugh,
“Well, this is a good remote! The best remote. This remote has big letters and numbers to make it easy to know what button you are pushing. It’s a good remote. Better than any other remotes on the market.”
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
This is not how to sell.
Most people equate sales with pitching. And they wouldn’t be incorrect, but it is misinformed.
Selling is sooooooo much more than pitching.
Sales is about fulfilling a need.
Sales Nobility knows this. Sales Nobility lives this.
Therefore…
Sales Nobility seeks to understand first.
Sales Nobility listens.
Sales Nobility asks the right questions.
Sales Nobility reads body cues.
Sales Nobility ties disparate points together.
Sales Nobility plays mental 3-D chess and Poker all at once.
Sales Nobility is in control of the sales process.
Sales Nobility knows, speaking more than listening = LOSING.
Why?!
People don’t want to feel sold.
A lot of sellers make sales salesy. They come across as being more about their needs rather than helping a buyer solve their needs.
Sales is about helping people solve problems.
It’s about helping someone formulate, come to, and reassure them that they have a problem worth solving so they can form their own conclusion that your widget is necessary to help them solve their needs.
It’s…Why change? Why now? Why Us?
It’s about deeply understanding these questions to help anchor and deepen buyer emotions.
When salespeople pitch their widgets without first understanding the need (why someone would even consider changing), why it’s important for them to change now versus later, and why their widget is better than all the rest, they do themselves a disservice.
Only after deeply understanding a buyer’s motivations toward change and why should a salesperson pitch their widget. This information allows the salesperson to demonstrate how their widget closes the gap.
In my story, if I had asked the Sales Director, ‘How often he watched TV?’ and he said never, then it doesn’t matter how good the remote is.
He doesn’t need it.
If he doesn’t neeeeeeed it, he won’t buy it.
Before selling someone why your widget is the right widget, you need to understand why they are even interested or how they could become interested in the widget.
To do that, you must ask questions.
How often do you watch TV?
When you are watching TV, how often are you changing the channels?
How do you use your remote today?
What’s wrong with your current remote?
How often does your family watch TV?
If you have a remote and it’s working, why are we even speaking?
Do you have any smart appliances in your home?
How do you control those?
Etc., etc., etc.
Once I had this information, I would have been able to take what I knew about his needs, current state, and my widget (remote), and marry them all together by creating a vision that worked to fulfill his needs and move him toward a better future state.
Only after asking questions and understanding how buyers currently handle the applicable scenario can salespeople pitch HOW their widget fulfills the buyer’s need. With this information, the salesperson can now tactically demonstrate how their widget’s features/functions will address the buyer’s needs and the value they will provide.
This is ‘Value Selling’.
For the longest time, I never knew what it meant to sell on value.
Selling on value sounds cliche; however, the bigger the need, the MORE VALUE a buyer will ascribe to your widget.
The more value a buyer feels, the more urgency they have.
More urgency creates deal velocity.
Now, remember every buyer values different things. It’s the responsibility of a salesperson to uncover what each buyer uniquely values.
The only way to identify what each buyer uniquely values is by performing proper discovery.
Failing to perform proper discovery and fully understand why the buyer might need this widget in the first place will result in failing to close more deals for higher tickets.
And here is a little secret. Discovery never ends. It’s ongoing.
Every conversation is a chance to validate prior discoveries and perform more.
Sales Nobility knows this. They constantly poke an opportunity to test its strength.
Is the opportunity as solid as sand or a rock in the hand?
Sales Nobility is unafraid of continually trying to qualify themselves out of a deal.
Sales Nobility doesn’t want to waste their attention, time, and effort with a buyer who is kicking tires or has no pain.
The right questions to these buyers might illuminate a need they didn’t know they had. This is why asking questions and listening is the most important skill in sales.
Sales Nobility would rather qualify out prospects and nurture them, so they can have more attention, time, and effort to give to a qualified buyer.
Only after fully understanding a buyer’s needs, pains, and what they want to accomplish should a salesperson pitch how their widget fulfills those needs and the benefits. Anything before that is premature.
If the buyer hasn’t committed themselves to change they won’t buy. This is evident when you know your widget will solve their problems, but they say… “Let us think about it”.
Let me let you in on a little secret…shhhhhhhh.
They thought about it.
THEY AREN’T BUYING.
If you want to sell the pen, understand the need.
Understanding the need unlocks the value of the pen.
Need + Value > Price = Sale.
Pen Sold.