There are so many articles on sales and sales success that it can be dizzying. When you boil it down, there is one reason why you don’t have success in sales.
As much as I’d love to be clever and bury this reason further to keep you reading this article, I’m just going to have to blurt it out.
The #1 reason that you don’t have success is…
Because you are trying to sell.
That may sound strange because, if you are in sales, you are probably thinking “of course, I’m trying to sell.” But let’s take a look at this.
I’ve been a salesperson. I’ve managed salespeople. I’ve run and trained sales teams. And guess what, salespeople make the same mistakes over and over.
When you look at why, it’s because they are trying to sell; trying every sales tactic they’ve read about, learned from some trainer, learned from a boss or colleague, tried on their own, etc.
And you know what, most don’t have real success.
One of my favorite sayings in sales is this: Salespeople are a dime a dozen and easy to find. Good salespeople are extremely hard to find.
Why?
Because good salespeople aren’t trying to sell. And since they aren’t trying to sell, they are usually quite successful.
OK, so what does that mean: they aren’t trying to sell?
Many people say they don’t like sales, would never want to do sales, have a bad opinion about salespeople, etc. You get the picture.
The reality is, that we are all selling, all day every day. We just don’t call it sales.
My definition of sales is being an agent of change. And again, we are all agents of change every day.
Let’s look at an everyday example.
You want to go to a Japanese restaurant for dinner and you’re trying to get your best friend to go with you who is very much on the fence about going to your proposed restaurant, or even going out at all.
Do you have a conversation like this?
Hey, you should really go to this Japanese restaurant with me. The food is always fresh. Their chef and staff have a combined experience of more than 30 years. They’ve made food for thousands of other people. They have the best sushi rice, imported from Japan. Most of the people that eat there say they feel better. The sushi set they are offering for $19.99 really has a value of $50. And if you go with me right now, you’ll get 10% off your bill.
Would you have a conversation like that with your friend? Nope. (At least, I hope not!)
Then why are you selling like this?
And how would you respond if your friend did that to you?
Feature dumping, spewing benefits that may or may not be relevant, making up perceived value to make it seem like they are getting more than you are charging, etc., are all about you, your company and/or your product.
If you are doing this (and many of you are) then you are trying to sell.
Stop. It. Now.
Sales is about being an agent of change. You can’t be an agent of change by spewing a bunch of nonsense. And yes, if you are spewing all the features of your product or service, it’s nonsense.
Wouldn’t a better approach be to have a conversation with your prospect to learn about them, what they want, and see if you can be that agent of change to help them get where they are looking to go?
Let’s look at the example above, getting your friend to the restaurant you want to go to. Let’s face it, if he/she doesn’t go to the restaurant with you, life will go on.
They don’t NEED to go to your restaurant. They don’t NEED to go to any restaurant. They could even skip a meal or two and guess what, they’d be fine. So, pushing a bunch of nonsense reasons/features are probably not going to make a difference.
Yet, salespeople still do this EVERY DAY!
Wouldn’t a better approach to have a conversation where you are asking questions and maybe leading the other person to his/her own conclusion? One that works for them? As opposed to trying to tell them all the reasons why your idea is good.
So, why aren’t your sales conversations like this?
People say they hate being sold to. So, stop trying to sell them.
Start having conversations. Normal, everyday conversations, yes it may be about your area of expertise or industry, but have a normal conversation.
The two most important things you can do in sales are:
1. Ask thoughtful questions, and
2. Listen
It’s actually easier to have a conversation like this. Asking questions gets people talking with you.
Why don’t people in sales do it?
Because that’s not how they were trained. They were trained to know their product. To study and memorize all the objection handing statements. To push the prospect to close and buy.
These are all old tactics with limited success.
Start having conversations. Ask questions, but smart questions. And listen.
Put yourself in the shoes of your prospect and ask yourself if you’d honestly like to be on the receiving end of your sales pitch.
When I’ve trained teams, one of the first things I have them do is develop lists of questions to ask. I don’t have them come up with lists of objections and responses right away (I’m not saying there isn’t a place for that, because there is). But I’m more interested in getting them to think about what questions they can ask the prospect that will get that prospect to provide the information that allows the salesperson to be an agent of change.
Similarly, asking those questions can help you and the prospect quickly find out you aren’t the right solution and/or you get the prospect to say “no”. And from there, you understand what you do next.
In this case you aren’t selling.
Want to have success in sales? Be an agent of change. And stop selling.