A friend of mine reminded me that selling is not about what you say to the customer, but rather it is about the questions you ask.
Many sales people are in love with their own words and ideas. They are often described as having the “gift of gab” which means that they really just talk too much. Instead of asking open ended questions and listening, talkative sales people talk too much.
They ramble on and on about product features to fill the dead air space (which is extremely uncomfortable for a talkative person). Worse yet, they invariably talk about themselves, which is the last thing that the buyer wants to hear.
Meanwhile, the buyer ultimately buys from the seller who best understands their problems or needs. Of course, you don’t get to understand the buyer’s needs by talking. Great sales people ask questions to learn about the buyer’s motivations, concerns, and desires. It is really that simple.
Ask questions to discover what matters most to the customer. If you must speak, then talk about what matters most to the customer.
John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.
John,
You really hit the target on this article, with asking questions and not just talking all the time. The client notices that you care when you ask good well thought out questions. Sometimes a client will say “thats a good question I wonder why nobody else has asked that question”. That alone will often help you establish that you are a level above the competition and an expert in your field, not just another salesperson.
Regards
Scott Olpin
Olpin Group
http://www.olpingroup.com
Well said Scott.
Be more than just another salesperson. That is the goal isn’t it?
JBJ
John, good to get a chance to catch up on your blog! good stuff as usual! It’s August and i’m sowing the seeds of a record-breaking 4th quarter for corporate business for the store. 2007 had about 3-5 large corporate orders ($1000+ when compared to our average ticket/sale of $72 per transaction. Just like Marketing 351 – selling benefits instead of features always differentiates our products. when compared to our competition, our product always comes out on top, for so many reasons, it’s easy to sell, its only a matter of how well i match the customers needs:
if they have a $10 per client budget for the holiday gift season, it would waste both our time for me to show them a $120 bouquet.
Conversely, we recently learned someone is undercutting our prices to attempt to win corporate customers. this is only the recourse of a poor salesperson, as the product differentiation between us and competition make a price-based argument unneccessary. When I actually ask my prospects what is important in their corporate gifts, price has never been the main concern – it is typically “presentation” or “value”, or more specific needs that are met – such as ” our logo is exactly duplicated” or ” i need the gifts delivered on an exact date at an exact time”.
all things we can do, that would be very difficult for our competition.
looking forward to visiting in the fall!
Ryan,
Keep your thoughts focused on customer needs. It is in this way that you can provide value.
JBJ