How
many thousands of books, speakers, videos, seminars and programs do you think exist for increasing sales? Google the words sales development program and you will receive 258,000,000 results! But do you want to know a secret? The best salespeople actually don’t ever sell anything. It’s true. There are a lot of very successful salespeople who are going to be really unhappy when this gets out.
Think of the best salespeople you know. They seem to possess the hybrid qualities of genius & genie, magically producing month after month, year after year. How do they do it? What is their secret? They likely don’t sell anything. Instead they approach meetings with prospective customers as consultations:
- They talk with their customers – these giants don’t have a “pitch”, rather elevate conversation beyond a simple sales call, to a business discussion
- They listen to what the customer needs, understand & identify where they need help, without regard to what products/services they have to offer
- They provide their customer with a solution, not a product
In order to join the ranks of the sales elite, they must be talking about and offering something that the customer not only needs – but that they value. Value is in the eye of the beholder so be sure your sales team is encouraged to know what value looks like to each customer before talking about what your organization has to offer them. Once they’ve determined what the customer needs & how they value it, your salesperson can build the solution message upon it, & throughout the “story” reinforce it by continually tying back to that foundation. There will be no need to sell. The conversation will naturally become about how to proceed, rather than whether to proceed.
Click below to view a short video from legendary sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer on how to become a sales person focused on adding value to the customer experience, not just making sales. Jeffrey Gitomer – Stop closing sales and start providing value, or lose to price