Yes, it is sales and not sharing. Sharing is what we were told to do when we were playing with our brothers a long time ago for most of you. Many of you have been through sales courses in the past maybe by Brian Tracy or Tom Hopkins. Or approaches such as Spin Selling, by Neil Rackham and The New Conceptual Selling, by Stephen Heiman. It is all selling, but more and more the focus is on the potential buyer. It always has been that way for real professionals.
I recommend all these books, but lets break down the basics. Sales is the transfer of emotion. Read some of these web sites that are trying to convince you to give them your email address or to take some kind of action. The copy transfers the emotion of the writer to you. You feel what they do and you want to get the results they are promising. Add a little scarcity – only the first 100 to apply, this site will only be up for the next 24 hours and then we are taking it down. When you read this your mind starts racing. You ask yourself, “What does this mean and what should I do?” Compelling, isn’t it?
If you are on the phone with a prospect, you better be able to transfer that emotion verbally. You use your voice. Make it soft, louder, slower or faster. Usually, a faster voice indicates more enthusiasm, but it is important to lead people and in order to do that first you must align with them. If they are speaking slow, you speak slow, etc. You should always be just a little bit ahead of them in terms of enthusiasm.
You need to get them to feel desire. They need to be associated to it. If their problem is say, not enough leads you need to identify that and magnify it by saying something like, “If you continue to experience this, what will that mean to you long term? If this keeps happening what will that mean in six months, a year or even five years from now?” Ouch! Do you know that one of the reasons people put a high value on something is because, at one time in their life they didn’t have it. That can be painful. Can your product or service heal their wounds? If it can you have a good chance, but it isn’t over yet.
Do they have the money? The might have a need and want it but with no money, too bad so sad! A good question might be, “Can you afford this at this time.” You know, this is good stuff, I should charge. Ok, let’s say they have the money. Anyone know what else we need to know?
Do they have the authority? Can hubby make a decision without his wife or visa versa? You have to know. In a business to business sales situation the question is usually, “Who besides yourself would be involved in this decision.”
Now you have qualified them, found out what they think their problem might be right now, found out what they want and got them excited about your product. Usually you need to lay on the emotion because people buy using emotion and justify with logic. But everyone has a buying strategy unique to them. Some want you to show them evidence by comparing sameness and others like to see differences. Some will focus on cost. Every pattern of focus is different depending on the person. See why you have to ask a lot of questions?
Internal or external focus? Some people go inside themselves to see if something is good or bad. It is what they “feel.” Others look outside themselves to discover what is right or wrong. How do you determine their frame of reference? Ask them this question, “How do you know when you are really good at something?”
Possibility or Necessity? If a person is a necessity person you have to show them why it is absolutely necessary. If they are a possibility person you just have to show them it is possible.
These is a lot to know about the sales process, but these basics can take you a long way.
Keep learning and you will be able to sell anything. Well almost.
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