The Selling Newsletter for Sales Professionals
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
-Albert Einsten
For Salespeople…
Well, his curiosity seems to have worked out pretty well for Einstein. Don’t you think? Oddly enough because selling isn’t relativity, I think curiosity is basically what you need to do well in sales. Why? If you’re curious you’re going to ask the questions about why your prospects think the way they do. When you do, you learn not only what their needs are, but why they are important to them. You often learn subtle clues that help you position your products and services to be a great solution because you understand why a customer needs what you sell. Learning why also demonstrates that you’ve heard what your customer said. Everyone wants to be heard. So, just be like Einstein and be curious when you’re selling. Don’t assume you know what your customer thinks. And certainly, be curious to learn why.
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THE BLOG S AND OTHER COLUMNS
I’m now writing The Real Deal, a column on women in business for Allbusiness.com Hope you’ll read more ideas so you can achieve your success in business.
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THE SELLING IDEAS FOR THE MONTH TO SELL MORE NOW
When Only a Mercedes Will Do
You back up all your data, right? If you work for a business of any size today, management realizes the importance of data and has a back up plan. I recently had to review the backup plan that I have for my company’s data. The alternative was 3 times less than my current plan. It would have been a big savings for my company. Yet, I didn’t go with the cheaper plan. My decision as a customer just might help you sell when you have to be 3 times more expensive.
What’s the situation? There are many needs in the area of data storage. Some companies only want their current data backed up and don’t need past versions of documents. Others have huge quantities of data and just want the lowest cost per gig. Others need to quickly retrieve data for use remotely. Then there is the concern that everyone has. What if my hard drive crashes and I quickly need to retrieve my data? That was me. That’s what I was willing to pay for.
When I contacted the competitor I tried to learn as much about their service as possible. I was the customer. Ease of service is important to me and I’m technically savvy, so working with on line chat is easy for me. The chat person answered all my questions. Then I tried the service.
What’s it like? Sometimes I need to retrieve a document remotely when I travel. I need quick and easy access to my data. My current provider has me log into their website and go to my data directly. It’s like seeing my hard drive on their site. I can quickly open and download my data.
The competitor had me go through several more steps. I first select the file I want and then they email me a link for me to download the file. That might take a while depending on file size and the other requests from other customers. While that issue doesn’t happen all that frequently, I thought, “What if that does happen? How willing would I be to wait for an important file?” Probably not more than 5 minutes was my answer.
What if? My biggest and real concern was something that had never happened to me. I had never had a hard drive crash. But, I do know people who have. I also know people who have had laptops stolen without backing up their data. There are many times that I have tight deadlines. Waiting on data is something I can’t live with. When I asked about restore time, the answer was totally unacceptable. It would be many hours. I couldn’t work like that. At least with my current supplier, I could work on their site using the data stored as a virtual hard drive.
End of discussion. I renewed my contract at 3 times the cost of the competition—and I was happy to do it.
You had better have something to offer that your customers need and want if you’re selling a product at a much higher cost than your competition. You have to help them see it and feel that pain. That’s the only way they are going to be willing to pay for it.
That’s simple to understand. Yet why don’t more salespeople help their customers understand what can go wrong without their products? You have to ask about those issues and get answers about how difficult it would be for your customer to do his work without your product. Now you’re ready to sell.
When customers feel pain, that’s the only way they’ll act on it and buy. When your products cost more, they have to feel a lot of pain to be delighted to pay more for your products. Just look at me. I’m a delighted customer.
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ACTION ITEMS
1. How can you discuss the pain your customers would feel if they didn’t buy your products or services?
2. How does your performance compare to your competitors?
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DID YOU KNOW?
The most expensive item sold on eBay Mobile in 2011
An undisclosed eBay user purchased a Mercedes Benz S-Class on eBay’s popular mobile app for $212,000 last year. It was the most expensive item sold on eBay Mobile in 2011, the company revealed in December 2011.
Source: Business Insider
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Programs
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::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Here are some selling tools to help you sell more now. Click on the photo to find out more!
Monday Morning Sales Tips : A book that has quick ideas for you to be more successful in sales. Real-World Selling: A book with selling skills and strategies that work in the real world of sales. Secrets of Persuasion: Audio CD for the clues to use to speed-read people and close more business.