Selling to Consumers | Sales Training Blog by Skip Anderson

When Selling, do You Make Ear Contact?

Everyone knows how important it is to make eye contact when selling face-to-face. Eyes, being the windows to the soul and all, are a powerful vehicle to connect with another human being. Since prospects are human beings, this works out to everybody's advantage.

But equally important as eye contact is ear contact. If eyes are the windows to the soul, than ears are the heartbeat of the soul.

Do you sell using your ears as much as your eyes? Are your ears a finely tuned instrument? Does listening play as important a role in your interactions with your prospects and customers as your eyesight? And your voice?

The next time you are interacting with a prospect in a face-to-face selling situation, pay attention to how well you use your hearing, listening for nuance in communication, listening for meanings rather than just words, and listening for unique speech patterns and your prospect's choices of words. All of the data your ears pick up can be used to better understand your prospect and his needs and buying requirements. And the next time you're speaking with your prospect on the phone, shut your eyes to shut of visual stimulation (or distraction) so you can zero in on the clues being presented to you aurally.

Eyes aren't overrated. But ears are underated in selling. What better way is there to engage your customers than by actually listening to them?

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Emotional Baggage: It's There, You Just Need to Find It

  
Customers need things. Thank goodness for that, because if they didn't, commerce would grind to an abrupt halt, along with salespeople's careers.

Consumers need books, TVs, furniture, education, massage, barbecue grills, security systems, trees, orthodontics, replacement windows, hair replacement, bass boats, facelifts, vacations to Italy, jewelry, and thousands of other products which we, as sales professionals, are always happy to sell to them. But when we focus on only our products, we can lose sight of the emotional foundation of these customers' needs.

And when we do that, we're missing opportunities to understand, to steer prospects in the proper direction, and to sell more.

Consider the homeowner in his sixty-year-old home who calls a window replacement company to provide a price quote for new windows for his home. What does this homeowner need?

New windows.

But what are the emotional foundation needs behind those needed windows?

Well, since shoppers are different, we don't know exactly, but we can imagine several credible scenarios:

> Water is seeping in the home through the window in his son's bedroom, and it's been doing so for twenty years. The water damage, although not yet severe (at least from what is visible without ripping the plaster and siding apart to inspect it), is starting to rear it's increasingly present and ugly head. This prospect has an interest in securing his investment in his home and not letting constant drips of water gradually devalue it.

> A homeowner has invested considerable money in his home since he and his wife purchased it eighteen years ago. They've adding a sunroom, completed several major landscaping projects, added a third garage stall and a storage shed in the backyard, built a fence around the yard, finished the basement, and so on. The one substandard part of the owners' home as one looks it over from the street in front of the house is its outdated and time-worn windows. Although the windows work fine, they don't look fine, and the visual appeal of the home he has painstakingly engineered over the years has a blemish that is looking bigger and more obvious with every passing year.

> Energy use is a concern to another homeowner. As energy costs rise, the homeowner concedes that replacing windows with a more energy efficient product would result in enough savings over the decades that lie ahead to warrant such a project. Saving X number of dollars per year has strong emotional appeal to this homeowner, especially when he looks back on the energy costs he's incurred in the last fifteen years that could have been far less had the windows been replaced fifteen years ago.

And so on.

So how do you reach (I mean really reach) your prospects when you're talking with them about their product needs, whether those needs are related to windows or the product or service you sell?

Immerse yourself in the before, the after, the underneath, and the beyond of your prospect and your product:

> Examine

> Explore

> Ask

> Fish

> Investigate

> Seek to understand

> Look deeper

> Broaden

> Notice

> Focus

> Notice clues

> Dig

> Magnify

> Pick apart

> Analyze

> Clarify

> Listen

> Really listen

> Listen to more than just the words being spoken. 

My wife and I need a new barbecue grill, so we've been having fun shopping for one these last few weeks. But nobody wants a new barbecue grill just to have a barbecue grill. They want a quick way to prepare food, a centerpiece for entertaining, a monument to testosterone and manliness, a place to create the best damned grilled steak in the neighborhood (if not on the planet)!

How's that for emotional baggage?

Now, if salespeople would just quit talking to me about this feature and that feature and talk about ME instead...

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Creating Resonation Points in Your Customer: Six Sales Tips to Sell More

 I have a stunning admission to make: I sing in the shower.

There. I said it. I'm a shower singer: Billie Jean; Fly Me to the Moon; The second movement of Brahms' German Requiem; Single Ladies; Birthday Sex; Macarena...they're all in my shower repertoire. Our dog LuLu loves it. My wife? Not so much.

One thing I enjoy about singing in my shower is the standing waves you hit on certain pitches that double or triple the volume of that pitch. If you start with a low pitch and gradually sing to a higher pitch (like a siren going from low to high), you'll discover one note that seems to boom forth within the room. This pitch resonates because of the acoustic properties of the room relative to the wavelength of the actual tone you are singing. We'll call this a resonance point.

But enough about acoustics. How does this apply to selling?

As salespeople, we love to talk. Some would say salespeople talk too much. Much of what we have to say, though, passes in one ear of our customers and out the other ear.

Customers are like diners at a buffet restaurant: they can't eat everything, so they ignore the dishes that don't inspire them and seek out those that do. There's just too much food to focus on everything, so they use selective sight. They allow only the important food (to them) to register in their brain. That's why the bowl with 3 bean salad in it is always full - nobody ever takes any of it. That 3 bean salad is probably a couple years old.

Customers ignore most of what we have to say because many of us simply say too much. There are too many words for the customer to mindfully perceive everything we say, so they use selective hearing, allowing only the important things (to them) to register in their brain's hard drive. The rest of it is like the spam folder in our email's inbox.

But when a customer hears something that's important to them, their attention is inspired, and we've experienced a resonance point within our customer. Resonance points are always filed in the front of the consciousness, along with our social security number, our spouse's birthday (but never the anniversary), and our Twitter login informationn. This is the information that really matters to the customer.

Sales training is fantastic, but sometimes it doesn't focus on creating these resonance points within our prospects and customers, but it should. We need to create and identify these resonance points if we have any hope of having a customer pay mindful attention to what we have to say.

With this in mind, this sales trainer hereby offers six ways to create and identify resonance points in your customers:

1. Look for heightened emotional energy.

A prospect's emotional energy gets revved up when things resonate with them. Look for signs of heightened emotional energy: excitement, faster talking, louder talking, verbosity, smiles, touching your product, touching you, asking questions, paying attention...these are all signs that what you're saying is resonating with the customer.

By the same token, look for signs of no resonance: boredom, fingers over mouth, crossed arms, distractions being allowed to dominate over your conversation (checking cell phone, emails, taking other phone calls, etc.).

2. Use the language of the customer.

I can't stress this enough: customer's word choices exist because of their experience and preference. If you want your words to resonate within your customer, then use the same words your customer uses. If your customer is looking for a "couch", then you are a couch salesperson, not a sofa salesperson. If your customer calls his wife "the wife," then you call her "the wife" when you're speaking to him about her. If your prospect says "I'm supposively going to get a raise next week at my review at work," then you use "supposively" in a sentence, too, even though supposively isn't a word (but many people say "supposively" or "supposebly" when they mean "supposedly").

3. Match the customer's speaking pace and speaking volume.

Fast talkers love other fast talkers. Slow talkers love other slow talkers. Loud talkers love other loud talkers. Soft talkers love other soft talkers. Match them and you're more likely to create resonation points.

4. Make the prospect's needs the foundation of everything you say.

Selling is not about you, your company, or your product nearly as much as it is about your prospect and what they need and desire.

I went into the clothing store this week and bought some much needed new additions to my closet. The sales guy "helping" me has "helped" me before. But the next time I go shopping there, I'm going to call ahead and find out a time when he is not working and make sure I go to the store at one of those times. He is not helpful. He talks about himself. And his merchandise. And never about me. He thinks the way to create sell, and supposedly create resonation points with me, is to talk about himself and his products.

I don't give a rat's ass about him or his products. I care about finding clothes that help me cover my extended stomach and make me look 20 pounds thinner. If he can do that, I'll spend any amount of money I have at his store. If he tells me about how popular his XYZ brand of clothing is, I want to vomit. And one thing is for sure: you're not creating resonation points within your shopper if he's vomiting while you're talking to him.

5. Don't underestimate the value of rapport.

As human beings, we like it when we feel comfortable around other human beings. We like it when we like him or her, when we feel good with him or her, when we trust him or her. When the customer is comfortable, having fun, and engaged, she's more likely to have a resonation point.

Let your prospect see you as being likable, as being worthy of trust, as being fun and worthwhile. When you do, your prospect is more likely to have a resonation point.

6. Don't just act like you understand the customer. Understand the customer.

It's one thing to nod your head in agreement with your prospect, but yet another thing to agree. It's one thing to hear their words, and another thing to understand them. Genuine understanding helps fuel resonation points. Faux understanding helps stamp them out.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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10 Reasons In-Home Sales Calls Don't Succeed

For those who sell in consumers' homes, the in-home sales consultation is the catalyst to either sales greatness or failure. If you master the dynamics of selling in the home, you master your sales career!

Here are 10 reasons why in-the-home sales consultations might not be successful:

1. Not on time.

People are busy, and while prospects will likely cut a sales rep some slack if he's late (it's always best to call the prospect as soon as you know you're going to be late), outright disrespect for a prospect's time doesn't help grow sales.

2. Focus on the product instead of the prospect.

Of course salespeople need to present their product's features and benefits in a positive and interesting way, but that shouldn't be the centerpiece of the sales appointment. Although product and technical expertise is important in all kinds of selling, it's more important to have people expertise. The way to sell successfully is to focus on the prospect and her needs, not just the product that's being sold.

3. Do stupid things.

The salesperson parks in the driveway (a no-no in the eyes of some prospects), or plods across the lawn, he tells the prospect he doesn't like cats, he sets a tape measure on a nice cherry dining table and scratches it, he doesn't take off his shoes and tracks muck into the home, etc. Stupid.

4. Wrong pace.

Some prospects are naturally fast-paced, while others are s-l-o-w. Since people like to be around people who are like themselves, salespeople need to adjust their pace of speaking and the pace of their movement to the natural preferences of their prospects.

5. Not leveraging the location.

The prospect collects Italian pitchers. They're all over the kitchen, dining room, entry, and family room. But the salesperson is too busy playing with his order form, brochures, and PowerPoint presentation to notice, much less say anything about it to the prospect. Really? Yet this bozo told his sales manager during his job interview that he's a "people person." Yes, really.

6. No sit-down chit-chat.

The sales rep is in the home to do business. A great place, probably the best place, to do business is at a table, like a kitchen table or dining table. Yet, thousands of salespeople try to do business while hovering around the broken furnace, or in the unfinished basement, or in the upstairs bathroom, or in the entryway of the home where the security system control pad would go. Why? Because that's where the products they're selling are going to be installed if the prospect buys. Almost all in-home sales interactions can benefit from sitting down together first.

7. Missed opportunities for connection to prospects.

The rep knows some of her prospects own dogs, yet she doesn't t keep a small package of dog treats her our bag to offer one to the furry friends. She knows kids can be a distraction when trying to talk business, yet she doesn't t carry a couple coloring books and crayons in her supplies to keep the lovable kiddos busy while she has a serious talk with the Mom about her needs. She assumes everyone remembers her name, so she doesn't give a business card to the prospect at the beginning of the call. Missed opportunities. 

8. Not spending enough effort on discovering or understanding needs.

The prospect doesn't buy a sunroom to have a sunroom. She buys a sunroom to sit in it on a beautiful morning while enjoying her morning coffee while looking out at their apple trees and chatting to her college-aged son on the phone. If we only spend time telling prospects how great our product is, we miss the opportunity to relate the sunroom to the needs and desires and lifestyle of the prospects, and the things that are truly important in the customer's life.

9. Odors. Bad ones.

Cigarette smoke odor on our clothing, parmesan-chicken-with-garlic-mayo-on-ciabatta odor on our breath, body odor on our bodies, or overly aggressive perfume or cologne on our selves can make a sales interaction go south in a big hurry. These are offensive at any time, but these types of odors are even more troubling when they occur on the prospect's [literal] home turf.

10. No sale.

For many products and services sold in the home, our chances of buttoning up the sale AFTER we leave the home is slim. To maximize the sale, we have to know how to complete the sale while in the home. It's truly a skill, and one that every sales professional who sells in customers' homes must learn.

If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.

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When to TELL Customers to Buy

I'm a big believer in discovering needs and desires that lie within the hearts and minds of our prospects. This is a underdeveloped skill in many sales practitioners in the B2C arena. Virtually anybody can improve their sales by doing a better job of truly understanding prospects needs.

The information we learn during a needs and desires investigation becomes the basis for our product recommendations and our sales presentation. The best people in our profession don't merely give generic presentations to their prospects, they tailor their presentations to the specific needs and situations of their prospects.

And I'm a big believer in closing skills. There are many who could improve their sales performance in the business-to-consumer area simply by understanding how to move a conversation from the theoretical to the actual, i.e. how to get the product or service we sell into the lives of our prospects.

But sometimes the best approach to improving sales with a certain group of prospects is to tell them to buy.

This group of prospects tend to be followers, not leaders. They are pleasers. They are easily confused. They often tend towards being introverted, but not always. They look to others for information. They are highly trusting and often very intuitive.

They are prone to wanting (or actually needing) to "think about" a purchase. They may not feel like they deserve a new kitchen, a new purse, or a new car, even though they may realize that they may need one. Sometimes this group of prospects have lives that are in a bit of disarray, and stress is sometimes a factor.

For these prospects, sometimes the best approach can be to tell them what to do. Here are some examples (but please keep in mind that the following statements or questions occur well after rapport has been developed, and after lots of conversation):

"Linda, you need this widget. You know it and I know it. Let's go ahead and get one for you."

or

"Travis, I want you to own this widget and have the benefits of it, so I want you to buy it. Agree?"

or

"Yikes! If anybody I've ever worked with needs a widget, you certainly do. From what you've shared with me, you are exactly the type of individual this widget was made for. You understand that, right?"

or

"Dude, you have got to buy this right now! Here, I'm going to enter the order for you."

I realize that these can sound somewhat harsh without the context of the surrounding conversation. And you certainly don't want to be throwing around these tactics with just any prospect. But when you find a prospect that needs (or wants) to be told what to do, TELL THEM!

If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.

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Ouch! Sometimes it Hurts to Look for Customers' Pain

 
Some define selling as a process of identifying their prospects' and customers' "pain." Books and articles admonish salespeople to "find the customer's pain." This can be valuable, since relief from pain is most certainly a motivation for buying.

Pain takes many forms in our prospect's lives.

> Pain could be a dishwasher that runs six hours instead of one or two hours, thereby increasing energy costs and reducing opportunities to remove dishes from it.

> Pain could be the car that's difficult to start on humid days, thereby reducing reliability.

> Pain could be a closet rod that fell down in the middle of the night leaving the clothes in a large wrinkled pile on the closet for.

But where I think some are misguided is when salespeople think only about pain as a motivating factor for buying, as if it is the root cause for all purchases. But it isn't. Looking exclusively at pain as the reason for buying products and services can cause you to miss other reasons why people buy.

> I didn't buy 12 boxes of Girl Scout cookies from six different girls to relieve pain.

> I didn't download the new Zero 7 CD or go to the Minnesota Orchestra concert to relieve pain.

> I didn't buy my wife a necklace to relieve pain.

> I didn't buy my daughter a book at her school's book fair to relieve pain.

> I didn't buy a collection of municipal bonds to relieve pain.

> I didn't buy our latest piece of art to relieve pain.

> I didn't buy a Vineyard Vines tie to relieve pain.

It's great to understand pain is a motivating factor for some purchases in some situations. But don't stop there. Customers buy for more than just one reason. Focusing on only pain is like focusing only on the quality of the wine while dining. Don't miss out on the rest of the meal!

Missing other buying motivations can be painful!

If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.

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7 Indicators of High Pressure Selling

The vast majority of salespeople working today don't want to be high pressure sellers. In fact, some have a fear of using pressure to gain sales and avoid assertive, professional selling techniques because of their hyper-sensitivity to high pressure selling.

I also have a disdain for high pressure selling. But I know that professional salespeople need to be assertive, to be willing to put themselves out in the public's eye, to be able to take control, to drive their prospect's decisions, and to bring in the orders.

High pressure selling is something completely different. But what, exactly, is the high pressure selling that most of us dislike so much?

I think high pressure selling can be identified by the following seven indicators:

1. When the salesperson hasn't generated sufficient rapport with, or trust from, the prospect.

2. When the sales representative dominates the sales conversation and does not create customer engagement. 

3. When the salesperson lets the product dominate the conversation rather than the prospect's needs and desires, and their unique circumstances.

4. When the salesperson displays behavior that is disrespectful, rude, or offensive.

5. When the sales representative attempts to close the sale too early or in the wrong way.

6. When the salesperson crosses the line from being assertive (a valuable trait in selling) to being aggressive (attempting to dominate the prospect).

7. When the customer has incorrectly implied or communicated a high level of interest of commitment in the salesperson's product, and then feels taken advantage of when the salesperson acts congruently with that interest or commitment.

You'll see that six of the indicators listed above are the responsibility of the salesperson, and the last one is the responsibility of the prospect. Go ahead and hate aggressive selling. But don't let that keep you from selling.

Are there any sales behaviors missing from my list that you think is an indicator of high pressure or aggressive selling?

If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.

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Why Do Customers Buy? (Part 2)

 As I explained in yesterday's post, customers buy to feel good, at least as an over-arching buying motivation. The higher the cost of the product (using each customer's unique definition of "higher cost"), the more this is true.

Doyle and Terri want to add a fourth bedroom to their home, and in the process increase the size of their kitchen. Having a fourth bedroom and a larger kitchen will feel good to Doyle and Terri. Overspending will not feel good, but neither will underspending (using Doyle and Terri's definitions of "feeling good"). Using their feelings as a radar, they settle in on a comfortable amount they're willing to invest in the project (they've wanted to commence this project since they bought the house ten years ago; but if felt better to hold off on the project than it did to do the project...until now...once again, feeling good drives the decision).

Both Doyle and Terri may very well have different perspectives about feeling good. Terri's ultimate "feeling good" moment might be feeling the warmth of the heated tile floor in the new kitchen on a brisk winter day, while Bob's feeling good moment is sitting by the fireplace with his cup of coffee while reading historical biographies. If the salesperson can identify these instances of good feelings, sometimes she can tip the "feeling good balance" in favor of moving forward with the home improvement project, instead of the balance being tipped to the "let's hold off for now" side of the equation.

What gets lost for many salespeople in the buying process is the connection of the selling process to the desired end result: a customer who feels good enough about what he's proposing to buy it. The negotiating on the pricing of the new addition, the details of the flooring, cabinetry, and lighting all offer opportunities for distraction from the over-arching purchase-determining factor. It's not features customers buy, it's the feelings those features provide for the customer.

So while the prospects are toting tile samples all over town so they can look at tile with different cabinet options, it behooves us to remember that we need to identify what "feeling good" means for each of our prospects, and how we can talk the language of good feelings with them, and encourage such talk from them. It's not just about how well the tile matches the new cabinetry (after all, that's subjective). It's not only important to ask, "What finish are you thinking of for your new cabinets?" but it's also important to  ask, "How do you want your guests to feel when they see the new cabinetry in your newly remodeled kitchen?" and "How do you want the kitchen to feel when you're using it?"

So the pursuit of good feelings enters the interaction like this:

- Doyle and Terri will determine whether spending $110,000 (but using a $50,000 loan in the process) on a new addition feels better, or leaving the $60,000 in their investment portfolio (without an additional loan) will feel better. Whichever option feels better to Terri and Doyle will win.

- Or, the feeling good decision may be about investing $60,000 in something, whether it be their home remodel or, say, buying a new car. They may have already allotted $60,000 to a purchase of something, so now their issue at hand is to decide on what to spend it. Both products have different feeling good profiles for each prospect, and these profiles will help them make a decision on where to put their money. Let's assume our prospects have chosen the home over the car, again noting that the reason they've done this is because the home project feels better to them. [If I'm trying to sell them a car, you can make absolutely certain that my strategy will be to identify ways the new car purchase can make the prospect feel better than adding on to their house).

- Doyle and Terri will interview four design-build firms to do the work. The degree to which the preliminary designs ignite their "feeling good" sensors will drive their decision of who to work with.

- The prospects will also go through a process of feeling good or not so good about the various construction firms they're exploring. They'll do the same thing with the salespeople from the various firms. At the end of the day, they will make their decision (over a six-month period) based upon their need to feel good not only about the project, but also the contractor and the contractor's representative.

The old saying says, "sell the sizzle, not the steak."

But sizzle won't move steak out the door. What will is the promise of good feelings. I say forget about the sizzle, and sell what makes the prospect feel good, because that's how he'll become a customer. One prospect may feel good about buying a budget cut steak with a USDA grade of "choice," while another customer may feel good about buying the most expensive dry-aged prime-grade beef tenderloin money can buy. The sizzle doesn't determine the outcome, the desire to feel good does. And those are just two shopper's perspectives on steak. In reality, there are dozens of other feeling-perspectives that will drive the decision to buy or not to buy steak.

Sellers are in the business of good feelings.

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training.

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Why Do Customers Buy?

There are many macro and micro reasons people buy products and services, but the overarching reason consumers buy is to feel good. I call this the "super-macro reason people buy."

No matter how bogged down a sales interaction can get with product details, specifications, and particulars, we would all be well-served to keep the super-macro reason people buy at the forefront of our thinking.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training.

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Marketing Gets it Wrong, SWOT Analysis, and Ben Stein Sells Shoes

Here are three nice articles I recommend:

1. Sean d'Souza writes about why marketing gets it wrong most of the time at Psychotactics.com.

Sean says it's all about wants. I prefer to use the term "desires" instead of "wants", but I agree with much of what Sean has to say here. Most of my client companies have some salespeople that sell as if it's all about their product, their company, and their expertise. But it's more about the prospect's needs and desires. Desire is a strong motivator. If you can identify and magnify desire, you can then position your product to meet that desire, and that's when prospects become customers.

2. Read "SWOT Yourself to Success" at FreelanceAdvisor.com.

Many of you are already familiar with SWOT analysis, the self-evaluation tool that helps you understand your:

-Strengths

-Weaknesses

-Opportunities, and

-Threats.

This article is intended for freelancers, but a SWOT analysis is an excellent tool for business owners, managers, AND salespeople to do. You have to be willing to be a analytical to pull this off, but a SWOT analysis can help shine a light on your business that can help you be a more successful salesperson, business owner, or manager.

3. The actor, writer, and lawyer Ben Stein wrote an interesting article in the New York Times about the sales profession (thanks to Guy Kawasaki and his practical blog "How to Change the World" for calling my attention to it).

Read "The Sales Profession: Attention Must Be Paid." It seems Mr. Stein is a bit nostalgic for his first summer job as a teen selling shoes at "Shoe Giant." You'll have to register at the New York Times site to view the article.

If you like this post (or don't!), please consider leaving a comment, or subscribe to our free sales tips newsletter.

Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip is nuts about helping companies and individuals sell more. 

The Perception of Value: Salesperson's vs. Prospect's

Customers buy when the value of a product or service is greater than the cost of that product or service (assuming they have a corresponding need and corresponding resources to pay for said product).

The determination of value is solely in the hands of the prospect. We may think our product is extraordinarily value, but if the prospect doesn't share our thinking, the customer isn't going to buy. That can be challenging for salespeople to understand.

And once we accept that, the even more challenging part of this value thing is that different individuals define value differently. We often sell with our individual value biases at the core of our selling methodology. But the next ten prospects we talk to may very well have ten different value points-of-view. Our message has to resonate with each of those ten prospects, not just the ones that share our value perspective.

Therefore, it's important for salespeople to know what value looks like to the customer. Sometimes we can simply ask the prospect, and sometimes the prospect will give us an accurate answer. But because a lot of people confuse value with price, we can get sidetracked and end up discussing price, when a discussion about value would be more helpful (price is a separate component of a buying decision). Salespeople who can get a clear picture of value from the prospect will have an advantage over their competition.

How do you do this?

- Advanced questioning skills
- A high degree of perceptiveness
- Wisdom developed through experience and learning
- Customers' verbal and non-verbal clues
- Changing the course of the selling interaction when necessary
- Skepticalness

To be more successful, strive to understand value from each prospect's s unique point-of-view.

How do you determine value from your customers' points-of-view? Please share your thoughts.

If you like this post (or don't!), please consider leaving a comment, or subscribe to our free sales tips newsletter.

Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip is nuts about helping companies and individuals sell more. 

Who Decides What's Better?

I read Seth Godin's most recent post, "What Does Better Mean" and found my head nodding affirmatively in agreement with it. Seth's post is aimed at marketers when he writes, "You don't get to decide what's better. I do." [Meaning the consumer gets to decide what is better.]

Seth says this is a tough lesson for marketers to learn. I say this is also a tough lesson for sellers to learn.

Salespeople get stuck in "my product is better" thinking, but when they do, they self-limit their sales reach. To be a successful salesperson, you don't need to sell the "better" product in your product category. It's difficult to determine the better product in any category anyway, because there is usually no universal and definitive criteria for determining what product is better in any particular product category. And even if there was, customers would continue to buy many other products in the same product category. Why?

Because customer needs are complex and not singular. Therefore, products to fit those needs are varied, not singular. "Better" is in the eye of the beholder.

In sales articles and blog posts by salespeople and even sales trainers, I sometimes read advice similar to this: "You've got to believe your product is the best if you want to excel at selling it."

But I disagree with this premise. I believe you have to believe your product can meet customer needs. And I believe a salesperson is setting him self up for failure if he acts on his belief that he has to believe his product is better than his competitors'. What if his competitor introduces a new product with some dazzling new feature that meets many customer needs better than his product? Does he have to switch companies to be successful? Then, what happens when his former employer releases their improved product in four months? Does he have to go back to working for them? No, of course not.

If you want to be successful in selling, focus intently on your prospect's unique needs and desires. Then show your prospect how your product's features will benefit the prospect within the context of those unique needs and desires. Every product has potential value. Top sales performers understand this, and translate this potential value into real real value for their prospects.

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Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip is nuts about helping companies and individuals sell more. 

Selling Design Products and Services to the Color-Sensitive Customer

There are a lot of readers of this blog that sell design services or design-oriented products. Today, I offer some sales advice to these readers.

If you sell design-oriented products, some of your customers are design-oriented while others are definitely design-challenged. Some of your design-oriented prospects may especially enjoy the space utilization portion of the design process, others like form and function issues, while others are turned on by color.

Your clients who are keenly interested in color are what I call "color sensitive." They have an intense awareness of color above and beyond the typical customer (even more than other design-oriented customers). I estimate that 10-15% of prospects are color sensitive. Typically, color sensitive individuals get energized by looking at colors in fabrics, paints, and swatches, and they like to talk about color. These highly visual people can be emotionally effected by color, and color decisions should never be treated as an after thought with these prospects.

If your prospect is color-sensitive, it's important to identify this during the selling process. Salespeople need to not only probe for needs, but also probe for an understanding of the prospects design point-of-view, if they have one. A prospect who is very in-tune with color can be a fantastic prospect, but only if you leverage their passion for color into a buying decision. A color sensitive prospect can derail the selling process if the salesperson gets too far into the selling process without developing an understanding of the prospect's color biases and goals.

For instance, designing an entire room without having in-depth color discussions with the prospect can be deadly. Since these color-sensitive people are all about color, they may make furniture decisions more on fabrics and color than on comfort, style, and design. If you show them the perfect side chair but in a fabric that's the wrong color from your client's point-of-view , they may veto your chair proposal because they can't get past the color palette you chose. The deeper you go into the project, the greater the potential set-back.

During the needs and desires investigation, you need to accomplish two tasks:

1. Find out if this prospect is a color-sensitive individual; and

2. Find out as much as possible about the prospect's color biases and preferences for the project or product.

Treating these special prospects with care will help you maximize their buying potential. The right color can help you rock their world, but the wrong color can do severe damage to your relationship.

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Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip is nuts about helping companies and individuals sell more. 

A Favorite Sales Question

Here's the scenario: You're working with a prospect, and you're winding down the "investigation for needs and desires" (my term for finding out what they want). Before you wrap this phase of the sales interaction up, though, ask one of my favorite sales questions:

"What else should I be asking you?"

Many, even most, of your prospects will say something like "I can't think of anything." But some percentage of your prospects will hit you up with some amazing clues into their psyche. I once had a prospect say, "You should ask me if we can afford this." So I asked them. And they said, "No, we can't afford this."

That led me to ask, "Then why am I here talking with you today?"

Sales conversations can take such interesting twists and turns. But these twists and turns are often more than just interesting; they're vital in understanding your prospect, their needs, and their ability to pay for your product or service.

I credit the question "What else should i be asking you" for some of my sales success. Ask the question. It will help you, too.

It also works well if you're an interviewer interviewing a job candidate, or if you're a job candidate at a job interview. It also works when you're talking to a potential new vendor.

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Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting company specializing in sales training in retail, in-home selling, and services. Subscribe to the free Sales Tips newsletter.

Make It Verbal

Top salespeople get their prospects to verbalize their needs and desires, even if they are obvious. During the act of verbalization, the need becomes more concrete and better defined in the prospect's own thinking, and the salesperson gains insight into the customer's perspective.

I often hear salespeople say "Oh, I know exactly what he needs; he needs [insert need here]." But selling isn't about what the salesperson knows, it's about what the prospect knows. It's common that these two perspectives don't match, but the prospect's perspectives wins every time.

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Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers,  a B2C sales training and consulting company. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

Think Like a Sales Person

Entrepreneurs and designers need to think like salespeople. This can be a challenge if the entrepreneur or designer doesn't have a sufficient background in sales (or sufficient sales training).

Last weekend, my wife and daughter and I went for a walk in an adjacent neighborhood to our neighborhood. This was new territory for us, so we had fun looking at the homes and the landscaping.

We came across a home with beautiful landscaping. The homeowner was working in the yard as we walked by.

My wife yelled to her, "You have beautiful landscaping!"

The homeowner responded: "Oh, thank you! I do it for other people, too!"

My wife said: "Well you do great work! It looks wonderful. What's the name of your company?"

She said: "XYZ Landscaping." (not the real company name).

I said: "You've got the nicest landscaping in the neighborhood."

The homeowner said: "Thank you."

We paused for a moment, and then walked on. This was a missed opportunity by a entrepreneur and landscape designer to act like a salesperson.

What could she have done to initiate a sales process with us? She could have gotten up off her hands and knees, and walked 15 yards to us to introduce herself. She could have asked us our names, and found out where we live. She could have given us a business card. She could have engaged us in conversation.

"What kind of landscaping needs do you guys have?" would have worked wonders, as we currently have some landscaping needs.

How much would it have cost this women to procure a new prospect? It wouldn't have cost her anything. She lost an opportunity to act like a salesperson because she wasn't thinking like a salesperson.

Think like a salesperson!

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Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting company. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

Same Product - Different Needs

I was the Director for an art gallery a long time ago. Among other things, the gallery sold art pieces that held candles.

To our Jewish customers, these products were menorahs. To our non-Jewish customers, these products were candlestick holders. These were the same physical products, but they met multiple needs for different customers (just about all products have the capacity to do this).

Customers always buy to satisfy their needs. And the same product/service can meet multiple needs for multiple clients.

Understanding customers' specific and unique needs is a key skill of successful salespeople. If you don't understand specific and unique needs, how will you know how to present your product to different prospects so each will comprehend that your product meets their needs?

How do your products and services satisfy different needs of your different customers?

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Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting company. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

What You Talk About

If all you talk about is price, that's what your customer will base his decision on.

If what you talk about are the needs and desires of your prospect, the customer will base his decision on how well you met those needs and desires with your product or service.

What do you talk about?

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Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting company. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

"I'm a People Person"

I've interviewed hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of candidates for sales positions. During these interviews, I often hear the following declaration:

"I'm a people person!"

"People persons" are a good thing. But here's what many of these so-called people persons do when they begin employment and actually start interacting with prospects: They focus on their product (or service) instead of the prospect. In my view of the world, that's not being a "people person!"

Here's my "3-P Rule":

Early in the sales interaction, top sales Performers focus on the Prospect, and not their Product.

Whether you sell real estate, financial or insurance products, in a retail setting, or in customers' homes, it's important to spend the early portion of your interaction on the prospect. Focus on people, on understanding their needs, and on building rapport and trust. Put the product you sell on the back burner. Be a human being interacting with another human being, instead of a salesperson pitching a product.

Remember the 3-P's!
 
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Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting company. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

When "Good" Isn't Good Enough

Here's a sales scenario:

1. You've presented your solution to your prospect.

2. You ask, "Do you like what I've designed for you?"

3. The prospect says, "It looks good."

How should you respond? Consider this approach:

"How could we make it even better?"

Give the prospect one final opportunity to opt in ("I can't think of any way to make it better") or identify unmet needs and desires ("I wish it was blue instead of green") before you close. It's those unmet needs that will creep up on you and ruin your closing, so address them before you ask your prospect for the sale.

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Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting company. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

Selling = Interviewing

I've repeatedly posted rants on the importance of asking good questions as one [major] element of the sales process. Good questioning (I call it investigating) is vital to sales success.

Laurie Hertzel, a writing coach at the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis, compiled some excellent interviewing tips that are applicable not only to journalists, but to salespeople as well.  

 

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting company. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

The Best Sales Question in the World

Here is the best sales question in the world:

"What else should I be asking you?"

Prospects will often tell you what you should be asking them if you just ask them.

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

"My Closet Rod Fell Down"

If you sell closets (custom closets, closet organizers) for other than new construction purposes, you know that prospects can be separated into two groups:

1. Prospects who call your company because their closet rod fell down, and they need something to replace it.

2. Prospects who are interested in your product but don't necessarily have an immediate need;  what they have now is usable, albeit not perfect.

Most group "1" prospects don't care a great deal about maximum utilization of their closet space. Unless they've always wanted a closet organization system, they probably aren't interested in fully remodeling their closet.

Most group "2" prospects either love the look of a custom closet, or they need valuable additions to their existing closet (drawers, baskets, and the like), or they want to fit more stuff into their closet, or they want to make the closet function better. These prospects are interested in fully remodeling their closet.

These two groups of prospects need to be sold in different ways.

If you try to sell the group "1" prospects the same way you sell group "2" customers, you'll quickly find that your closing ratio for these customers is very low. Many of these prospects simply don't care about beautiful closets or maximizing space; they just envision having their closet rod (and the shelf above it) replaced. They might entertain the idea of a double hanging section, but they're usually not motivated to pay a bunch of money for a completely improved closet because they don't see the value in it. Presenting this person with a design that is priced. let's say, in the $2000 range is probably a waste of time because many of these prospects will be expecting to pay a couple hundred dollars. [If you back into a light pole and dented your car, you probably wouldn't want to buy a new car, right? You just want the dent repaired].

A prospect who has been constantly frustrated with their lack of shelves for folded clothes, for instance, may be willing to pay you a lot of money to fix that problem because it reduces the pain of having to dig through stacks of sweaters the prospect has stacked up on her floor. These prospects want and need the full "custom closet treatment."

When you get one of these "my closet rod fell down" prospects, it's important to discuss general options with the prospect early in your meeting. They should be educated about the options, and then asked which of the general options is most appealing to them. The general options might be (a) simple replacement of the rod that fell down which will be reasonably priced; (b) a simple upgrade which will be more expensive; or (c) a complete redesign of your closet which will be the even more expensive. The prospect's response to your question can help you determine what to design for the prospect so you have the highest likelihood of closing the sale.

Asking questions like these up front can help to pre-qualify the prospect, and your product and design presentation can then be appropriately tailored to the particular needs of your prospect. This will prevent you from overdesigning your solution and, therefore, losing the sale.

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

Proactive Selling

Some salespeople are reactive. They react to questions from customers. They provide information that the prospect requests. They take their cues from the prospect.

But wildly successful salespeople are proactive. They lead prospects through a buying process. They get prospects to willingly follow them. They most definitely focus on their prospect, but they are the leaders in the selling relationship.

Just as good managers, or parents, or friends do, wildly successful salespeople encourage their prospects, they cajole them into action, they have fun with them, they enlighten them, they care about them, they listen to them, they help them, they influence them, they persuade them, they add valuable perspective to the prospect's situation, and they sell more than average or low-performing salespeople do because of these behaviors.

To boost your sales, don't re-act; pro-act.

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

Indifference

Harry Beckwith, author of fantastic books such as "Selling the Invisible," recently distributed "What Motivates People: The Beckwith 40." The first of Harry's forty thoughts about why people choose one product rather than another is: "Your biggest competitor is not a competitor; it's your prospect's indifference."

That's a valuable observation. Salespeople who are able to get past the wall of prospect indifference will have more success than salespeople who don't.

The most effective method for helping prospects to get past the wall of indifference is to focus intently on your prospect's needs and desires. In our sales training, we teach how understanding prospects' micro-needs, macro-needs, and the super-macro need can help foster prospect engagement and lead to vastly improved sales performance.

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips newsletter at www.SellingToConsumers.com

 

 

Selling with a "Wide Stance"

The term "wide stance" has been in the news lately, thanks to senator Larry Craig from Idaho and an undercover police officer from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. But let's chat about a "wide stance" as it applies to salesmanship. I confess that I used to call the topic that I am about to share with you Selling with a Broad Perspective, but I decided to rename it - at least for the time being - Selling with a Wide Stance.

Salespeople who have a broad perspective (or wide stance) sell more than salespeople who sell with a narrow perspective (or stance). A wide stance is taking in the broad array of information available during a sales interaction. It's the opposite of jumping to conclusions. It's being aware of the prospect's many facets, being aware of the selling environment, and being aware of of what's going on around and within the prospect.

Many sales people act too quickly to focus their prospect on a product or service solution. Before you can focus your prospect, you need to get enough information from them. Too many sales people jump to conclusions, or don't let prospects finish their sentences. Too many sales people think simply. Think of these salespeople as having a narrow view of their prospect, and therefore, they have a narrow stance.

But sales professionals who sell with a wide stance get more information from their prospects, take more time with them, engage them more effectively, identify more information about prospect's needs, and do a better job of identifying solutions for the prospect. Think of these salespeople as having a broad view of their prospect, and narrowing that view only when they have enough information from the prospect.

So get out there - widen your sales stance, and boost your sales!

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips newsletter at www.SellingToConsumers.com

 

Being Fortunate

One week ago, the Interstate I35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed. I, like many across the U.S., watched the continuous coverage of the event on the cable news channels, and on our local news stations here in Minneapolis.

Having traveled over this bridge many times, I couldn't help but think that I could have been on the bridge when it went down. I'm sure many of my fellow Minnesotans have had the same thought.

There are eight people still missing who are believed to have been on the bridge at the time of the collapse. My thoughts are with the families affected by this tragedy.

I've been somewhat contemplative since the bridge collapse. One of the thoughts I've had is that those of us who make our living in the sales field should feel fortunate that we have jobs that have so much potential positive impact on our customers. During a time of such tragedy, it's important to celebrate our blessings, and one of my blessings is that I've been in the position to help so many people in my almost twenty years of selling.

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips newsletter at www.SellingToConsumers.com