Softer Side of Selling

Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling

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Sales Skill: Word Choice

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Great salespeople carefully choose their words when we speak with prospects and customers. They know word choice affects the outcome of their sales presentation. The language we use and the jargon of our industries changes over time. Think carefully about relevant word choice. And how you relate to your prospects and customers.

Great salespeople use good word choice

Words Choice is Important
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Proposal vs. Quote

Great salespeople use word choice to develop long-term, mutually beneficial relationships. Sounds like a marriage, doesn’t it? Do we “quote” to the one we love or “propose?” A “proposal” is rich in detail about the value of the purchase to the customer. A “quote” is all about the price for the item….

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Sales Skill: Customer Focused Selling

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Why is customer focused selling so important? Take a look at any article on why a business fails. Failure to focus on the customer is always near the top of the list. It’s logical. Without income from sales no company can sustain itself, let alone grow. Great salespeople know focusing on the customer and their wants and needs is the most important skill they have.

Great salespeople focus on the customer first

Customer Focussed Salespeople Win Big!

What Is Customer Focused Selling?

The name of the skill says it all. Great salespeople practice putting the customer first. They do it by asking good questions and actively listening to what the customer tells them. I know what you are thinking: The salespersons goal is to get a prospect to buy the product or service. True. But to have a successful outcome, the salesperson needs to understand the customer. That’s where customer focused selling comes in….

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Understand The Buying Ecosystem

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Great salespeople know understanding the buying ecosystem of their customers is key to closing deals. They use their asking and listening skills to find out all the players on the prospect’s team and how their roles affect the buying decision. Then they craft the sales presentation to appeal to the problem in terms of how it affects each member of the buying ecosystem.

Understanding the buyer ecosystem is paramount to winning the order

Who Is In Your Buying Ecosystem?
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What Is The Buying Ecosystem?

The term comes from biology: an ecosystem is a community or group of living organisms that live in and interact with each other in a specific environment. Great salespeople know there are various interests in the solution to any problem. Each of those interests has a role in deciding whether to purchase your solution. So the buying ecosystem is composed of all those people who participate in deciding what to buy. In large corporate purchases the buying ecosystem has members from many departments. In family decision making the ecosystem is smaller but no less important….

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Sales Skill: Finding The Budget

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Great salespeople know finding the budget is a key piece to winning the order. Price is the monetary value we place on the product or service we sell. It is important to know what our customer is willing to pay for the solution to the problem they are trying to solve. Once you, great salesperson, understand the problem the customer has then get on about finding the budget.

Finding the budget is a key to sales success

Great Salespeople Have The Courage To Find The Budget
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Talking About Money

How do you feel about money? Great salespeople are well within their comfort zone discussing the budget with the customer. They understand the value of their solution to the customer’s problem. And they have the skill to lead the discussion. My mentor, Jim Wilson, would say to a prospect: “At some point we are going to need to talk about money. Why not do it now?” A more sophisticated approach is the one Neil Rackham describes as SPIN Selling. We all know it is better to understand the customer’s budget early in the sales process….

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Sales Skill: Dream Big Then Plan To Be Successful

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Great salespeople have a vision of their future. Call it a dream if you want. And they know how to make dreams come true. It’s not enough to dream. You must plan to realize your dreams. Muhammad Ali one of the greatest boxers of all time and a pretty good philosopher too put it this way: “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”

Great salespeople not only dream big but they diligently plan to achieve those dreams.

Dream Big – Plan To Succeed
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The Best Salespeople Plan

What Muhammad Ali meant is you must plan and do all the preparatory work before the first contact with a prospect to be successful. Preparing is the key to winning. Great salespeople plan the month, the week, the day and each sales call. In each salesperson’s sales funnel there are prospects at various stages of the buying process. Near the top are those who have just begun thinking about a purchase and at the bottom are the few who are now ready to buy. Great salespeople plan to be successful all along the sales funnel….

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Sales Skill: The Scientific Method In Sales

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Remember when you were in science class discussing scientific method? Did you ever think how it applies to sales? Consider what great salespeople do. They wonder whether or not a prospect will buy their product or service. Then set about finding the answer. So this is much like the scientist making an observation wondering about what they observed and setting about confirming the observation.

Great salespeople use the scientific method to win the sale

Salespeople Are Like Scientists Looking For Answers
Image by GraphicMama-team from Pixabay

What Is Scientific Method?

For some readers it may have been a while since you were in school. Remember scientific method is a process to explore observations and answer questions. Like most processes it has multiple steps. Begin with posing a question. Do a bit of research. Form a hypothesis. Test it. Evaluate the results. Was the hypothesis validated? If not revise the hypothesis and retest. During the process the scientist looks for bias in the assumptions and testing. Scientists are rigorous in testing the hypothesis. At the end of the test they draw a conclusion….

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Selling Skills: Your Personal Brand

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Great salespeople know they have a personal brand separate from the products and services they sell. They understand their brand is the basis for developing and growing relationships with their clients. Whether or not you intentionally create your brand you are one in the eyes of your customers. So as long as you will be branded, create one yourself.

You are your personal brand

Great Salespeople Have A Recognized Personal Brand
Image by John Hain from Pixabay

What Is A Personal Brand?

When you see a red soda can with white lettering most likely you will identify it as a product of a particular company. And you will assign certain attributes to the product. Seeing a three-point star in a circle on the front of an automobile you form an opinion about the vehicle and maybe the driver. Similarly others you meet see certain characteristics in you. Physical appearance, cadence and resonance of your voice, attitude, emotional strength, knowledge and other recognizable traits taken together create your personal brand….

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Sales Skills: Keep Customer Relationships Fresh

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Great salespeople know that “out of sight is out of mind.” They keep customer relationships fresh by regularly meeting with their best customers. One way to keep in touch now that COVID 19 has limited face-to-face meetings is to simply make a phone call. But don’t call to make a sale. Call just to learn how your customer is doing and how COVID pandemic has changed their business.

Handshake showing affirmative customer relationship

Great Salespeople Keep Customer Relationships Fresh
Image from Pixabay

Ask For Feedback

Keeping your customers happy requires good communication and feedback. Don’t be afraid to ask your customers how you are doing. You may find out some very valuable information—like why they keep using your services or products, or that they are unhappy with something that you need to fix ASAP. By speaking with your customers you can find out a lot about customer relationships. How do you think you are doing? Do your customers like you? Why do they keep using your service or business? Or why do they leave? Are you afraid to ask? Do you think that if you ask, you’ll get an ear-full?

What Should You Ask?

Are you wondering how to start the conversation? Here are a few questions to ask your good customers:

  • How did your company originally select us as a supplier? (This reinforces their decision.)
  • What do you like best about dealing with us? (Points to remember when prospecting.)
  • If you could change anything to improve our relationship, what would it be? (Fix the problems immediately!)
  • How can our company increase market share? (Good customers are eager to help and like to be asked for advice.)
  • How does our company stack up against the competition? (You need to know this.)
  • If you were the CEO of our company, how would you go about holding on to good customers like yourself? (They’ll tell you.)

Keep ’em Talking

Did you notice? These are all open-ended questions designed to get and keep the customer talking. Remember, your role as a salesperson is to ask good questions and listen to the answers. Make sure the customer is talking more than you are. When you allow your customer to speak they feel cared about. That’s the feeling you want engender to keep customer relationships fresh.

What Can You Do Right Now To Keep Customer Relationships Fresh?

  • Make a plan to regularly call your best customers
  • Call to thank them for their business
  • Ask questions which lead you to understand how to keep the customer relationship fresh

To learn more, see Chapter 22, Customer Management, in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales help, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.

Good selling!
Don Crawford

The COVID Recession Is Here

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Of course it is. You might not know it looking at the stock market indexes. But look at restaurant closings, retail store bankruptcies, airline passenger miles. We are in a period of poor economic times. But one lesson I learned from my father is his belief that “just because there is a recession, you don’t have to participate.” So what do great salespeople do to survive now that the COVID recession is here?

Chart showing precipitous decline in sales.

Don’t Let COVID Kill Your Sales
Image by Mediamodifier from Pixabay

Listen To Your Best Customers During The COVID Recession

Your customers’ reaction to their markets determines how it will affect your business with them. Keep in close touch with your A list customers. Ask good questions about their outlook. Find out their plans to deal with this business disruption. Share this information within your company so you can adjust your business plans to survive or better yet thrive during this COVID recession….

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Nobody Buys What You Are Selling!

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You are probably thinking: “Crawford, you have really lost it now. This quarantine is getting to you. Of course they are buying what I’m selling. I got the sales to prove it.” Really? It’s true nobody buys what you are selling. Your customers buy because they are convinced your product or service will solve a problem they have. Great salespeople know that to make a sale they first have to identify the problem the prospect has. And they make the sale because they can put the buyer’s mind at ease by solving the problem. The product or service is a means to an end for the buyer, not the end itself.

Nobody buys a product or service. They make a purchase to solve a problem

Find A Problem – Make A Sale

First Find The Pain

All great salespeople have a selling system. The one I use challenges me to find the pain early. Yes, pain. All purchases are made emotionally even though it may feel like a rational approach to the buyer. Salespeople must discover the buyer’s problem and the impact of the problem. Once they understand the buyer’s need for change, great salespeople offer a solution to the problem. Depending on the severity of the problem price may be the least of the buyer’s concerns….

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