Simply Selling

On a wonderfully sunny, mellow day - a sales person walks into a prospect’s office and sits down with his potential client. The client, let’s call him Mr. X is a friendly man, but busy, who’s agreed to see John for 30 mins. As he’s been calling him for weeks to get this appointment, John is very keen to make the most of the time allotted.
The moment they sit down, after some initial pleasantries, John starts to get out his laptop and flicks it open. He’s prepared a great powerpoint, and as he knows his time is limited – he has it on standby already so he doesn’t need to run up his laptop first but can launch straight into it. Mr. X leans back in his seat, John leans forward and starts talking about the product he is selling. It’s a great product, it has all the features Mr. X could possibly want and it looks better then any of the competitive products out there. Plus it is actually a little cheaper then most. So John, after his presentation, is quite pleased. Mr. X listened attentively, made notes and asked all the right questions to which John had all the answers.  Seems like the deal is in the bag!

On just as wonderful and sunny mellow day – Tim walks into Mr. X’s office. He is John’s competitor and he knows his product is probably not quite as good as John’s, but it does all that it needs to do. It just doesn’t look quite as appealing and it is a little pricier. So Tim will have to work hard and he knows it. He, like John, is well prepared. And he also has been given a 30 minute time slot by the very busy Mr. X. So he sits down, pulls out his laptop and sets it on the desk. Then he leans back, mimicking Mr. X’s stance, and says “Mr. X, thank you for seeing me. I know you are very busy so rather then launching straight into my usual presentation, I would prefer to hear from you why you are thinking of buying such a solution?” Mr. X starts to tell him that he needs it because he feels under pressure internally to deliver. He needs to come up with a plan that will help him streamline his operation. Tim reads between the lines, and hears Mr. X say that he needs to look good in the eyes of his manager, and that whilst he has the budget to do so, he simply wants to make sure it all works and that it will seem to be coming from Mr. X himself. Tim, after 25 minutes of talking, looks Mr. X in the eyes and says “Let me come up with a plan of how we can implement this into your area. I will give you my personal guarantee that it will work, that it does all the things you want to it to do without falling over, and we will keep to your budget – which is how much exactly?” Mr. X gives him the exact figure he is willing to spend and can sign for. Tim gets up, tells him he will get back to him in 24 hours with a contract and they shake hands.

Out of these two, who do you think got the deal??

Selling is not some scary, near mythical science that some seem to do better then others. No – it’s very simple, the client will tell you why they would like to buy….. if you let them. If you can listen, you can sell . Just think about that in your next sales call.

If you are interested in more on how to be simply great at Sales, then let me know. I’ll be happy to help.

Marion@efactor.com
 

2 Comments

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• Adrie Reinders | May 11, 2009 01:55 AM

  sales is an underestimated art, not just a profession, love the blog and its direction, written by a true sales person

• Hazem Gamal | May 13, 2009 10:15 AM

  Great blog Marion. Listening is the art of identifying what concerns all the decision makers (not just those right in front of you) have relative to your offer. Based on that you can match what your product's or service's features, functionality, capabilities, etc. with the real opportunities they are working to pursue, obligations they must meet, and threats they are trying to avoid. Rather than throwing all of your possible capabilities against your client's wall to see what might stick, LISTEN to what is important to them and tailor the conversation around how you can be of help. And if you don't want to compete on price alone, figure out how to be of significant help so that you can earn a premium with your offers...

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