How Do You Know When a Saleperson is Lying?
The old joke goes, "How do you know when a salesperson is lying?" The answer is obviously, "When their lips are moving." What I've experienced speaking with all kinds of salespeople is that they are generally an honest bunch. My guess is that TV, movies and a few scoundrels over the years have given all of us a bad name. A good way to validate a prospect's belief that we'll do ANYTHING to get a sale is if we blather on about our productís features and benefits before finding out what's on their mind.
The following two selling tips provide alternatives to "brain dumping" that help a prospect feel like you understand them better, and help you to build trust and more healthy business relationships.
Telling Ain't Selling. Salespeople like to talk about their products and services. Why? Because companies tend to devote most sales training to "product training", which focuses on the specifications, features and benefits of the product or service. And prospects often steer salespeople toward "telling it all" at the beginning of a meeting by saying something like "whaddya' got for me?" or "It's your nickel."
It is important to learn everything you can about your product or service, your industry, your market, and even your competition, so you can speak intelligently and with confidence. However, unless you are speaking about what satisfies their real buying motives, you are wasting your time, and the prospect's. So, it's most important to ask questions that uncover the prospect's reasons to buy your product or service.
By listening 70% of the time, you can make the 30% you are "telling" pertain to the reasons most important to the prospect, and forget about all of the stuff that gets you excited about your product or service. After all, people buy for their own reasons, not the salesperson's reasons.
Presentations Don't "Close" Sales. Many business people invest countless hours, energy, effort, and company resources preparing impressive presentations designed to close sales. But instead of a close, they often walk away with nothing but a "think-it-over" and end up chasing the "prospect" until they either give up, or until they finally tell them that itís over.
This happens because many business people actually believe that the sale is made during a presentation. They rely on the "unique" selling points of the product or service and the various features and benefits to "convince" the prospect to buy. Surprisingly, it is ideally during the qualifying phase of the selling process where the sale is "closed." If a prospect is asked the right questions that allow them to paint a clear picture of their problems, objectives, price expectations or budget limitations, and their decision-making criteria, then the formula for a best-fit solution will emerge. The presentation then becomes the fulfillment step for everything already discussed, and the prospect will not have to be "convinced" to buy; they'll only have to decide if the solution presented fits their picture.
It's amazing how we tend to behave the way others expect us to when we are in a particular role, like the role of salesperson. The best way to stop being perceived as a ìsalespersonî is to start behaving more like a trusted advisor. Start listening more than talking, and if you still sometimes feel you're being perceived a little too much like the lying stereotype, don't feel too bad. Have you heard the lawyer jokes that are going around?