Selling Versus Telling: Continued

What is the answer? The experts were right and it’s the power of the question?

All human behavior is driven by emotion. That means, that how I feel determines what I will do. If I know how you feel, then I can predict with perfect accuracy what you will do. This is a part of, why I say that,” I understand human behavior as an exact science.”

Let’s tie this concept to selling. If I’m talking, am I learning how my prospect feels?

Answer this question for yourself.

When my prospect is talking, I have an opportunity to discover how my prospect feels, if I know how to communicate. I don’t want to seem arrogant but almost no one knows how to communicate in a selling situation. I was one of the  most ignorant communicators of all before I learned this and how to do it. In my next post I will talk about how to do it and why most salespeople can’t; and of course, how to fix that.

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Selling Versus Telling

If you want to prove the importance of this paradigm shift, observe a two-year-old child. Their immediate reaction to everything is no. This isn’t when they learn to say no, that happens much earlier in their life. Usually the first word a child learns is no. Did you every wonder why? Think about this. Do you like to be told what to do? Did you ever? It’s just unnatural and it goes against human nature. Then why is this the accepted norm in selling; is it because that’s what we have learned to do to get what we want.

If you have read or heard anything from experts teaching one how to sell, invariably you will be told to ask questions. It falls on blind eyes and deaf ears because that is not what we have been taught to do. The generally accepted opinion is that a good sales person is a great talker and this is how they influence. Well if that is the case, only a small percentage of the population are great talkers and maybe that’s why 80% of sales people struggle to some degree.

This method is brutal on both the prospect and the sales person. It’s exhausting. It wears the customer down and drains the energy of the sales person. It seems to work but does it? Maybe that’s why good salespeople are so often big drinkers, job jumpers and have unsuccessful home lives. We will continue this idea in the next post.

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Don’t Sell–Help them buy

The salesperson controls the process and the customer controls the decision. This is the least common way that things are sold. I experienced this incredible way to buy over 50 years ago. A truck salesman named Frank Kramer, who is now deceased, showed me how it should be done. I was so impressed and satisfied that I became addicted to what he had done. I felt like a king as he gave me exactly what I needed and could afford. Frank was a natural salesperson, and, in my opinion, he was the best salesperson that I have ever encountered in my 71 years of life.

Platinum Edge Selling System

This experience is what motivated me to invest my life to discover why this way to buy was so rare. I haven’t ‘met or been served by more than five to six salespersons who have done it right like Frank Kramer did. In fact, it has gotten worse as the years have gone by. Today I buy a lot of products and services because my businesses are much larger than when I met Frank Kramer.

I actually dread dealing with the so-called salespeople that come to sell to me.

I had a marketing company come in with six people, give me a dog and pony show and ask for $250,000. I asked what guarantee would you give me? They answered, “Well no one ever knows what actually will work”. I asked why should I buy this from you? They answered because we are professional, and we know what we’re doing. I thought to myself, if you are this ignorant about human behavior and sales, what could you possibly know about how to influence someone to call me about my services.

I saved the best example for last

I was buying a phone system for my new office building and I was shopping around as I had no specific knowledge on the subject. I met a salesperson at his facility; he proceeded to tell me about his solution. Now this person wasn’t pushy at all. He was just completely ignorant about selling. He proceeded to tell me what he had to offer. I got so bored that I literally put my head on his table and took a nap. He continued to talk to my wife and never skipped a beat.

I’ll leave you with this thought which I will continue to address in all of my subsequent posts.

“Our understanding of human behavior and obvious selling is as primitive as was the practice of medicine before we knew that there were germs.”

It’s that bad and I will prove that to you and show you how to become as expert in dealing with people as you are expert in what you’re selling. That will be my topic going forward.

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Sales: Definite Purpose Backed by Total Commitment

Assuming that you feel in your heart, have thought it through clearly, and have determined that professional selling is what you want to do, you must make a total commitment and never let your ego convince you to stop. You must persevere until you become a true professional.

It takes two years to master and internalize all of the necessary skills, knowledge, habits, and processes. You must remember that all of this effort will be neutralized unless you align your attitude with professional selling. That is the crown jewel of our program. We have the only known formula to find and eliminate the roadblocks that prevent capable willing individual salespersons from achieving complete mastery and performance.

To reach your full potential you must become as expert in understanding people as you are expert in what you are selling.

Before I begin to explain what that means I want you to understand the different ways that things are sold, and people are influenced.

The Salesperson Becomes the Prospect’s Personal Servant

The prospect controls the process, the decision and even the salesperson. This is the most common way that things are sold because the majority of salespersons are untrained and insecure. A good example of this is when the prospect uses the sales person as a research center. They ask questions and the salesperson answers them like a dutiful servant. They request special and multiple services, such as many quotes for different possibilities. Of course, the salesperson is happy to comply believing that this will lead to a sale and it rarely does.

This is a pathetic way to earn one’s living. It’s demoralizing, destructive on the individual and eventually leads to demoralization, struggling finances and/or leaving the profession. It can also wear down the individual to a dangerous level which often leads to poor health, job jumping and possibly addictions. I am ashamed to say that this was me before I found and learned what I now can offer to you.

The Salesperson Becomes the Dictator

The salesperson controls both the process and the decision. This is the second most common way that things are sold. It requires a person with a compromised conscience. The standard process is to use whatever method will work to wear down a prospect and make them give up. Integrity, facts, credibility and honest fulfillment don’t matter. The sale is seen as a confrontation and “I’m going to win and you’re going to lose.” This does work on some people but not on all of them.

This is the worst possibility of all because it’s unnatural. It goes against the grain of how people behave. No one wants to be told what to do. You can prove this to yourself by observing a child between the ages of two to five. This example needs no further explanation, you will see my point clearly as you experience it.

This type of selling leaves everyone unfulfilled. The customer feels cheated in the end and often expresses this fact in reversing their decision to buy. I can share with you my own personal experience in buying a Mercedes coupe. I encountered such a salesperson. I’m a very busy person and my lease was up on my car. I wasn’t a hundred percent happy with the car that I was turning back and not totally sure that I wanted another Mercedes. In the interest of time I let this salesperson take an order for the same type of car. The transition was over in probably 30 minutes. I left feeling stupid and cheated. The next morning, I called the sales manager and cancelled my contract. I went back to the dealership, worked with the sales manager and bought an upscale version of the same car, that I can say is the best car I have ever owned.

This experience left me with such a negative feeling that I will never use that dealership again. I may buy another Mercedes but not from that place. They have lost a customer for life and of course I share this experience with others.

The sales person is also unfulfilled. They go after the next kill and the same sick process goes on. That is one of the main reasons that the buying public has such a dim view of salespeople.

Our next blog will discuss the final, and best way to sell things.

 

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You Must Make the First Sale to Yourself and Be Honest About it

To be a professional at anything the individual must be committed and passionate. Too many people end up in sales because they haven’t been successful at anything else or they just got into sales by accident or circumstance. They tend to feel stuck and try to make the most of it. This will lead to a disaster for everyone. The salesperson will be unfulfilled, the customer will feel cheated and the company suffers.

Most salespersons do not enjoy selling because they are untrained; the worst of all possibilities. I started my selling career when I was 22 years old; with no training. I can’t ever remember feeling more rejection than I did at that time. It was horrible and that was the experience that motivated me to spend most of my life to understand why people buy and why they don’t. Today I understand selling as an exact science. Anyone can be successful in professional selling if they are properly trained. Unfortunately, traditional sale training doesn’t work well; mine does.

If you are in sales, possibly struggling or simply burning out there is a solution. To be successful in professional selling one must become as expert in dealing with their prospects as they are expert in what their selling. When you realize this and prepare, selling will not only be extremely lucrative but also very enjoyable. I have been self-employed since 1972 and I often have said to myself that there is only one position that I would have accepted besides what I have done. My second choice would have been professional selling because every salesperson really is self-employed. They build their future by practicing the law of compensation and no one can steal that from them. They own their loyal customers and if it becomes necessary to move to another position, they take those loyal customers with them.

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