Sell What Your Clients Need Most

If your business is struggling to make sales, you're probably asking your self or your sales team "What's wrong? Why aren't we making the sales we need to hit our objectives?"

The answer to this question may be varied, with such challenges as:
1. The economy sucks.
2. Our product is confusing to customers.
3. Our prices are too high.
4. They don't have the money.
and so on...

Are you buying the excuses? In most cases, the reasons why you've stopped selling have little to do with the excuses and everything to do with your PERSPECTIVE and FOCUS.

With the right perspective and focus, your salespeople don't have to be Pedott from the classic The Twilight Zone episode entitled, "What You Need", where Pedott is a salesperson who hands each character in the show exactly what they need to catch a bus, get a job, save their life, and so on.

For example, if you say "the economy sucks" you could stop putting out the same effort you did in an average or good economy, which would cause your business to stop selling even more than the lack of economy. If you run the numbers and the economy is truly affecting your business, then lower your expenses as low as possible to still make it with adjusted economy, and then continue as aggressive as ever because a down economy is an OPPORTUNITY for salespeople who are creative to capture larger market share from those who fail to respond and manage their business appropriately.

If your product is confusing, simplify it. Customers buy when it is SIMPLE and EASY. Again, this is a perspective issue. If you're educating the potential client and offering too many choices, narrow it down and offer them TWO or THREE CHOICES. But keep it SIMPLE.

If your prices are higher, that may be a problem, but more than likely it is a problem of the salesperson than the problem with your product. IBM routinely charges more for their products than their competition. How do they do it? By SELLING what their clients NEED MOST! For example, when a Chief Information Officer (CIO) of a large corporation is considering a new mainframe computer system, when comparing the choice of IBM versus competitor A, who offers the same mainframe (as far as speeds and feeds go) for less price, or competitor B who offers a better mainframe for slightly higher cost, or competitor C who offers a distributed computing approach across multiple computers for significantly less money, how is it that IBM wins?

The answer is that IBM sells what the CIO needs the most: PEACE OF MIND. You've heard the expression "They say nobody ever got fired for buying IBM." The reason for that saying is that the CEO has peace-of-mind that IBM will keep their business running if anything goes wrong. That's what matters most to the CEO, and that also is priority number one for most Chief Information Officers, too.

As CEO of a much smaller company, I can assure you that I'm quite unhappy when my business' server is down. If I cannot send or receive email, it is a nightmare. I can only imagine how the CEO of a larger corporation sees the dollar signs flashing by the thousands in his or her glasses when their system is down!

If you're selling a vacation package, what are you really selling that client's need? Most likely more time with their loved ones, better health, rejuvenation, seeing the world/exploring cultures, living the good life, and things like that, right? So, don't focus on the details of YOUR program, focus on the details of WHAT THEY NEED.

If you're selling banking services, what is it your clients need the most? Most likely, they want easy access, better rates, security that their money is safe, and so forth. I also like to have NO FEES. If I'm late, if I'm overdrawn, if I forgot to transfer that chunk of money from one bank to the other, whatever, I don't want to be penalized for it. I hate bank fees. If I were running a bank, I'd eliminate most of those fees! Maybe you charge more for a monthly account or whatever but find out what your client's need and sell them that solution.

In an interesting study on whether clients "have the money" or "don't have the money to buy" a company I worked with determined that clients "HAD THE MONEY TO BUY" over 80% of the time, but decided NOT to buy because of some other reason (the salesperson was either annoying, failed to listen, or failed to sell what they needed that interested them).

So, sell what your clients need most and see if your sales don't go up, starting right now.

Extra Bonus Video:

For fun, watch The Twilight Zone, 1st Season, Episode 12:

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ARRiiVE Business Solutions offers sales training, acting VP of Business Development services, sales plans, Diamond-Circle and Sales-Diamond Team Structure models, and other marketing and selling related services. Contact info (at) ARRiiVE (dot) come for more details.

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Is Sales Getting Harder?

I just got off the phone with a former sales associate. He made a statement that, at first, I took at face value. However, this comment is eating at me: "Sales is getting harder all the time."

Is selling getting harder, truly?

Do you agree? Or do you disagree?

After pondering the idea, I've decided that selling is NOT getting harder. Selling in the new millennium is just different. For example, fifty years ago, people used the typewriter to write a sales letter. If they wanted to contact a prospect, they basically used one of several methods: in-person, over the phone, writing a letter, sending a wire, playing golf together, conventions, or over a meal.

Today, we have more tools: online social networks (LinkedIn, ecademy, Plaxo, Facebook, etc.), email, the telephone, voicemail, in-person, writing a letter, sending a FedEx, conventions, golf, or over a meal.

Our tools to contact and track prospects may have improved, but there are more people selling to our prospects every day. So, in my mind, the tools equalize with the quantity of people selling to the prospect: zero-sum-gain there.

In order to sell, we've always had to be intelligent. We've always had to listen to the prospect, ask smart questions about their business, do our homework and research on the prospect's company, and provide solid solutions. Price is always a variable issue that is relative, as well.

So, considering all things, I don't think selling is harder than ever before. It isn't easier, either (exception: people who can automate their entire sales process when they are selling an online product).

The selling profession is still challenging and a dynamic way to earn a living. I believe the opportunity always exists for the salesperson who is innovative, works hard enough, and targets prospects that maximize their time. I've always been great at following-up, and I'm tenacious. But when I add innovative techniques, and when I target prospects that produce big wins, I always win big. Can you relate?

If certain prospects aren't buying, switch to prospects who CAN buy right now. It's like moving your boat when fishing to find a better hole to fish in. Right?

My advice is to avoid the naysayers who say "we can't sell in this economy" and instead put your ears back and go do what you've always done best, only better. The odds are you'll have a banner year.
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Hope For Gain: The Savvy Entrepreneur Series

If you're seeking to improve success with any sales endeavor, you need to embrace the two biggest motivators: FEAR of LOSS and HOPE for GAIN.

I've already explored FEAR of LOSS earlier (click here to read).

In this article, I'll discuss HOPE for GAIN.

Think about the last thing you bought to improve your life or business. Was there not some aspect of why you bought that item related to increasing your ability to do something, enjoy life more, or experience something new?

If we buy a new car, we almost always seek more air bags, cup holders, gadgets (like my sunroof in my Tundra), sliding windows, more horsepower, better gas mileage, more storage space, SOMETHING MORE. These are all examples of HOPE FOR GAIN.

When I sell my service to companies helping them gain organic search position with their websites, yes, I do use FEAR of LOSS (by asking "How do you feel seeing your competitors with these phrases and you're not there?") but moreover I use HOPE for GAIN by promising to put their landing page in Google's Top 10 results for the phrase they seek. It's a challenge no single company has mastered, but I can realistically say that I'll capture Top 10 over 50% of the time with my methods. And, that leads to more traffic. More traffic leads to more people who click "BUY NOW" on the web page, right? Beyond that, converting more of those leads is also a HOPE for GAIN, too.

When I sold computer service and support, I would use HOPE for GAIN by promising their computers would stay up longer, that we'd respond faster, and that it would cost less money. Those are all examples of hope for gain. I would suggest that by using my competitor, they would increase exposure to slow response time, which is using FEAR of LOSS. See how those two motivators, when used together, become highly powerful?

The majority of Americans vacation, on average, 12 days a year. Yep, that's right, less than 3% of the majority of American lives are spent on vacation. Sad, isn't it? (Notice the use of LOSS there)... well, I'd use that statistic as a motivator when I sold vacations, and indicated that by COMMITTING to a PLAN there was implicit HOPE FOR GAIN of more dreams, going more places, spending time with those they love most, exploring the world, and seeing nice places by buying a vacation program. Those benefits all indicated HOPE FOR GAIN. The benefits extended to other aspects of living: people who vacation more are more productive at work (GAIN), more healthy (GAIN), and live longer (GAIN). See how it works?

How to use HOPE FOR GAIN:

First, make a list describing what are you selling. How do people benefit from buying what you sell?

Next, make a second list extending how they benefit even in other related areas by benefiting from what you sell them. This is the extended list.

Last, put these together in an order of priority that addresses your prospects biggest need first, second biggest need second, and third biggest need third. Keep in mind that smaller prospects have different needs than larger organizations. Selling a company a fleet of cars is definitely a different GAIN pitch than selling a single car to a young woman still in college. And, selling that single woman in college a car will use a different "GAIN" pitch than selling a luxury automobile to a wealthy entrepreneur.

Clearly, a person will buy a Toyota Corolla for different reasons than they will buy the Tesla Roadster. One is economical and simply wheels to get you there while the other is about speed, prestige, and flash. Both people GAIN. They just gain in different ways. So, make sure you utilize the differences in gain to your advantage and then target those benefits to the buyer most likely to buy for those reasons.

Best of success to you in improving your sales using HOPE for GAIN.

Read FEAR of LOSS here.

How have you used FEAR of LOSS and HOPE for GAIN to improve your selling? Weigh in below.
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The 100 Most Productive Sales Forces with Greg Alexander on ARRiiVE Radio

Join us for the ARRiiVE: Innovations In Business Radio Show tomorrow on "The 100 Most Productive Sales Forces" with special guest, Greg Alexander of SalesBenchmarkIndex.com.

When: September 24, 2008 at 2:00 PM PST / 5:00 PM EST

Topic: "Learn how your sales force can become world class by using sales benchmarking to drive performance."

How to Participate:

Call (724) 444-7444, enter show 37798 # 1 #

Visit http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/37798

Description:

Learn how the top sales forces in business today use sales benchmarking to maximize their success. In this talk, you'll gain an insight into sales analytics, benchmarking for both hiring and promoting, and other valuable tools to help you build a more productive sales team.

Greg Alexander's Bio:

Greg Alexander serves as CEO of Sales Benchmark Index, a leading strategic advisory firm that helps executives understand how well they are performing relative to a peer group and world class levels. SBI is differentiated through its use of empirical data, a repository of over 11,000 companies, 12 years of history, 19 industries and over 250 sales metrics. Through SBI's benchmarking services a company can deploy comparative data sets to identify improvement opportunities available through leveraging the best practices from world class sales forces. In 2004 Sales and Marketing Management Magazine named Greg Sales manager of the Year. In 2008, Mr. Alexander co-authored two books published by Portfolio -- Making The Number: How to Use Benchmarking to Drive Sales Performance and Topgrading for Sales: World-Class Methods to Interview, Hire, and Coach Top Sales Representatives.

Visit www.SalesBenchmarkIndex.com to download a copy of World Class 100 report to find out the world's top sales forces or call (888) 556-7338 for more information.

Call in - it's simple & easy, fun & educational to join the call and ask your questions!!

Listen in after the show: