The Fourth Sales Myth and Truth
The Fourth Sales process Myth is that tricks, methods and techniques should be used to overcome the customer’s objections. This will allegedly “close” the order. However, today’s customers do not want to be sold anything. They recognize and resent manipulation. They plan to buy value to satisfy their wants and needs. They seek truth rather than clever selling tricks, methods and techniques.
The Sales Executives who believe that the only thing a good sales person needs to learn is how to handle objections – have not been in the field lately. I give them the benefit of the doubt here. These sales executives were trained in the old traditional methods of selling and have not learned that there are newer and more effective methods to use.
Today, the best sales people earn the trust of their customers, learn about the current situations and compare to the desired situation, calculate what needs to be done to close the gap and then produces an ROI statement for the customer to use in their decision process. Simple yet, not easy. Discipline is a key measure for these sales people to be successful. No presentations can be made until all the issues are found and value calculated.
The Truth is sales people must understand both the selling process and the buying process to be able to win the trust, confidence and business of their customers. Successful sales people seek to understand the customer’s buying process and then align their selling process accordingly. It is important to align the sales process with the buying process. This alignment insures both processes are working to create a win-win position. Major mistakes occur when the sales process gets ahead of the buying process and price based presentations are made before the customer is ready to decide. ( Some cases we have found the customer has heard an entire presentation – including a low price – without even knowing they had a need to buy something.)
Objection handling should be a very minor issue when the sales and buying processes are aligned and the sales person uses questions to both uncover issues and involve the buyer in the process. Issues are discussed and solutions are found without the need for tricks and techniques to persuade. Engage the customer in the sales process from the beginning and align with the buying cycle and watch your sales success grow.
Voss Graham
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Tags: Alignment, Handling Objections, Sales Myth and Truth, Sales Process
