What are you selling?

More often than not, when asked what you sell, do you talk about the product or the benefit?

It’s a fairly obvious route to go down when discussing sales, but common sense is not that common so I’m going to go through it anyway.

People don’t buy products – they buy benefits. In the words of Dale Carnegie – “imagine everyone you meet has a sign across their forehead saying What’s In It For Me?”

People buy for one of 5 primary motivating factors:

• TIME (Save or get back)
• MONEY (Save or Make)
• HEALTH (Improve)
• SECURITY (Make them feel safe)
• STATUS (Look better than the neighbours!)

When you look to pitch your offer, think in terms of what they need – not what you need. If you give them what they want, you’ll get what you want. If your customer buys to save time, talk to them in terms of how they’ll save time and maybe, what they’ll be able to do in that time.
People don’t buy washing powder because it cleans at 30 degrees. They want a better life and that’s what they buy – it occurs at less than 30 degrees and that’s the factual stuff – always talk about benefits and back them up with facts.

What is Selling?

From where I sit there are two ways you can approach selling:

Try to convince people that they all need your product or service OR find people who want your product or service and show them why you’re their best option

I prefer the latter…That’s why alongside crediting myself at the bottom of every WordPress website I design, I also credit the people who design the technical back-end bit of each site; WordPress.org and OrganicThemes.I realised a long time ago that I have two types of visitor – the person who wants to design their own site and the person who wants to let someone else do it. My role is to establish whether the ‘person who wants to design their own site’ really wants that or is there a hidden need driving it. If, after checking their needs, it still looks like they need to design their own site, then why would they ask me to do it? (If you’re one of those people, I’d recommend WordPress to run it and OrganicThemes if you want a premium theme).

as one of my American influences used to say: Mat, you can’t push noodles…

I embraced this idea and have found that noodles are easier to move if you pull them! So I spend my time looking for people who want control over their web (for this example) but don’t have the time or inclination to learn web design. They’ve already decided how they want to deal with their web requirements – in this case, my job is to establish exactly what they want their site to achieve and then guide them through the process to make it happen.

If you want to move spaghetti, pull it…

They don’t have the script…

For anyone who’s sold anything to someone else before, you’ll hopefully understand the difference between the facts and the perceptions of the other person. This post is a continuation of the discussion I often have about what people think.

All too often, we assume that what we know is common knowledge. Well common sense isn’t very common and I’m here to tell you that, when it comes to your business, products and services, people probably don’t know as much about it as you do. So don’t forget to tell them about little things that might seem obvious… 

For example, I’ve had customers ask me why their coffee is going to take a few minutes. Now, because I know all the aspects of the process, I realise that to expect the order to be ready in the 60 seconds it takes to make their coffee is foolish. But wait a minute – they don’t make coffee for a living do they? So why would I assume that they know?At this point, I would be mentioning a couple of things to explain the quality and processes we use to ensure their drink is the best it can be. Plus the fact that there might be another 50 or 60 people in the building who are also waiting for a drink. All of a sudden the customer realises the facts and now, they feel like it’s going to be worth the wait!The alternative is not to spot this opportunity and the customer may be misinformed and possibly a bit disgruntled. What I’m trying to say is that in every encounter we have, there is an opportunity to add value to the customers’ experience and to market ourselves at the same time.So next time you’re selling to someone, remember that they don’t have the script and let them in on a couple of things that will add to their understanding of your offer – you’ll both feel better and you’ll be breaking down barriers for the next time they come to buy from you.

ACTION…

Why not make a list of things you could talk about in your sales pitch that might seem obvious to you but, actually would add value to the customer. Make a note of a few key things and specific buzz words that you’ll use when talking to them. And then have a practise!

Stand out from the crowd

marketing

mar·ket·ing [mahr-ki-ting]–noun

1. the act of buying or selling in a market.2. the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling.

sale (sales pl. of)

[seyl]–noun

1. the act of selling.2. a quantity sold.3. opportunity to sell; demand: slow sale.4. a special disposal of goods, as at reduced prices.5. transfer of property for money or credit.6. an auction.

—Idioms

7. for sale, offered to be sold; made available to purchasers.8. on sale, able to be bought at reduced prices.

So, for the detailed amongst you, whilst the above definitions are accurate in their description successful sales & marketing is so much more.

Firstly, my definition of marketing is :Find a need and fill it…

The first step in that statement is to find a need - but how many of us have come up with the best solution in the world but haven’t taken enough time to find out if there’s anyone out there who actually needs it? My favourite illustration of this comes from Ann Martin ( http://www.annmartinassociates.com) who recently wrote: “Prescription BEFORE diagnosis is Malpractice”You can’t do enough research to find out what people need. Once you’ve established their problem, you can start working on the solution. But it needs doing in that order.

And please remember – start thinking about what the customer wants and how they want it – NOT what you sell and how much you need to make. If you can’t get the first bit right, you won’t get the second bit (which I realise, is the most important in reality)…

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