What used to work doesn’t work anymore. It’s not about the sales person, it’s about the buyer. Buyers are very sophisticated now and expect salespeople to align themselves to the buyers’ needs. Selling isn’t telling. It’s all about asking questions and knowing the right ones to ask.
Imagine walking into a doctor’s office and being told right away that you have a cold and need cold medicine. How would you feel? That’s exactly what many salespeople do today. They tell you what you need because incidentally that’s what they have in their sales bag. Go figure.
Let’s get back to our doctor. What do they do when you walk into their office, they examine you. How? By asking questions. Where does it hurt? How much does it hurt? What kind of pain is it? Does it only hurt there or somewhere else? When does it hurt the most? And so on and so forth until they are absolutely certain of the diagnosis.
Today, salespeople need to be more like doctors. They need to stop telling so early and start asking questions. Just like a doctor. They need to find out where it hurts. They need to find the pain. They need to ask questions and then more questions until the pain is very clear to them and to the patient, I mean buyer.
But it’s not just about asking questions. It’s also about listening intently to the responses. It’s uncovering and understanding the buyers’ key issues and relating them to your product or service. It’s about solving problems and showing the value of your product or service. Create enough value and the buyer decides to buy not just because they want to, because they need to. It’s that simple. But it’s not easy.
Master these techniques and you will see your sales skyrocket.
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