Bridging the Sales Experience Gap ? Part II
In part one of ?Bridging the Sales Experience Gap? we discussed
the Approach Strategy framework which describes four distinct
styles of selling, dictated by complexity and value. Since
beginning to use the frameworks to explain how experienced sales
people make decisions about sales situations, we have developed
to a total of nineteen framework diagrams. You can view the list
at www.salessense.co.uk/adaptive_frameworks.htm.
The ?Meeting Tactics? framework
When you are face to face with a prospective customer, if you
always use the same style or method of communication, you are
unlikely to be successful every time. Adapting for the person,
their circumstances, and their attitude towards you is an
essential part of achieving consistent success.
In part one of this series, we began with this question sent in
by an overseas subscriber - ?How do you teach young sales reps
how to READ the client, how to understand their personality and
only provide the information when the client is OPEN to
receiving it?? A framework that depicts the sales challenge and
illustrates the options, offers an answer.
Searching out and articulating customer benefits is a natural
thing to do in selling. If you can pile enough value on your
side of the equation, a favourable decision becomes inevitable,
or so it would seem. Unfortunately this approach doesn?t always
work. Rationality is in the eye of the beholder.
If you really want something, you will be eager for any
information that helps you justify the acquisition of what you
want. If you would like to own a Mercedes and feel you can?t
afford one, you will lap up any scrap of an idea that suggests
you can realise your dream.
On the other hand, or on another day, you may be feeling
differently. Perhaps you have just had to settle a flurry of
bills, or have just sat through a budget cutting meeting. Your
mind will be focussed on other priorities or worse, on reducing
spending. Any number of circumstances can enhance the sceptic in
you. When this is the case, you may deny the validity of
evidence and use your creativity to block any pressure to act or
spend.
SalesSense Meeting Tactics Framework Diagram
www.salessense.co.uk/adaptive_tactics_diagram.asp
The diagram illustrates the importance of assessing a buyer?s
attitude, before deciding how to manage the meeting. Knowledge
of the buyer?s circumstances helps experienced sales people
anticipate the level of welcome or scepticism they will face
when meeting the buyer. Ability to assess rapport and read non
verbal signals enables sales people to check their standing with
a buyer.
Forward selling a highly sceptical buyer
This is unlikely to be effective. Sceptics will be suspicious of
your questions and guarded in their response. They will assume
that you are exaggerating, miss representing, or even lying
about the product or solution you are proposing. As a result you
will provoke a debate about the validity of the information you
discuss or present. Using traditional sales principles, you will
be speaking about advantages and benefits using the most
positive terms you feel justifiable. This just makes the
situation worse. The buyer uses his or her intelligence and
creativity to prove that you are wrong. People who adopt an
opposing position are rarely won over by a debate or argument ?
which is what the engagement often becomes when traditional
sales techniques are dashed on a barricade of scepticism.
Reverse selling a sceptical buyer
Suppose you are sceptical about the value of buying a Mercedes
however, you do need to buy some form of transport. How would
you react if the Mercedes sales person said you should look at
something more practical? You might be offended. If the message
had been expressed in a disarming way, then you would probably
want to know why the sales person thought that you shouldn?t buy
a Mercedes. Reverse selling means doing the opposite of what the
buyer expects a sales person to do. Done well, reverse selling
will entice the most sceptical buyer to begin selling themselves.
Reverse selling an eager buyer
Suppose you really, really want a Mercedes. How quickly would
you get irritated with a sales person who seemed to be trying to
put you off? Sometimes sales people try to withhold pricing
information until they have established need and value. When
people try this on me, I tend to get irritated quickly. This may
be a personal thing however, when I want to buy something, I
want to do my due diligence, my way. I expect sales people to
help me buy the way I want to buy. Those who insist on following
their own agenda quickly get to do so without my presence.
Forward selling an eager buyer
Such situations should take place as an entirely natural
collaboration between buyer and seller. It should be straight
forward for the sales person to discover how the buyer makes
good decisions. Once understood, the seller can align his or her
efforts with the buyer?s purpose and preferences. You would
think it should be easy! Sometimes the challenge is to avoid
getting in the way.
The ?Meeting Tactic?s? Adaptive Sales Framework diagram helps
sales people recognise the need for careful observation and
flexibility of response, when meeting potential buyers. Learning
and practising different styles vastly expands opportunities to
help buyers get the right results.
Frameworks like this provide the tools to overcome the greatest
challenge to success, a lack of forethought, planning, and
preparation. Henry Ford put it better, ?Thinking is the hardest
work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.?
Questions and comments to Clive Miller E-mail:
clive@salessense.co.uk Web: www.salessense.co.uk Tel: +44 118
933 1357
About the author:
Achieving sales targets has been the focus of Clive?s working
life for twenty-five years. During his time in the field, he has
sold a wide range of products, solutions, and services in the IT
industry for Intel, IBM, Sun Microsystems, and Silicon Graphics.
He is the author of most SalesSense training material and writes
about selling for magazines and newsletters.
http://www.salessense.co.uk/clivemiller.asp
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