A Better Way To Sell
Providing quality solutions to customer problems no longer assures a successful sale and certainly does not guarantee a successful implementation of a solution. You need to implement a process that is designed to position salespeople as professionals instead of the traditional view of salespeople (the one of which no one really likes). Strive to position the sales professional as someone who can bring credibility, integrity, and dependability to business engagements and be viewed as a Genuine Business Advantage to current and prospective customers. These tips will allow you to:
Get past the simple selling approach and allow you to use your ability of helping the prospect in managing their decisions. Being effective in managing decisions is to get beyond problem-solving and help the prospect manage change. Change, and all the attendant risks involved, is the key issue that customer’s face. We need to help them understand and to navigate toward understanding their change level required.
Go beyond the conventional solution-focused seller’s approach to sales and become a Diagnostic-Based Customer-Centric Professional. This process enables salespeople to differentiate themselves from their competitors in the most effective way of all, which is standing squarely on the customer's side of the engagement.
Truly meet the customer's needs and direct them in managing their expectations. Just because we see a need, it does not mean that our customers see it or understand it as clearly as we do. We need to evolve and expand our customers understanding of their needs and their expectations about all available solutions and the Value of those alternatives.
Avoid the simple facilitation of managing transactions to the managing of relationships. We need to address the hopes, fears, and aspirations of our customers and create mutually beneficial relationships. Lastly, we need to get beyond reacting and evolve to a state of managing clear communications.
Give salespeople a proven, repeatable method for gaining access to and managing multiple decision-makers at the highest levels of power and influence in the customer's organization. Help salespeople to set themselves apart in the competition early and often in the Complex Selling Process.
Eliminate the trap of unpaid consulting. Offer a new way to get on the winning track in the sales process and to dramatically reduce the sales cycle time.
Equip salespeople to identify untapped sources of opportunity and develop new business (instead of chasing the usual suspects along with the rest of the crowd).
Provide a common process and language with which the entire sales, marketing, and support team can present a unified voice to the customer and effectively diagnose problem design, and deliver optimal solutions.