Sales Velocity Partners
www.salesvelocitypartners.com
Shifting Sales Paradigms Salespeople expect the customer to make the connection and depend on the customer's ability to align their own problems with all of the proposed solutions available. It is very difficult for customers to understand and manage the scope, details, and ramifications of their problems and the characteristics of the myriad of available solutions that will best resolve their individual problems. The problems resulting from deficiencies in a customer's decision process are further compounded by the tendency of conventional selling approaches to overlook the distinction between the customer's decision process and the customer's approval process. Customers always bring an approval process but, they seldom bring a quality decision process. A customer who cannot comprehend the solution will probably not buy it, will certainly not buy it quickly, and won't be willing to pay a premium price for it. With the comprehension level that low, every solution looks the same to them in regard to price.
What is your customer's level of comprehension? How well do your customers understand their own problems? How well do they understand your solutions?
Conventional Selling Methods Depend on the ability of salespeople to determine the customer's decision process. These programs instruct sales to find out what customers are looking for, what's important to them, what they need, and what criteria they will use to decide to purchase.
Traditional Sales Processes Are focused on sales numbers, not the reasons behind them. They understand numbers very well and, they know that selling is a numbers game. The answer that we usually hear can be summarized in two words: SELL HARDER! Their leaders try to solve the problem by pumping up the system: this doesn’t work anymore!
Are you Challenging or Collaborating? Do you find yourself debating with customers? Are your customers reacting defensively? Are your customers challenging your recommendations? How much of your time with customers is spent presenting, persuading, and convincing? This is the James Bond approach. There is always a lot of collateral damage, and people are going to get hurt on both sides of the table. Page 1 of 2
Sales Velocity Partners
www.salesvelocitypartners.com
When Salespeople start Overcoming Objections They are placing themselves in conflict with their customers. This sets the stage for polite disagreements and respectful differences of opinion. It often turns the sales process into a battle in which the seller must somehow conquer the buyer to win the sale. This problem is inherent in all conventional sales processes because it focuses solely on making the sale. Any reluctance on the part of a customer translates into a direct threat to the salesperson's success. When you hear customer objections, what you are actually hearing is the direct result of escaped or less than fully traveled exploratory branch. If each branch has been completed to a customer's satisfaction, all of their potential objections have by definition already been resolved. Forget about over-coming objections.
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