Selling is simple

ffene ARE A NUMBEn of different lldefinitions to help you come to grips with what selling really entails.

A. Settirg is the sc'ience of hetping people get what they want.

If your prospective customer doesn't want or need what you are offering-if it doesn't fill some need in the customer-then you have no business engaging in the selling process with him.

Now don't get too hung up on the definition of "need." If we define that too narrowly, we eliminate everything except food and shelter. Our needs and wants are ever-expanding, and include things that make us feel good or fill some emotional need as well those that meet our basic needs. We may not really need a caramel cream latte, but thousands are purchased every day. It makes us feel eood.

While selling is what you do and you can do it better, it's still less about you and more about your customer.

ll. Settirg is the process of helping people make decisions that often lead them to purchase Jrom you.

Effective selling begins with an understanding that it is about influencing the decisions of the customer. In other words, the ultimate location for the sales process is the mind and heart of the customer. Very few sales situations involve only one decision. One decision leads to another, which leads to another. which leads to the decision to buy.

Let's take one of the simplest selling situations with which I have ever been involved-selling water softeners to homeowners. This is a classic "one-call close." In other words, there is only one sales call necessary to help the customer make a decision. You either sell it when you see them, or you don't sell it at all.

Sounds simple. But even that simple, one-call sales process is quite a bit more involved when examined through the perspective of the decisions that the customer must make.

To initiate the process, the company must advertise and make itself appear to be a reputable solution for hard-water problems. Customers live in the land of apathy and ignorance. In other words, they don't know the salesperson or the company, and that's fine with them. Their lives are okay

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