THE PARADOX OF SELLING (SALES)
“People don’t want to be sold to – they want to be helped and guided by an expert in a particular field to make and then implement an informed decision”
A friend of mine who has been unemployed for a while and in dire need of a job came to me recently and said “Bros, I urgently need a job, as in like mad” and when I asked what kind of job he was willing to do, he responded “I can do anything EXCEPT MARKETING (SALES)”. Instantly I became confused and the following internal dialogue ensued – Does it mean he can work as a mortuary attendant instead of a sales rep? is he willing to take a lesser paying job even when selling will give him a higher pay? Why do most people abhor Sales or Marketing?
Unfortunately, this friend of mine isn’t the first person to hold this sort of resentment towards marketing or sales (Selling). I remember my first job in a financial institution where during the induction training, about 150 of us were praying fervently that we are not deployed to the marketing department of the institution. Then one day, a senior officer of the bank walked into our class and told us that no one would be deployed to marketing rather we would all be “SALES MEN & LADIES” at that point, our hearts started pumping faster than normal, he went further to say that as sales men, we would not be required to walk the streets looking for customers instead we would all sit behind our desks under the AC with out designer suits and cross-sell the Banks products to walk-in customers and prospects and at that point we all gave him a resounding round of applauds —- My friend I am sure you already guessed what happened when we got to the branches.
The point is that both the seller and the person being sold to hate the concept of sales.
By the way, did you notice that I deliberately kept mentioning sales OR Marketing above? the reason is that even though they are used interchangeably, they are not the same. for clarity sake, let me explain a little bit.
The objective of Marketing is to:
1) Research the marketplace to identify the best prospective buyers.
2) Develop a cost-effective strategy that gets the company’s message in front of as many of these prospects as possible
3) Embed the message with some sort of offer or call to action that prompts these prospects to enter the company’s sales funnel.
4) coordinate with the sales department to ensure a seamless handoff of the funnel, so prospects can be turned into customers.
with the above points, I am sure you should know where you belong.
Now back to my point. I have realized that most people detest sales / selling simply because they don’t understand the dynamics or simply lack the requisite training.
Imagine walking into someone’s office as an insurance broker and after you have managed to get the prospect to give you a few minutes of his time your first question is “So sir, how much do you earn a month or year ” Hellooooooo!!!!! you are a total stranger and most people wont give you that information. So you must first of all build rapport with your prospect – “A sales person should never address their prospect in an overly formal manner, instead, the salesperson should address the prospect in the way they would respectfully address a friend”- Jordan
Belfort.
The salesperson must follow the new model of selling as shown below
Rapport – 40%
Questions – 30%
Presenting – 20%
Closing – 10%
The problem with most salespersons is that they quickly rush into presenting their products without building rapport and asking what the prospects needs are. the painful truth is that if you don’t rapport and understand your prospects needs first, you CANT close no matter how excellent your presentation may be.
Finally, Salespeople must understand that in communication everything counts but surprisingly there are things you cant just overlook.-
Tonality – 45%
Body Language – 45%
Words – 10%
From the above, you can see that its not just about what you say but your tonality and body language makes the whole difference
“Remember, its your words that move a prospect logically, and its your tonality that moves your prospect emotionally”
“……..Speaking of eye contacts, If you don’t make eye contacts at least 72% of the time, people wont trust you”
Are you already a salesperson but finding it difficult to sell? or are you like my friend who can do anything apart from selling? try today to understand the dynamics of selling. besides are you aware that interviews are sales ? Oh yes , you are selling yourself and if you can sell yourself, you can as well sell anything.
Think. Create. Grow.
