Thursday 21 February 2013

People > Product

Many people in sales are sitting in roles because they have to - often more comfortable with the admin side of their role than the real purpose.  Often they'll moan about all the admin and routine, but take this away from them and they don't know what to do.

Selling and sales is hard - it's a skill that's practiced.  It requires the ability to be mentally agile - to adjust to your audiences cadence, tone and preferences.  It requires you to be able to draw on a vast repertoire of knowledge to demonstrate not just your understanding of a business, but how you can use this to add value to a business.  It requires you to be able to draw upon your network to help a business solve problems.

Most importantly though, it requires you to want to do these things.

I don't sell - I talk to people who I believe I will enjoy working with to see what I can do, based on my knowledge, expertise and network, to help them.  I don't really care about our products and services - I care about what using them can do for a client.

If I can't add value - I am quite happy to walk away.  If my advice is used to better their current relationship - brilliant.  It will always be paid forward.

If I enjoy working with people, I think about them.  If I enjoy working with people, they have my attention.  If I enjoy working with people - I trust that, at some point, I will demonstrate enough value , they will enjoy working with me.

Don't do business with people you don't enjoy working with...it is too hard and no fun for either of you.

Be honest with yourself and ask - if it weren't for work, would I bother?  If the answer is no - reassess.

You can't enjoy sales if you can't enjoy the people!  Sales is people - not product.

What's memorable...


What creates a memory?  What makes something stick in a clients mind as important?

Often we struggle as the very memories we hold as dear to ourselves, believing they shaped who we are, as milestones in life or other key life experiences aren't remembered as vividly (or at all) by those we know or who even participated.  We've all experienced these 'Remember when...' conversations.

The reason is plainly obvious - we remember them because they were important to us - our memory system opted to catalogue them at the time or on reflection because our (un)concious put a 'bookmark' there for future reference.  Others don't remember them because they were probably significantly less important to them.

Why is this important in sales?  It is not important to recall and/or focus on what is important or memorable to us but to focus on the experience of the client.

You want the client to leave with a strong memory/connection - what you remember is important, but no where near as much as the memories of the client - as it is their memories which will reopen the door, not yours.

Next time you leave a meeting, don't think about how you thought the meeting went, think about what your client thought...