The “Accidental” Salesperson
Problem: Recently I was reading an article in written by one of the best-known sales trainers in the country. He shall remain nameless, since we disagree with his approach. His contention was that every sales “pro” should follow this time tested process for selling if he or she was to achieve personal success in sales. His three steps were 1.) Prospecting, 2.) Presenting and 3.) Closing. In the presentation step salespeople were encouraged to master the features and benefits of their products or services and pitch them convincingly to their prospects (a group, no doubt, that consisted of anyone that would give them an audience). Closing, of course, meant dealing with all the stalls and objections and then gaining commitment by saying something like, “Well, now that we’ve dealt with all your issues, shall we go ahead and write it up?”
Analysis: This antiquated message is still coming through loud and clear from a surprising number of the sales “gurus.” They say your job is to keep your employer happy by moving their products or services. They want you to sell what you’ve got to whomever you can convince to buy. Don’t worry about what the prospect needs. It’s not about “them.” There are quotas that have to be met. This seems to be the prevailing mentality.
This approach may work just fine in a one call close business where any hesitation on the part of the prospect usually spells failure for the salesperson. But when there’s more at stake, when the sale is more complex (bigger dollars, more decision makers involved, etc.) this approach will fail because the needs of the buyer are not being addressed. And since more and more sales fall into the needs based “complex sale” category these days, this guru’s approach becomes less and less effective.
From our standpoint the real problem is that an awful lot of salespeople continue to read this “stuff” and think it’s gospel. So we have two selling “camps;” those who are product pitchmen and those who are solution providers. Pitchmen are imposters in a complex sale. The pitchmen try to fit their approach into the complex sale, but it doesn’t work. They rely on selling “hard,” and that’s the wrong approach. No wonder selling seems so difficult for them. It explains why the average salesperson closes only a mere 20% of the proposals he makes. No wonder everybody, including the buyer, is frustrated.
Solution: Find out what they want, give it to ‘em, and remove all the roadblocks to making the purchase. It’s a pretty simple approach, and it works well if you find out what they want. Funny, that part seemed to be missing in the guru’s process.
Salespeople who use the product pitching approach may get lucky from time to time. They may sell something “by accident” because they “accidentally” bumped into someone who just happened to need exactly what they were selling. The moons and stars were all in alignment and the sale was made. But in a complex the sale, this approach is not very dependable.
Selling by accident is a tough way to make a living. Maybe you’ve already figured this out. Selling by understanding and satisfying needs is the better way.
Do you sell by accident, or do you give ‘em what they want? The distinction could define your selling career.
