Dropping the beggarly approach to selling
Selling is a major business and economic activity. It is the process through which products or services are duly exchanged for cash. Sales people who resort to begging as a means of wooing their prospects don’t go far. They usually fall on the wayside. When the chips are down, the emotions that begging arouses never sustains an enduring sales relationship.
Successful sales people are known for always winning over clientele based on value offerings that fit into the needs cycle of their prospects.
Just imagine that you are car sales person offering cars worth over 3 million Naira and above. Do you really expect your prospect to part with such huge sum just because you exhibit better begging skills or apply other seductive ploy? Or would you rather sell to the prospect the superior value that your cars offer and other attractive cost reduction after sales services?
The beggarly approach to selling undermines any pitch on value and provokes resistant behavior on the part of prospects and existing clientele.
But why do sales people adopt the beggarly approach? Experience and findings reveal that many do so largely because they set out on their calls without a well thought out value proposition. Prospects always seek out for value and indeed superior value. If your communication or presentation fails to show clearly and convincingly what superior value your product or service has, then you are doomed and you aren’t selling.
Many sales people don’t really understand the features and values of products or services they sell and also they do not understand the needs, industry and circumstantial challenges of their prospects. The failure to understand both ends creates a disconnect in their communication, unfolds a wall of resistance, then the onset of frustration.
Know thy product. Know thy customer. These are age long guides for sales persons. But only very few heed to such. Fewer apply such knowledge properly. The awareness on product and customer is fundamental and must be applied appropriately to create that necessary bonding between the sales person and the customer.
Many sales people focus on knowing so much about their products or services and have poor understanding of competitive products/services. This puts the sales person in a weak position to sway the prospect to buy his/her products or to abandon other similar products/services.
It’s important to know that the business of selling, contrary to popular perception, is not for dullards, college drop-outs or persons who disregard knowledge pursuit, but for knowledge seeking, intelligent and pragmatic persons who seek to positively impact human choices while enhancing wellbeing for their prospects and themselves.
If you really want to have an exciting, rewarding and fulfilling selling career, then you have to jettison the beggarly approach to selling and embrace a value based selling approach. While the former puts the sales person in a position of weakness, the latter strengthens your sales presentations and helps you close the sales.
IKENNA OBI