Radio Sales Café

Customer-focused selling is always a topic of our Sales Training Workshops.   Decision makers concentrate on getting their needs met and don’t have the time or desire to hear you drone on about your company or new product line.  Getting in the mind of your buyer and thinking like them is the first step toward making a sale.

Make A Sale By Asking These Three Questions

#1 – Why would I buy your product?  Customer focused selling means this question needs to be answered from the perspective of your buyer.  Your generic list of features, benefits and talking points that focus on your product aren’t always applicable in the world of your client.  Continuing to try and impress them on the decision maker is a real turn-off.   What does it feel like when you’re dealing with a Salesperson who constantly yaps about what they think is a great feature of a product that makes no difference to you whatsoever?  Geez, stick in a sock in it.  Sales is about the customer, not the the Salesperson.  Your ability to answer this question in the actual words from the buyer is one of the best indicators of their likelihood of saying YES.

#2 – Why should I buy it from YOU? Don’t give me a reason not to buy from you might be the best way to start answering this question.  Don’t be the Salesperson who loses a sale because the customer loves the product and hates the idea of dealing with you personally.  Frankly, it’s amazing what some Salespeople say and do to give decision makers a sour experience.

Rule#1 of Sales – Don’t be a jerk.  Have empathy and understand where your buyer is coming from.  The best Salespeople are first and foremost nice people.  They don’t have to suddenly turn it on to impress a customer.  They also don’t have to change their personality and desire to serve you.  It’s who they are as individuals.  They have a strong push internally to want to please you and make your situation better.

#3 – Why should I buy it NOW?   This is the most elusive of the 3 questions.  Many deals are won and lost based on the desire for the buyer to act with a sense of urgency.  They don’t want to wait – they want it NOW.  They feel that your product or service will solve a problem or provide an opportunity that they’re not currently experiencing.   Prospect of gain or fear of loss makes buyers fulfill their title.  Why would I wait?  Once the customer decides that there’s no good answer to that question, they will immediately purchase.

Fuel The Sense of Urgency

Your job is to fuel or instill that sense of urgency without giving the buyer the impression that you’re pushing them for your interests of making a sale.  That’s something that we all can smell a mile away.  Sales finesse in this area requires that you know your customer very well and use the right approach.  Too many Salespeople revert to this technique far too early in the sales process and lose credibility with customers.

The best technique I’ve learned is to SHUT UP, watch and listen to your buyer.  Give them some room to make a choice and be a great observer of all forms of communication – comments, questions and body language.  Holding a bird in your hand provides a great mental image of sales success.  You wish to be fully attentive and engaged with their needs, yet not squeeze them for an answer.

Closing The Sale

Not only do you have to answer these 3 questions in the mind of the buyer, you must be able to know their answers in your mind.  Otherwise, you haven’t done a very good job of analyzing their needs and are selling blindly.  Having a direct connection between your product’s benefits and their ability to satisfy the customer’s desire builds a sense of sales intuition to predict the chance of making a sale. Can you answer these questions?

• What has the customer shared with me that shows me the reasons why they’re interested?  What does my product do to create opportunity or take away pain for the decision maker?
• What signs has the buyer shown that they would buy from me and not from another Salesperson or online.  What have I done to bring value to the buying experience?
• Why would the customer buy NOW?  What have I done to build up a sense of urgency to purchase?

If you can clearly answer them in your mind, you’re very likely to make the sale.  If you fail to answer one of them, the odds of closing are greatly diminished.  Here’s one of my favorite phrases – sales is the monetization of psychology.  The study of human behavior in making buying decisions is what career Professional Salespeople never get tired of learning and perfecting.  It can be totally different for each customer. That’s what makes it so intriguing!

What do you think?    Please feel free to comment below or reach out to us.

Thanks!