Sales Is Not A Game
Changing your beliefs about sales.
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Sales Is Not A Game
People who don’t work in sales will often say to me that they could never be in sales because they hate all of the games. “Why can’t salespeople just give the facts about the product and then back off?” they’ll say. If you are in sales I’m sure you know these people. They’re the ones that as soon as you say that you work in sales look at you like you have three heads and, say “Oh, I could never do that!”
I received this email from Bernadette, a small business owner from Texas:
I am the owner of a new/small party and events company. I know how to run a business from the accounting and manager stand point but I have no real sales experience. I am very scared because all the sales for the company rest solely on my shoulders. I can drive business to the website and I can get people to call but I can’t figure out what to do next. I am a facts person and that is my sales style. When people call I give them the facts about the services and prices. They usually say ok or the price is too high, or ok I am checking around… I will call you back. At that point I hang up or give the farm away.
I would like to be able to say ‘these are the prices, we have great entertainers, we offer great customer service and we are more affordable than the other party company in Dallas so stop wasting my time and yours.’ Why do we have to play games? I am a very smart person but all the sales games are causing me stress because I can’t get my head around it. What do I do? Should I close up shop and go back to work for someone else or is there a resource that can change my thinking?
Bernadette, I’m going to be straight forward with you, if you don’t change your internal beliefs about sales your business is going to fail. First you need to face reality. Entrepreneurs and business owners have to sell as much or more than full time professional salespeople. Think about it. Each day the business owner has to sell new customers to keep cash coming in, sell their employees on showing up to work and taking care of those customers, sell their family and friends to get support, sell investors and bankers on the business plan, and sell vendors to get supplies and favorable payment terms. In small business if you are not selling you will fail.
Next you have to come to grips with two basic principles of sales.
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People buy for their reasons, not yours. So telling them how great you are and how affordable you are will not results in sales.
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People buy on emotion first and then justify the decision with logic. So leading with the facts is the antithesis of how people actually buy and, though it seems logical to you, it actually turns potential customers away.
I could spend a week teaching you how to use these two principles to grow your business but, alas, we only have a few minutes. So here it is Quick and Dirty.
There is no game. In sales, people buy from people. It is and has always been more about the relationship people form in the sales process than about the product, service, brand, quality, or price. Schemes don’t work. Tricks are a waste of time. And the people who play sales games are the first ones standing in the unemployment line.
If you want your business to grow, you have to convince the people who call you for quotes and questions to take the next step and buy from you – to do that you have got to form a relationship with them quickly. And the good news, if you are willing to give up your self-destructive beliefs about sales, is it’s really easy.
The trick is to stop thinking about selling. Instead think about having a conversation. In a conversation two people simply discuss something of common interest. In your case it is an event. Your potential customer has an event coming up and you provide services that make events great.
When your phone rings the first thing the caller is going to ask about is price or a specific service. Why, because they don’t know what else to say. They are not experts which why they are calling you. They call and they ask, and they keep calling and asking the same questions until some enterprising business owner of sales person asks them a question back. And it is that first question that results in a conversation, which builds a relationship, which leads the business owner to offer recommendations that solve the customer’s problems, which makes the buyer feel good, and because they feel good they make a decision to buy.
What you have to do is simply sit back and relax. When the phone rings and the buyer asks their first question about price, product or service, instead of answering them directly, say “I’d be thrilled to give you more information about what we do, first though would you be kind enough to tell me more about your event?” Then just listen, ask follow up questions, and listen some more.
When you do this your will find that the longer the potential customer is talking the more relaxed they become and the more they reveal about what they want and what is important to them. Then with this information you can offer recommendations for services in the context of what the buyer really wants. At that point you are no longer selling but rather problem solving and problem solvers are the people who always get the sale.
This is Jeb Blount, the Sales Guy. If you have a sales question please send it to salesguy@quickanddirtytips.comcreate new email.
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