I often open a training session with a very simple question: “What is every person in this room selling?” The typical answers I receive are “ourselves” “trust” or “solutions”. All are good answers, but not the answer I’m looking for.
CHANGE is what every hunter-salesperson is selling. The change can be from an existing provider, a change of product, process or procedure, a change of personnel or technology, and the list goes on. The next question I ask is, “Is change easy or hard?” “HARD” is the unanimous, resounding chorus from each group, and they are right. Change by its very nature is difficult, and all of us find some levels of discomfort and risk associated with making changes.—No wonder prospects (especially guardians of the status quo) don’t get excited when a sales person suggests a “change”.
The discomfort, risks and problems associated with making a change are often quite substantial. If the discomfort, risks and problems associated with your prospect’s existing situation are less than the discomfort, risks and problems associated with making the change to your product or service, guess what? NO SALE.— And make no mistake, a change in the corporate or personal checkbook (spending money) always causes discomfort. This is why prospects negotiate pricing, want to get several bids and don’t pull the trigger on buying decisions.
What’s a sales person to do? Become skilled at helping your prospects discover how much the existing situation or problem is costing their companies or themselves. Understanding the dollar cost of a problem allows the money discussion to be positioned as a return on investment. Occasionally the cost of a problem is easy to discover. Most of the time, however, prospects are stumped by the question because there isn’t always an obvious connection between the problem and hard dollars. The cost of the problem can be disguised in several forms: money, time, energy, emotion and opportunities lost. When the prospect discovers that the cost of enduring the existing situation outweighs the cost of making the change to your product or service, money objections disappear. This principle is what I call the CHANGE EQUATION:
Cost of existing situation < Cost of changing = NO SALE
Cost of the existing situation > Cost of changing = SOLD
SELLect Sales: Learn the skills to make the change equation work for you!
Tags: consultative sales. sales tactics, sales management, sales training Posted by