You don’t have to talk to be a good salesperson

by: Terence Hockenhull, Business World, Oct. 31 – Nov. 1, 2008

Most salespersons like to think of themselves as gregarious and outgoing in nature. To this end, they display a high degree of personal confidence and generally find it easy to talk to complete strangers quickly establishing rapport. Yet reliance on rapport building as a means to selling is not an effective strategy. Today’s business decisions are based on a very solid grounding of common sense and meeting specific business objectives.
Return on investment, value for money and advantages accruing as a result of buying capital equipment or availing of services are all carefully considered before a final agreement is reached and the vendor advised of a successful sale.
Because the salesperson happens to be a personable individual who can talk at length about topics of common interest (basketball, politics, hobbies, mutual friends and associates, etc.) doesn’t mean he will win the business. At the end of the day, the decision to buy from him will only be made if he has demonstrated that he has the best solution to meet the customer’s needs.
Yet it is certainly true that establishing rapport is important here in the Philippines. It seems that everyone wants a very personal relationship before they are willing to transact business.
I agree that time should be set aside in every sales call to get to know the client (and give him the chance to get to know you) but the days when a couple of leisurely hours could be spent over a cup of coffee are long gone. Increasing demands to achieve more with less staff in less time make time a premium commodity.
I helped to conduct a survey for one of my clients where we tracked the amount of time each salesperson spent with his clients. We found that some members of the sales team were spending three to four times as many hours in sales meetings as others. There was a direct correlation between the time clients devoted to sales meetings and their position in the organization.
Supervisors and rank-and-file would regularly sit in meetings of two to three hours. Managers and senior executives restricted sales calls to 30 minutes or so. Yet what is more telling about this survey is that despite all the additional time spent with the more junior personnel, the salespersons who only dealt with senior personnel enjoyed considerably more success.
The only reason for a salesperson to meet with a client (in a sales meeting) is to establish problems and needs and sell an appropriate solution. As I have said, there is nothing wrong with devoting a small amount of time to the preliminaries. I think it is a good idea to get to know the client before getting down to the nitty-gritty details. Nonetheless, a salesperson shouldn’t discount the opportunities of building rapport through professional selling practices.
If the seller does all the talking, he is going to find it difficult to do this. It is up to the salesperson to get the client to talk about his (company’s) problems and needs. The best way of doing this is to ask appropriately worded questions that will encourage the client to identify the difficulties he is currently having and express interest in improving the situation. (If the client has no problems or needs, the sales call should be terminated sooner rather than later. There is little point in wasting time with a client who is not going to buy anything from you.)
I have heard the argument that even if the client doesn’t want to buy at that time, it is still worth talking to him if only to establish goodwill and generate interest in meeting again at a later date. There may be some truth in this, however, it is worth considering the following.
If the salesperson has spent 30 minutes telling the client all about products that he doesn’t want or need to buy, one can hardly blame the customer for thinking his time has been wasted.
The key is to ask questions. A good place to start is to ask for general information that will provide a clear picture of the company or individual. What sort of equipment are they using? How big is the work force? Do they already have the product or service offered?
Professional salespersons know that questions of this type are easy to ask and easily answered by the customer. Nonetheless, they also know that much time can be spent on these issues to the detriment of uncovering more important data. For this reason, they will collect much of this information before making the sales call.
Clients buy because they have needs. Problems with existing equipment or a lack of a particular service will often be the root cause of needs. Thus, the customer should be asked about problems, difficulties, dissatisfactions and concerns. Commonly referred to as "probing," the salesperson gets the client to state what is happening now and then encourages him to express what he would like to see happen in the future.
Interestingly, clients who admit having problems often reject proposed solutions. Simply put, they have little or no desire to solve the problem because they think it is impossible to do so or because the cost of fixing the issues will be too high.
Needs might be defined as problems the customer wants to address. Creating a desire to solve problems is the key. Asking questions that make the client focus on the positive outcomes of solving problems can do this. When customers think about problems, they are less receptive to solutions.
Get them to consider how much better things will be once the problem has been addressed and they will be more ready to listen to a sales pitch for an appropriate product or service.
If there is any single mistake made by salespersons, it is talking too much and not asking enough questions. Selling is interactive and demands that the opinions, ideas, problems and needs of the client are discussed.

counting days

it's been a while..

so many days had pass.. i miss him.. im missing him..

his companion.. his smile.. his caress.. his understanding..

his love.. but it's over..

All i have to do ryt now is to understand..

to deeply understand.. wat went wrong.. to come up in END..

i know i have my fault.. i was also hurt.. i also hadmy pain..

it was not easy to do this decision but for each others sake..

i close my eyes.. and said goodbye..

my heart stops beating.. my happiness wen away..

my ader half had fallen..

i'm sorry to both of us..

we just needed to part ways...