How To Sell Almost Anything

How to sell almost anything

How To Sell Almost Anything

We usually believe that successful salespeople are characters with great ease of speech, but those who have mastered the art of selling are actually good at listening.

My colleague Fred Allen went to a Best Buy store in Manhattan with the intention of buying an iPad. He still could not find the device he was looking for when an anxious salesman approached him and tried to persuade him to buy an additional gadget and a monthly data plan that offered him perpetual access to the Internet. The employee did not ask questions or show any curiosity about how Fred planned to use his device. "I left there as fast as I could. I went to the Apple Store, where nobody would bother me and I could make a decision without pressure, "says Fred.

People who buy popular Apple products, such as iPads and iPhones, need very little from vendors, notes John Golden, CEO of Huthwaite, a sales coaching firm based in Arlington, Virginia, with seven offices across the board. world, including Sao Paulo, Sydney and Singapore. The company, a division of Informa, the Swiss publisher and event organizer listed on the stock exchange, trains sales teams using a method developed 30 years ago by Neil Rackham, an English behavioral psychologist. Rackham studied more than 35,000 sales calls in 40 countries and tried to find out which strategies were most effective, says Golden. Rackham's book, SPIN Selling, published in 1988, describes the approach. SPIN means Situation, Problem, Implication, Necessity, reward. Although that string of words may sound like a difficult group to find an acronym (with an extra "r"), the book continues to be printed.

The key to Rackham's approach: Instead of jumping with a sales rant about your product or service, start with a line of research about the buyer, and then present your products as a way to satisfy the buyer's needs. "You have to discover the problems or challenges that your client faces," explains Goden. "It shows that you can find a solution to your problems or opportunities." In its most effective form, Rackham's method consists of asking and understanding, says Golden. That attracts the buyer without the need to do any direct sales. "You lead the buyer to draw their own conclusions."

In the case of an iPad, there is often not much that the seller needs to know about the buyer. "These are rare products that almost sell themselves," says Golden. In other words, the seller must realize that less is more.

In most cases, the questions are better than the answers, says Golden. Example: A customer enters a car dealership. The seller should not approach it or talk about the latest fabulous models or their low prices, but should try to understand their needs. Do you want a car to be transported to the office, a vehicle to take children to sporting events, or both? Find out why the buyer is buying a car and what she needs from him. Is not that common sense? Maybe, but sellers often ignore it, says Golden. "Many sellers are so eager to get the sale that they do work as soon as someone expresses some kind of interest."

Huthwaite usually trains sales teams that have more complex tasks. Most of his business is in medical devices, biotechnology, pharmacology, banking and information technology. In these fields it is important to investigate the client before starting the sales work. Often, the buyer assigns a group to make the purchase decision. It is worth knowing what role each member of the group plays. Who is the most affected by the decision to buy the product? Who will have to put into practice what was bought after the purchase? "Those people have to be identified and approached differently. Then you can determine what are the decision-making criteria for the purchase, "Golden explains.

"It's not just about selling. It's like peeling the onion and asking good, interesting questions, "he adds. The best sellers present themselves as business consultants instead of sales agents.

A group of hospitals asked a medical device vendor trained by Huthwaite to submit a sales proposal for some devices to perform MRIs and X-ray devices that sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. He was told that the group had already made a decision to buy from a different vendor who had submitted a compelling request to the proposal, so the project was a remote possibility, but with a little research, the vendor learned that a committee of six people was making the purchase decision. He approached each committee member and asked what his criteria were. The seller discovered that the elected vendor did not meet all the needs of the committee members. After a lot of research, He presented his product in accordance with each of the objectives declared by the team members. He achieved the sale, which broke the company's record for a single transaction in more than 30 million dollars, says Golden.

"Popular belief says that the best sellers are great personalities," warns Golden. "The truth is that the best sellers ask good questions, analyze the answers and place the nuggets within the answers, which they can develop and explore further with more follow-up." In other words, let the client speak for you. Allow him to clarify to himself why he needs your product.

1. Find out what the customer's needs are.
2. Ask about your goals.
3. Use your research to ask revealing questions.
4. Listen carefully.
5. Introduce yourself as a consultant.
6. If the buyer has a purchasing team, he deals with each one individually.
7. Present your product as a way to solve your client's problem.