| You've hired a dedicated sales force. Your company | | | | diagnosed in 20 minutes? A sales meeting set with |
| has the best product. Great service is delivered after | | | | poor expectations leads to poor investment by the |
| the sale. So why is your team losing sales to "low | | | | prospect. |
| price?" Here are four reasons we see when working | | | | Lousy selling skills clobber salespeople who work in |
| with individuals and sales teams: | | | | industries where goods sold are perceived as |
| 1. Wrong Audience | | | | commodity. The untrained salesperson doesn't know |
| If you're trying to sell ice to an Eskimo, you're in | | | | how to move the sales call from a "give me a quote" |
| front of the wrong prospect! Let's face it, you could | | | | call to a consultative sales call. Many sales |
| be Zig Ziglar and still not close the sale if you are not | | | | professionals "obey" the prospect and give a quote |
| selling to a real prospect. Knowledge, business | | | | without qualifying the prospect. The professional |
| acumen and excellent selling skills are useless if they | | | | salesperson knows how to respond when the |
| are not in front of a prospect that values the | | | | prospect starts pressuring for price by saying, "We |
| expertise. Neil Rackham, author of "Rethinking the | | | | are competitive in our pricing, however, it's not the |
| Sales Force," does an excellent job describing the | | | | reason our customers do business with us." This |
| two types of buyers that exist in the market place; | | | | response tells the prospect that you are not there to |
| the transactional buyer and the value buyer. | | | | talk price, you are there to learn about their |
| The transactional buyer feels the product or service | | | | business's issues and challenges. After all, if price is |
| is easily substitutable, doesn't value the expertise of | | | | the only issue, the perspective customer doesn't |
| the salesperson, and sees price as the main decision | | | | need a high paid sales professional. They only need a |
| criteria. Trust in the product is more important than | | | | well-designed website with an e-commerce function. |
| trust in the salesperson. | | | | 3. No Competitive Analysis on the Competition |
| The value buyer recognizes differentiation, | | | | Run a pop quiz on your sales team this week and |
| appreciates the expertise of the sales person, and | | | | see if they know your company's strengths and |
| places trust in the person over the product. The key | | | | weaknesses as compared to your biggest |
| decision criterion is a salesperson that understands | | | | competitor. A salesperson must know the gaps in the |
| their business and knows how to fix their | | | | competitors offering such as no training on products, |
| problems...and they are willing to pay for that | | | | lack of 24/7 support, or difficult implementation. Once |
| expertise and service. | | | | the gap is identified, the professional salesperson |
| If a salesperson is trying to sell value to the | | | | crafts questions to expose the gap and impact to |
| transactional buyer, they're going to fail because their | | | | the prospect. Put it this way, if you can't find any |
| company's business model of offering value doesn't | | | | differences, how the heck can your prospect? And if |
| match their prospect's business model of buying on | | | | there is no difference, the prospect has earned the |
| price. They don't want to buy ice. | | | | right to buy on price. |
| 2. Poor Consultative Sales Skills | | | | 4. Conviction |
| Ok, so you're in front of the right prospect and are | | | | This theoretical word is at the core of selling value. |
| still getting beat up on price. More than likely it's | | | | Conviction starts with the salesperson. Merit Gest, a |
| because you didn't set up a consultative sales call, but | | | | fellow sales trainer, teaches her clients, "You have to |
| instead a question/answer session. The problem | | | | be sold on yourself before you can sell anything else!" |
| starts when the appointment is set. Some | | | | An old joke floating around the sales training world |
| salespeople seem almost apologetic when setting up | | | | states, "If you are looking for a brain surgeon, do |
| appointments. "I know how busy you are" can be | | | | look for the cheapest or the best?" Salespeople must |
| interpreted as "I have nothing going on," or "I'd like to | | | | have the same attitude. Do you regard yourself as |
| come by - I'll only be 20 minutes" can come across | | | | the "sales surgeon" in your industry? |
| as "My product or service doesn't deserve much | | | | Make sure you are in front of the right prospects |
| time." If your prospect has a problem that is costing | | | | and ask yourself...is price the issue or are you making |
| them $100,000, can it be thoroughly discussed and | | | | it the issue? |