This blog is for you if you are a sales professional.
Recently I met a lady who had posted a chest of drawers she wanted to sell online. I had seen this chest of drawers and I wanted to buy it. So, we fixed a time for me to swing by and have a look.
I walked in and the lady told me all great things about the chest of drawers and then in the end she said, ” I am not trying to sell you this”. That line – I am not trying to sell you this… provoked a thought. What is wrong with selling ? To be honest, I stopped on my way back, took out my phone and started to wiki the word Sell and here is what I found
-give or hand over (something) in exchange for money.
“they had sold the car”
-persuade someone of the merits of
“He sold the idea of making a film about Tchaikovsky”
Well, when you look at this explanation what it means is – a buyer has a need and a sales person is persuading you that this product or service will fulfil your need. And if it really does… what is the problem with selling?
Sadly, persuading someone to buy something is not looked upon as a good thing anymore because that makes the sales person, the pushy sales person.
In today’s day and age if you are selling a product or service and you believe that persuading will work against you, you have to do 2 things
– Listen: Be genuinely interested in finding out the needs of the person you are trying to sell to. Key here is to recognise the need is never about buying a chest of drawers, the need is to have something that looks nice, takes less space and stores my belongings neatly.
– Storytelling :Tell a story of someone who had similar needs and how your product/ service helped.
Now, let the buyer decide…
At the heart of this process is your genuine interest and ability to listen, If that fails, the story will fail and naturally the buyer’s decision will not be in your favour. I highly recommend you reduce the use of word such as sales, selling, sell whilst in a process of selling. These words don’t work in our favour.
In my next blog I will be sharing some research on the use of words sales and selling. Until then storytell but don’t use the word sales or sell.
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