Why many salespeople need to learn how to sell again

There are many salespeople like these around these days. In fact, I feel that there are more of these “non-sensitive” ones than “sensitive” ones. They believe that the best way to sell is to out-talk the prospective customers so that they will be “impressed” with their confidence and knowledge, which will cow them into buying. This is where they need to unlearn their old ways and learn new ones. 

The way to do this is to learn the two pillars of power conversation, which is knowing when to shut up and listen deeply to what the buyer is saying and when to ask questions to find out more about them. They also need to discard the myth that keeping quiet reflects weakness and makes them docile, causing them to miss the big catch. 

Salespeople need to accept the hard reality that their old ways of selling have gone into the archives of history. The new reality is that people think and behave differently in the world of the Internet, social networking and smartphones. Today, the new generation does not want to feel pressured into buying; these people do not want to feel that they themselves have been sold. 

Try to recall the times when you have bought from someone. What made you buy from them? When people are asked this question, one common response is: “I trusted them.” 

So this is why “high-trust selling” rules in the modern world. The key driver of high-trust selling lies with the seller working on building rapport and trust with the buyer before selling their products or services. So what are the ways to do this? 

The seller listens very attentively (as the prospective customer does more of the talking) so that he or she can accurately identify the person’s needs. Questions are then asked to find out what his real needs are. This makes the buyer feel comfortable, because the seller shows care and sincerity about his well-being. 

Listening to customers’ real needs also means that you give them what they really want, even if this falls short of what you may have intended to sell them. 

The high-trust sales professional is confident (and not disappointed) that this show of sincerity will go well for them in the future because a strong bond has being built between buyer and seller. In high-trust selling, the sellers do not push or manipulate by trying to “create a need”. To put it simply, they do not apply pressure to buy but instead wait for the pressure to come the other way, from the buyer. The sale comes closer when trust is built, as the buyer begins to get more and more comfortable with the seller. Unlike with traditional selling techniques, there is little need to ask for the sales order.

One final feature of high-trust selling is adjusting the seller’s personality to suit the buyer’s personality and buying style. Certainly, there is no one selling style that suits everyone. People come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. There are some who want lots of details before buying and there are some who buy based on their gut feeling, and some who buy to please others more than to please themselves. Whichever way they are, a high-trust salesperson has full cognisance of this through studying and observing who they are and what they like best, and then finding the best ways to “flow” with them. 

So the new lesson for every salesperson is to be always mindful to sell themselves first before they sell their products and services. 

 

Corporate Coach Academy is a coaching school in Asia to certify leaders of all backgrounds to become manager-coaches or professional certified coaches in this region. Log in to www.corporate-coachacademy.com or e-mail [email protected] for details.