A lot of salespersons are actively engaged in sales activities be them marketing or selling. Given that business research suggests somewhere between 40% and 70% of all sales targets are not met, this suggests some poor performance is happening within the marketplace.
So what would happen if the focus was removed from selling your products or services and allowing your customers to buy? Would this change your monthly, quarterly and annual revenue results?
Buying is an emotional experience while selling is far more an intellectual exercise. We have all heard about finding the pain, stating the gain, overcoming objections to negotiating for mutual benefit. From my 30,000 foot perspective, that seems like a whole heck of a lot of work and I am surprised that the brain of the salesperson is not overheated. Maybe this helps to explain all those missed targets.
Brain research has proven all experiences are routed first through the primitive brain (amygdala) and then onto the neo-cortex. Our primitive brains are far more emotional and intuitive while the neo-cortex is rational and conceptual.
Since the primitive brain is emotional and sales according to Zig Ziglar is the transference of feelings, then does it make more sense to create an environment of buying versus one of selling?
To switch positions requires a change in how your attract the attention of your potential customers (a.k.a. prospects). Many businesses are still engaged in sales or product based marketing.
Let me tell you all about:
Our features or benefits of our products or services
Share the price
Send you a proposal
Did this sound familiar? By the way, did you notice where the focus is on this approach? Yep, you guessed it! The focus is on the seller.
However, where should the focus be? Right again, it should be on the buyer. Therefore, the end result is far more about buying than selling.
Education based marketing places the focus on the potential customer. The sales professional shares information that is important to the potential customer. This information may be different depending upon the person standing or sitting across from you and her or his questions. Yet through the facilitation of thoughtful probing questions coupled with active listening, you as the sales professional can educate your soon to be new client.
Then something almost magical happens. Your products or services have been bought and without you having to sell anything. Now does that not make more sense unless of course you still enjoy not making those sales targets.
One other consideration when engaging in education based marketing is it may lengthen the buying cycle. The reason is because you may have to invest more time in building the relationship. However given that sales research suggests 90% of all sales people make 3 contacts or less and 80% of all commitments happened between the fifth and twelfth contacts, there is already probably not enough time being invested.
The old adage of no wants to be sold and everyone loves to buy is very true. Use this to your advantage by stop selling and getting out of the way to let your customers buy your products or services.
