Sales are the lifeblood of a company. Nothing happens until the product or service is sold. No service delivery; no revenue. No product sales; no revenue. No revenue; no business. So why would you risk the success of your company by sabotaging your most important process for generating revenue? Yet putting your company’s future in the hands of “the pusher” is exactly what you are doing. Nobody, and we really mean nobody, likes a pusher.
Yet we meet them every day. Typically we see them:
- Selling beyond getting the agreement to buy
- These people have an acute case of hearing loss and reality detachment!
- Trying to sell the buyer more than he/she needs
- These people fail to understand that growth comes from thinking about the return sale and not maximizing the first sale!
- The high pressure sales person
- These people believe that the “buy now while the supply lasts” approach will lead to a long term customer relationship. It won’t. Creating a sense of urgency can help move a sale forward, but at this risk of the relationship if they go away with buyers remorse.
All of these strategies can lead to short term success. The initial sale. But few businesses are built on a “one and out” sales model. When I was buying a car a few years ago, the salesman took my keys and wouldn’t return them until he gave me his high pressure sales pitch. I had two reactions, one I would prefer not to recount in this blog and the other was to call 911 and report the theft of my car. Needless to say, this auto dealership does not get my business.
We all want a competitive advantage in the marketplace. We want to grow our business, but we won’t do it by being a pusher. In fact, a major differentiating strategy is to:
- Listen first and more than you talk.
- Understand the buyer’s needs and motivation. You do this by listening, perception checking and asking meaningful questions (probing) to better understand their interests, needs and priorities.
- Move through a series of small yeses.
- Always respond to the buyer’s expressed need as priority (verses their want).
- Always have the buyer’s best interest in mind – how will they be better off from having done business with you.
- Always think of the third sales- meaning return business. That means go slow, don’t push and always think of building a long term relationship.
- Finally never, never, never “take my keys”, which is becoming our metaphor for the pusher poster child. Because if you do, my reaction will be “get me outta here” – every time.
Copyright 2009 Kubica and LaForest
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