The Art of Selling in Today’s Buying Environment
The Art of Selling in Today’s Buying Environment
“Dad, the future of golf depends on kids playing, the sport is desperate. Right now, they offer Youth on Course, I can play at the golf course near our house year-round for about 28 cents per hole. What do you say, can I join?”
How could I say no? I was sold by an 8-year-old without realizing it. Mixed feelings aside after the fact, what my son did should serve as an example on how to sell in today’s buying environment. After all, who wants a pushy, in your face sales person stuffing products or services down your throat anyway? I certainly don’t!
Actually, the prevailing evidence supports that more than 50% of the buyer’s journey is already reached by the time a customer is in the market to make a purchase. In many cases, the customer knows more than the sales reps! An aggressive sales approach simply fails, and when it does the status quo is to offer more features or additional services at no cost in order to win the business, in effect giving up your company’s value. In other words, discount, discount, discount – a race to the bottom.
Getting in early and being respectively disruptive is key to success in this new sales environment. Let’s focus mainly on being respectively disruptive. Prospective customers want insights, not just the common knowledge that can easily be gleaned from online search inquiries. Deeper insights about the product or service but most importantly, commercial insights; what differentiates your product or service from all the rest and why buying yours is the smart choice. Honing in that message to become second nature and empathize with the customer’s needs is key. The customer should feel excited about the purchase!
For companies struggling to convert prospects to paying customers, I encourage using a fine tuned commercial insight sales approach. Doing so:
Cuts through noise and misinformation
Provides customers with an aha moment that resonates
Motivates the customer to close the sale with urgency
Additionally, based on my personal and professional experience, unless it is a transactional purchase, the client is most likely to return as a customer because trust and value of opinion have been established. In fact when using this approach, I’ve had many initially skeptical customers turn into brand advocates. Think about it, it probably happened to you personally and you might not have even been aware you were sold or upsold just like me. And yes, a new set of clubs and 3 years later, my son is still playing golf.