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5 Reasons People Don’t Buy from You
Apr 2nd
In the world of ample competition, the chances are your skill-set, product and services are available from a number of supplier sources. Buyers have choice! They look for options before they decide to buy! If you are talking to a prospect, it’s a given, that they are interested on some level, otherwise you wouldn’t be having the conversation! It’s what you do with this interaction that will determine whether people will buy from you are not.
Whether you are selling yourself in a job interview or selling a product and service, when you land that new sales job, here are 5 reasons on why people don’t buy (from) you.
Why people don’t buy (from) you:
1. Attitude is Altitude and Yours is too Close to the Ground – Your attitude emanates in all ways from you – how you dress, speak about your products, yourself, the market, your competition, the economy. Get the right attitude into your mind and demonstrate a friendly, curious, balanced, optimistic approach to selling and your client. Let go of your expectations and do what you can to develop a positive mind-set; if it means some personal development work and getting some honest feedback from your colleagues or clients, go do it today!
2. Your Communication Skills are in Need of Shake-Up. Like a muscle – use it or lose it. A very common problem: your sensory awareness is low, you are oblivious to all the clues given to you by the client that their interest is low. You haven’t asked questions or don’t know how to unlock the clients buying strategy, or get to the key issues the client needs solved. You are so busy talking, you have no idea where your client is and so the relationship never gets built in the first place.
3. Your are Selling Rather than Helping Somebody to Buy. Nobody likes to be sold to, even when we know that’s the sales person’s job. Every buyer likes to feel they made the decision in their own time. It’s a natural human reaction to walk away from a pushy sales person. So swap shoes with your clients and see how you sound and feel receiving your sale pitch. Does it address the client’s needs or are you just talking up your product?
4. Poor Selling Skills or Lack of Understanding – Time and pressure to sell often mean we neglect a key ingredient in great selling: well-honed techniques and proper training. Maybe your training has been ad-hoc, you are winging it, hoping that your bag of sales techniques will land the sale, as you knock the square peg into the round hole. It may be time to go back and review how your selling is working or needs polishing up. Feedback from your sales figures and people are great ways to gauge your skills and how good your selling is.
5. Your Follow-Up Strategy is Poor or Non-existent. When you have made the sale, how often do you get repeat business or develop other business opportunities with your client? Even if you don’t get the sale, follow up and find out why. And be willing to eat humble pie! You will raise your game and avoid making the same mistakes again. The client will think more highly of your action and perhaps consider you for future business.
Never Sell the Same Way Twice
Mar 27th
If there is one tip you can take on how to sell, it is this. Never sell the same way twice, because no buyer will buy two products in the same way. Every buyer is as unique in their way of buying and as individual as their DNA and finger prints. You make think I am being far-fetched in saying that. A simple way to look at it is this. No two conversations you have had are ever the same.
Every Conversation is Different
Think about all the conversations you have had with your friends, family and professional colleagues. So why should your buyers be any different? Every conversations must be approached as if you are selling for the first time . I like the expression “beginner’s mind”, because it reminds me to act as if I know nothing, when meeting a buyer. I always seek to find out how the buyer works. I assume nothing and I learn as the conversations progresses, how the buyer is thinking about what they going to buy.
When you next have a conversation with a prospective buyer and want to win more sales, think about all the different ways a buyer can think and talk about your product. Look at all the people you have sold to. Did they buy in the same way? The answer is probably “NO”.
Listen for Buying Patterns
You may not be aware of buying patterns and filters that are operating, but there are at least 10 or more that are influencing how your buyer will make the decision. I am going to touch on a few here. Some will buy on impulse, because they are convinced immediately, while others will need a few conversations to make the decision, sometimes over a few days or weeks.
It is wise not to push the buyer too fast towards closing the sale. One person will need to see exactly what they are buying. Another will need to hear testimonials and another one will have to test it out by trying it on experientially. One will drill down to the minute details and another will never ask how it works, they will be happy with the overall picture. A last example is where a buyer will decide themselves that it’s time to buy, while another will ask you or somebody else’s opinion. It’s important to notice what’s going on. Attention to the signals in the language will allow you to do this.
Selling Tips to Remember in a Sales Call
As a guideline to increase your sales and improve you selling skills, a few points to remember in your next sales meeting:
- No buyer will buy two products the same way.
- Every buyer has a different reason for buying, find out what it is.
- Buyers are influenced and buy through multiple filters. Listen for them.
- Buyers are adjusting your information to their map by deleting, generalising and distorting some of what you say. Track what’s going on.
- Pay close attention to buyer body language, behaviour, verbal cues and intentions. Their motivation to buy is written there.
- Never assume how a buyer will purchase or how much they can afford.
3 WAYS TO USE YOUR SELLING TIME WISELY
Mar 27th
Are you using your selling time wisely? Is your selling time costing you too much? Real selling time is the time spent in closing sales and winning business, as distinct from the prospecting and research time, where you spend time identifying the target market you want to work in. The two should not be blended into your active selling time.
To make better use of your selling time, take a look at the signs that you are on your way to closing the sale with prospects and clients. Here are a few selling tips on the behaviours you need to be doing to ensure you get the best return on time invested in building your sales funnel. Time is your most precious resource, so it’s worth using wisely.
1. Stop the Sell-and-Tell
I witnessed a hard sell-and-tell moment one time, which taught me a lot about what can go wrong when we imagine a sales opportunity winging its way to us! A well-intentioned sales person proceeded to unleash a breath-taking three minute sales pitch on to me and another unsuspecting punter. Not only did they overwhelm their listener with information they really didn’t need to know, but by the end of the conversation, what really stood out was the scare-mongering being dished out about using “other” products. What’s interesting about this is, the opportunity was lost to explore the benefits and quality products actually being offered. I kept imagining the worst-case scenarios that were being drip-fed into our brains about other lower quality products in the market. It is so easy to lose in a moment of eagerness to sell-and-tell.
Even more interesting, I recall observing the sales process going on in that moment and how little it was helping the sales person to even get us interested. Then it dawned in me how much dead selling time is created by these excruciating Sell-and-Tell moments. We really need to resist the temptation to go in for the rapid sale! As I said before, slowing down a conversation really does make you a better sales person. Instead, start training your ear to listen for signals from your prospects that they be interested. It’s all in their verbal and non-verbal language. Ask yourself, from a social perspective “How do I know when somebody is interested in what I have to say?” People will generally engage more and ask more questions about you and your business, if you spike their interest. There are always patterns and behaviours you can spot, so start looking and listening and stop the Sell-and-Tell spiel.
2. Make your Sales Conversations Productive
Productive sales conversation should give you at least three indicators that you are the right track: 1) you have clear information on where a prospect is, their level of interest and whether your service or product would even be of any use to them 2) you are having a quality conversation where the level of engagement and buying signals from a customer increases as the conversation proceeds 3) there is resulting call to action, where your prospect makes a decision to take the conversation to another level; to the next step or to a follow-up meeting. An agreed action must be clearly stated, if you are to make any progress. Always walk away from a conversation knowing that your prospect learned something valuable and wants to take action on it. And ideally, the action should include you. I call this getting them into the “yes” room in their head. Even if it is early stages , you should at least get them as far as “Yes, I want to explore this more.”
3. Understand the Decision-Making Process
It has always astounds me how little sales people can consciously explain how people make decisions to buy from them. You can learn how to sell, but if you cannot track and identify buying decisions, you are missing at least half the equation in selling successfully. This is the most fundamental and most powerful indicator that you are going to win business. To be able to do this, you will need to take your listening and observation skills to another level. It takes time, but the rewards are there if you develop your selling skills and communication skills to this level.
A prospect is continually giving indicators in their language of where they are in moving forward. Pay particular attention to discussions around the changes they wish to make, the problems they want to give rid of and the new ways they want to operate, whether personally or in their business. Keep the conversation focussed on this. The secret lies in being able to detect clear buying signals. And every buyer is completely different in how they process their decision. If you want to quickly understand a buying decision, think back to when you bought your last car. Splice it frame-by-frame and see how you finally went to the “yes” room in your head. In the world of coaching, we call these meta-programmes or patterns of behaviour. Detecting these patterns takes your selling to a whole other level.
Return on Time Invested
As a sales person, do you believe you are getting the best return on the time you invest with each client? You may be making your targets, but the question that comes to mind is “how much did each client cost you?” Did you do 1 meeting with one and 5 with another to make the sale at the same price? I understand that sometimes we have to give our time and our energy to clients we value. But sometimes the cost of a customer may not be worth the time invested. The 80/20 principle is worth mentioning here. 20% of your customers bring you 80% of your profit.
My suggestion here is to ensure you cover yourself on the 3 headings I mentioned above to recover the selling time invested. Stop the Sell-and-Tell. Have a KPI (key performance indicator) for your selling time and be very clear what you want a prospect to get from the meeting. Notice I said “what you want a prospect to get from the meeting!” Be able to review and articulate how the prospect made the decision to choose you over your competitor. And always get a Call-to-Action from the meeting, even if it’s a case of abandoning the conversation.
Finally, step outside your standard modus operandi by seeing every buyer as a different decision-making process and start looking for patterns. Making the most of your selling time really does need to be the focus of your business, if you want to get the best for you, your company and your clients.
2010′s Collaboration Imperative: Where Social Technology and Enterprise Content Collide Share
Apr 27th
by Phil Green, Inmagic, IT Business Edge
Many analysts are predicting 2010 to be the year of collaboration. In a recent study of IT strategists, Forrester found 70 percent of respondents believe collaboration technology will significantly cut decision making time and improve productivity this year. Couple that with Forrester’s Global Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Survey, which found 61 percent of organizations believe “content sharing” is a major ECM investment driver, and it’s clear business leaders have recognized the collaboration imperative.
Now the challenge is how best to address that imperative. Business leaders are increasingly focused on ways to enable faster, more cost-effective sharing, teaming, and learning among employees. In particular, they’re looking at social media technology as a means to this end, and determining how it can be used inside the firewall to foster collaboration and achieve business benefits. More >
Bringing Business Intelligence to the Masses
Dec 9th
One issue that regularly confounds supporters of business intelligence (BI) software has been the general lack of adoption. BI software clearly adds value, but end users have been loath to give up their spreadsheets in favor of richer BI applications that are often difficult to master. To solve this issue, some have argued that what was really needed was a less expensive approach to deploying BI applications using open source or software-as-a-service applications.
