As business owners and sales people, we pride ourselves in knowing our business, our industry, and especially our product. We're usually pride ourselves in being an expert in our field or discipline. And we are very proud and even anxious to talk about all we know.
During a sales discussion with a prospective client, this anxiety we have to "dump" all we know onto the prospect happens too early in the sales process and it's often misguided because we may not have had an opportunity to understand the client's business issues yet. Many times we are lured by the client, early in the discussion, with such requests as: "tell me what you have", or "tell me what you can do for me". If we start telling at this point, we not only loose control of the discussion but we never find out what's really important to the client. Now, you're doing all of the talking and it may sound "salesy" to the client.
Often, we do not know enough about the client's business in order to have a meaningful discussion. When we don't know their business, we are unable to ask targeted questions that will uncover real issues and needs. Therefore, in frustration, we tend to start offering discounts or lower our price.
All of this can be remedied by being knowledgable and skilled in a few areas: primarily, by knowing the client's business almost as well as yours. Secondly, you must be in control of the sales discussion so when the client asks you to talk about your products, etc. you know how to gently remain in control by explaining the importance of understanding the client's business issues first. And finally, once you thoroughly understand the important issues, concerns, problems, as well as the cost of these to the client, only then can you propose a solution.
These key knowledge areas and skill sets are the focus of the training, coaching, and consulting offered by Vision Strategies. Please contact us so we can arrange for a discussion in order to determine if we are able to help your organization.
