I met with a prospect this week and we were discussing her perception that she isn’t a good salesperson. I asked her what she thinks a salesperson’s role is, and she said, “To come into a meeting and tell people what they should buy.”
Well, I had news for her: The days of this kind of selling are long gone (or they should be). A good salesperson takes time to understand her customers, their goals and how to help them reach those goals. Today’s sales professionals are focused on helping customers solve problems.
Most of my clients don’t have sales teams that tell the customer what to buy. But I have found that many of them are reluctant to ask the probing questions that will uncover the customer’s true needs. Those needs could be around reducing total cost of manufacturing, or developing an innovative product, or increasing internal efficiencies. But if you don’t ask the questions, you won’t know, and then you are reduced to selling a product, not selling a solution.
If you modified the approach of your sales process to be solution-focused, would that improve your close ratio? If your goal every time you called a prospect was to provide some value, would that result in increased sales?
If you want to increase your sales, and develop customers who want to share their problems with you because you are a solution-focused supplier, send me an email. My proven sales process has resulted in close ratios that increased by 30% in just three months.