Nobody and I mean nobody wants to buy products or services. Whether it’s toothpaste, soap or high priced accounting services, no one cares about you or your product.
They only care about the result they’ll get and whether it’s value for money/time/effort expended.
Now before I give you an example of how to find out what your prospects really want, realise this.
You cannot sell anyone anything!
There is no such thing as someone who can sell ice to Eskimos. Or a born salesman!
People buy things to solve issues. Ergo, first they must have a problem. They want to avoid something (pain) or aspire to something else (pleasure/happiness).
Your job is to help connect your product or service to the specific emotional and logical outcomes they want so they realise you’re the solution to their prayers.
Which frankly is where many salespeople go horribly wrong.
They “vomit” features and benefits all over their prospect with scant regard for what’s valuable to them.
While your product may well have many benefits, it’s vital you do two things.
Only talk about the specific benefits that are important to your prospect. And connect these benefits to an emotion or feeling which is the ultimate outcome they really want.
How? By asking!
Ever bought a new car?
Had the salesman open the bonnet to show you the engine? Or if you’re a woman, the boot? (That is if they talk to you at all!)
Imagine this conversation instead.
“Welcome. Have you ever been in here before?”
“No”
“So that I can help you best, what sort of car are you looking for?”
<“Yippeee, this salesperson is actually asking me what I want”> “I’m looking for a solid family car”
“Oh great… so that I can understand your requirements better, what exactly do you mean by “solid family car?”
“Oh, let me think… it needs to seat five people comfortably, be a colour that’s easily seen, be reliable and fuel efficient.”
“Okay, would you mind if I ask some more questions?”
“No, of course not”
“So, what’s important about the seating?”
“Well, we go on long country trips and our last car had uncomfortable seats, so we got cramps as well as back pain.”
“So you want to avoid cramps and back pain? How will you feel if that were possible?”
“Absolutely great – it would mean that we could enjoy the journey as well as feel fresh when we got to where we were going.”
“What’s important about a colour that’s easily seen?”
“Well, safety is an important consideration. We want other cars to see us from way off and avoid accidents.”
“And reliability?”
“As I mentioned, we do a lot of country trips, we don’t want to get stuck somewhere, and we need to be able to easily get parts in whoop whoop.”
“Okay, let me show you this model here. It’s a solid family sedan that has been engineered for tough Australian conditions which means that it’ll do the long trips with ease.
As it’s a roomy car, the seats are large and comfortable, while providing support. Unlike some tinny imports, this car is designed to last and we offer a 10 year warranty as a proof of our reliability.
Naturally the car comes in a range of colours, but I recommend silver as a colour that can be easily seen from a distance. And of course the new engine technology means that it’s super fuel efficient which will save you money, especially now as petrol prices are on the up and up.
How about you take it for a long test drive. Here are the keys – come back in a couple of hours!”
And when they’re back:
“How did it feel to drive it? Tell me about some the trips you’re going to make and how it felt to go on them in complete comfort and safety.”
The observant among you will notice the linguistic time distortion above. An advanced pattern we teach in our master sales classes.
The important point is people buy on emotion and justify their purchases logically.
So you must always figure out what the emotional payoff will be for any benefit you outline.
And this doesn’t matter whether you’re selling toothpaste or multi-million dollar deals. You’re always dealing with a person. A skin bag of emotional wants and desires.
Remember, no matter what you’re “selling”, people will “buy” because of an ultimate feel good emotional benefit to them.
Your job is to help elicit this. Anything else, you’re only going half way and risk missing out on fulfilling your dreams.
And finally, I realise we’re often too close to our own products and services making it difficult to figure out the ultimate emotional benefits to our clients.
We’ve worked with hundreds of businesses to explain their products or services in ways that help them have their clients “buy” more, more quickly.
Call Rashid on 0414-913-334 to accelerate your sales growth so you have peace of mind knowing you will prosper under any competitive situation.
