Have you ever noticed that the harder you try to fall asleep, the more difficult it becomes? That’s because sleep is a natural process. Only when you let go and allow t to happen, can it happen. The act of buying something can also be natural. We buy many things on a daily basis without a second thought.
The harder salespeople try to sell, the more they interfere with the natural aspects of their customer’s buying. There are many reasons for this. I’ll mention two primary ones. First, each customer arrives at a buying-decision in is or her own unique way. Salespeople can’t possibly know everything customers will consider when deciding to buy. For example, a customer’s previous experience purchasing similar products, and the customer’s unique set of beliefs and values, are likely to be unknown to salespeople. It’s of little surprise that salespeople experience an uphill battle whey they’re trying to sell. They’re relying on pre-determined selling points that are generic. These selling points are doomed to have limited relevance to a customer’s situation. Yet salespeople somehow need to make these selling points compelling enough to secure a buying-decision. The difficulty of the assignment reveals why salespeople’s commissions are frequently referred to as “compensation.”
The second problem is that salespeople distract their customers by trying hard to sell. Decision-making is a time for customers to check in with themselves and reflect upon what buying the product means for them. I already mentioned a few of the considerations involved in buying-decisions. Those examples were the customer’s previous experiences purchasing similar products, and the customer’s unique set of beliefs and values. Customer can buy a salesperson’s product without the salesperson knowing either of these things. The chance of a customer’s buying, however, is jeopardized if the customer is unaware of these things. When salespeople distract customers by trying to sell, customers’ attention shifts away from themselves and onto the salesperson. Customers lose touch with how they feel about the product. They’re paying attention to how the salesperson feels about the product. We’ve all experienced distracting salespeople. Their insistence about knowing what’s best for us distracts us from getting in touch with our actual needs.
Trying to sell is counterproductive. It demands a lot of effort from salespeople. It interferes with customers who are in the process of buying. A much better way to go is for salespeople to Sell To The Point. When salespeople Sell To The Point, they’re assisting customers with buying. The uphill battle of selling vanishes when salespeople provide customers with exactly what they’re looking for. Customers are looking for salespeople to help them make the best buying-decision. This makes the salesperson and customer teammates rather than adversaries. What salespeople find when they do this, are instances of customers getting in their own way. Salespeople will notice that there are beliefs and assumptions which customers harbor, and that these beliefs and assumptions interfere with making the best decision. Salespeople can respond by providing customers with what they need in order to recapture the natural, effortless quality of decision-making they’re looking for.