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People Buy From People

Written by Mark Tewart

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Are You A Knower Or A Learner When Selling?

When you become a learner when selling you'll find the level of trust you have with your prospect will be increased, the time and effort it takes to make a sale will be decreased and you'll be making a lot more sales.

Are you a knower when selling?

When selling to a prospect do you assume that your products and services will solve their problem? Then, as soon as you can, you jump in and tell your prospect all about your products and services and what they will do for them. You feel that if you tell them enough, they will see how great your products and services are and that they will solve their problem.

Also when your prospect asks you any question, do you always give some sort of answer, even if you have to guess? You don't want them to think you don't know everything about your products and services because you feel you should know everything. You are afraid your image, in the eyes of your prospect, will be negatively impacted if you don't know the answers to their questions.

If you answered yes to either or both of these questions then you are a 'knower' when selling. Unfortunately being a knower when selling has several significant disadvantages as:

* a prospect automatically distrusts a knower. A prospect distrusts someone who tells them how they can solve their problem when they don't even know what their problem is. It's the same as you walking into a doctor's office and before you have even sat down in his chair or uttered a word, he hands you a prescription and says "Take this and you'll feel better." Would you trust the doctor or the prescription?

* when a prospect senses you are guessing when answering their questions they will distrust the answers you give. Plus they start to distrust everything you have said previously.

If you are a knower when selling, then trust will be low in your sales conversations. When trust is absent, the time and effort it takes to make a sale increases and the likelihood of actually making the sale decreases.

Are you a learner when selling?

When selling do you make no assumptions about whether you can help your prospect solve their problem? You ask lots of questions so you can understand what their problem is and whether you can help them. Only once you know they have a problem you can solve do you then tell them about your products and services.

Also, if your prospect asks you a question for which you don't know, or aren't sure of, the answer do you simply tell them that you don't know? You promise to find out and get back to them (which you of course do). You know that giving your prospect the correct answer is far more important than your knowing everything about your products and services and looking good.

If you answered yes to either or both of these questions then you are a 'learner' when selling. Being a learner when selling has several advantages as:

* people automatically tend to trust people who want to understand them and help them solve their problems.

* people have more trust in someone who will admit when they don't know something. Also when someone admits they don't know something, it adds credence to everything that they've said previously.

If you are a learner, then trust will be high in your sales conversations. When trust is high, the time and effort it takes to make a sale decreases and the likelihood of making the sale increases.

If you are not already a learner when selling then here are five simple tips you can apply so you become a learner in a sales conversation.

Tip #1: Bring no assumptions to the sales conversation about whether you can or cannot solve your prospects' problem with your products and services.

Tip #2: Bring wonder to the sales conversation. Just before you have a sales conversation, say to yourself, "I wonder what I am going to learn in this conversation" or "I wonder if I can help this person."

Tip #3: Be curious. Ask lots of questions from a place of genuine and sincere curiosity.

Tip #4: Listen actively so you can learn as much as you can about your prospect.

Tip #5: Learn and implement a sales process which leads with an understanding phase versus a telling phase.

Implement these five simple tips and you'll effortlessly become a learner versus a knower when selling. When you become a learner when selling you'll find the level of trust you have with your prospect will be increased, the time and effort it takes to make a sale will be decreased and you'll be making a lot more sales.

Try it and see.

{mosimage}As a sales professional, it can be an eye-opening experience when you go shopping for yourself. Weaknesses in other's presentations can teach us lessons about how to strengthen our own. One common theme you might notice is that many people don't seem to recognize that people don't buy products or services. People buy from people.

People buy solutions to perceived or real problems. Good sales people assist buyers in solving their problems through emotions, visual imagery, and proper logic and people skills. The one component of sales that makes everything come together is people skills. You may be great at product knowledge, presentation, demonstrations or closing skills, but none of those things will matter if you don't create a relationship with your customer.

A catalyst is an agent of change. There is not a better way to describe sales people. When your customer begins to shop, they are beginning a process of change. If you are the sales person who makes the sale, it will usually be because you were better at assisting the customer to make that change. Let's look at some ways to make those changes happen in a positive way that allows your customer to buy. Take notice of the phrase "allows your customer to buy," rather than "you selling the customer."

Imagine, for example, going to shop for a hot tub. You go to a nationally known store that has obviously conducted sales training for their sales representatives. The sales person has a very specific sales presentation. He also has considerable knowledge about his product and the competing products. The sales person is enthusiastic and energetic. In other words, he has a lot of good things going for him.

However, the sales person has a fatal flaw in his approach that probably costs him lots of business. The sales person tries very hard to be a sales person but he misses being just a person by a mile. What's the difference?

The sales person begins to immediately show you the hot tubs and begins his process without taking the time to ask any questions and build a rapport that creates trust. When someone starts off a sales process in this manner, they are beginning what could be called the "Spray and Pray Method of Selling." They spray out a presentation and pray that the customer gets excited about something in their verbal barrage about the product. They have no idea what that something might be.

This method lacks specifics, empathy, warmth, personalization, communication and listening skills, just to name a few problems. Imagine a different approach. A sales approach where the salesperson would have asked the some of the following questions:

• "Who will be primarily using the hot tub?"
• "How many people will usually use it at a time?"
• "Will it be used for recreational purposes, therapeutic or both?"
• "Will kids be using the hot tub?"
• "Do you currently have or have you had a hot tub in the past?"
• "If so, what did you like and dislike?"
• "Where will the hot tub be located?"
• "What kind of foundation will it be on?"
• "Will the area that the hot tub will be located at be enclosed or open?"
• "What is the most important thing to you about a hot tub?"
• "How long have you been shopping for a hot tub?"
• "During this shopping process, what has been the No. 1 thing about a hot tub or any features that has excited you the most?"
• "During your shopping process, has there been anything you may have wanted that you have not seen or anything in particular that has disappointed you?"

You can think of a ton of questions that would allow specific answers and enable the customer to experience the change they are looking for. You can use the keywords and answers the customer supplies you to laser in on what they want to accomplish, using specific examples that involve active and present-tense ownership imagery.

When you are doing these things, you are relating to your customer in an empathic and personal way that separates you from all the other sales people. Never forget that you were a person before you became a sales person, and that people buy from people.

Get Killer Sales Questions | The Sales Store

Mark Tewart
		About the author:
		Mark Tewart is an internationally recognized sales, sales marketing and sales management expert. He has been a featured article writer and/or contributor for AutoSuccess Magazine, RealtySuccess Magazine, LendingSuccess Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, Dealer Magazine, Ward’s Dealer Magazine, Used Car Dealer Magazine, Sales and Management Magazine, JustSell.com and many more as well. Mark was a contributing author to Gender Selling – Selling to the Opposite Sex published by Simon and Shuster. Check out his new book, How to be a Sales Superstar (Wiley 2008). .