Bonus Blog: Daily Sales Tip!
I recently did a collaboration with Scott Ingram and the Daily Sales Tips podcast! Scott has business professionals from all different industries share helpful advice every day in 5-10 minute podcast episodes. I was excited when he approached me and asked if I had a sales tip to share, and I quickly responded with “Certainly, I would love to share a tip!” While writing The Sales Upgrade there were several ideas worth sharing that were outside the context of the book, and I wanted to share one of these ideas on Scott’s podcast.
If you would like to listen to this 3-Minute Idea, do head over to Daily Sales Tips:
Daily Sales Tips - Sell With Passion
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For my blog readers, scroll down for the tip!
I believe that passion, conviction, and belief are responsible for more sales than features, benefits, and prices. Passion is contagious and if you speak with conviction about the product or solution you are offering, it will be difficult for your prospective client to disengage from the conversation.
In my mind, all sales situations are advisory in nature. A sales professional uses their knowledge and expertise regarding their products, solutions, and offerings combined with a deep understanding of their prospective customer’s needs and desires to provide advice and guidance regarding how best to move forward. If one does this with passion and conviction it creates an extremely compelling reason for your customer to say yes.
The most successful sales professionals I’ve worked with throughout my career tap into this power by exploring rewards and consequences. They consider the logical reasons for the customer to move forward as well as the emotional rewards their client will experience for doing so. They fully understand everything their customer has to gain by moving forward as well as the many consequences involved in taking no action at all. By fully understanding the impact of these rewards and consequences on the individual and organization they are working with, they are better able to articulate their recommendations with passion and conviction.
Consider a medical doctor who, through research and proper diagnoses, realizes that a surgical procedure is necessary in order to save a person’s life. How much passion and conviction would they bring to the conversation when explaining the logical reasons to move forward as well as the emotional rewards for doing so? How much conviction would they display as they articulate the consequences of not moving forward with their recommendation? When this doctor is successful at convincing their patient to act, will we say they sold a surgery or saved a life?
There are rewards and consequences involved for every product, service, and solution. My advice to you is to stop selling and start helping. Instead of a dispassionate description of the features and benefits of your offering, engage your customer in a two-way conversation.
Prepare for your conversations by designing intelligent and well-formed questions. Through the diagnoses and discovery process you will learn and understand your customer’s situation. This will prepare you to provide meaningful and actionable advice. Ask questions to discover the deeper needs and desires of your clients, and then give them good advice that will maximize their rewards and reduce their consequences. Do this with passion and conviction. Stop selling surgery and start saving lives.
- Hans