Most likely you’ve heard the expression that “people don’t like to be sold to, but they do like buy.” It’s a simple statement, yet carries significant meaning for sure. I recently had a conversation with a fellow marketing professional who owns and operates her own agency in the Atlanta area. We like to collaborate from time to time and learn from each other as we both strive to survive and grow our small marketing businesses. At one point in the conversation, we got into the topic of aligning what you sell with the wants and needs of the prospects in your audience. To explain my opinion on how many salespeople fail to align with how people buy, I used a fictional story as an analogy. After our conversation, she sent an email to me telling me that my story would make a great blog post. So, here it is!
How Salespeople Fail Even When Someone Shows Interest
Traditional salespeople sell what you pay them to sell, not what is best for the customer. This can be changed.
So the analogy goes something like this. Imagine that you own and operate a car dealership. Your primary objective is to sell new cars. You also sell used cars and have a maintenance crew loaded with talented mechanics to generate revenue with oil changes, tires, basic maintenance and so forth.
As a car dealer, you face a variety of market challenges when it comes to selling and servicing cars. To drive new car sales you hire and train top sales reps who know all the makes, models, upgrades and features of all the cars you sell. You give them a good commission and frequently run competitions offering bonuses for top sales efforts. The incentives are heavily weighted on selling your new cars. Sounds like a good idea, if that’s your primary objective.
How Sales Are Lost Because of a Focus on Closing
It’s a typical Wednesday morning. Usually not of movement so it’s a good time to have a sales team meeting to talk about performance and upcoming sales drives. Not more than five minutes into the meeting, Carl, one of your most experienced and consistent sales reps spots a man pulling into a parking space in front of the showroom in a large pickup truck. Carl ducks out of the meeting to go greet the man and offer assistance.
Through the window you can see Carl shake his hand and begin talking with him. After about two minutes of discussion you notice Carl motion to the man to follow him toward the East Lot, which is where all the brand new pickup trucks are parked. The man shrugs his shoulders and visibly looks a little flustered as he shakes his head “no” before pointing in the direction of your maintenance garage. He then hops back in his truck and drives in that direction. Carl returns to the meeting and upon his arrival he mentions, “yeah, he just wanted some tires.”
You continue on with your meeting without thinking much of the situation. It’s why you have a maintenance shop anyway. People come and go all day long in need of minor maintenance or repairs. That’s a good thing, right?
You got Revenue, What Else?
Sure, the man in the pickup truck bought some new tires. He got what he came for, but what did you get in return? You made a few bucks. But, what did you miss? Where is the failure?
Today, buyers have more options than ever. The buyers have seemingly endless amount of information in the palm of their hands. There’s a very fine line between coming to you for tires and going to the dealership a half-mile down the road. The dealerships who concentrate on wowing their customers at every opportunity will ultimately earn more business and sell more cars (and pickup trucks.) What separates great sales reps from average ones is their ability to listen to customer needs and do their best to provide a great experience while delivering exactly what the customer wants to solve their current problem. Carl wants to sell new pickup trucks. He doesn’t want to sell tires. So, he tried to show the man some new trucks, despite the fact that he has no interest in that right now.
Get to Know Your Customers, Sell More Later
Let’s examine the same scenario, but with the approach being used by the dealership down the road. Yeah, the one that’s leading the entire Southeast in pickup sales for five of the last six years, that one. When a man arrives in a pickup truck to get some new tires, here’s how they operate and why that leads to more sales later. One of their most experienced and knowledgeable sales reps, Peter, greets the man just as Carl did. It’s what he does next that gives him an edge over Carl.
When someone comes to you with a need for new tires, don’t push him to check out the new trucks simply because that’s what you want to sell.
Peter gets to know the man. He asks him how he likes his truck. He takes note of the make, model and production year. He asks him how many miles he has put on the truck. Did he buy it new? Has he been the only owner? Does he live on a farm or a ranch? Is it a work truck or an every day driver? Does he have a family? How many kids? Does he ever take long road trips with the truck or use another vehicle? How does it compare with other trucks he may have owned in the past?
By getting to know the man’s situation and understanding his reasons for owning and driving a truck Peter can determine the best approach to take in providing him with the best overall buying experience. Yes, the man “just wants some tires,” but Peter now knows his needs and motivations. Through conversation and listening, Peter now has some very important data to help him be top of mind when the time is right for the man to buy a new truck.
What Peter learned is that he’s had the truck for four and a half years. He bought it new before moving here from out of state about three months ago. What does this tell Peter? Well, first, if he’s on a five year car loan he has about six month to go before he has no monthly payments. Second, he’s new in the area, so he most likely doesn’t have a shop or dealership that he considers his go-to place. Additionally, the man told him he moved his family into the area because his wife of eight years grew up here and came back home to eventually take over the horse ranch her father and grandfather have owned for more than fifty years. So his truck has come in real handy, despite having more than 120,000 miles on it. He mentioned that a lot of the miles are highway miles because he takes the family on camping trips twice a year, every year, which is more than 5000 miles round trip.
With Peter’s approach, he now can use his experience and sales skills to keep in touch with the man and help him find the right truck with the right features to fit his new life here in town. Peter often drives past their family’s ranch. So, he plans on visiting one day in a new pickup truck to give the man an opportunity to see a slick new ride and how it would look in front of their horse stables. You see, Peter takes real pride in getting to know his customers and doing his best to align his sales approach with buyer’s needs and timelines. How Peter operates demonstrates his ability to wow the customer with exactly what they want, rather than pushing hard to hit a sales number that Peter selfishly wants.
Adjust Your Efforts to Align with Customer Needs
Implementing a sales strategy that fosters relationships and encourages sales reps to align their expectations with buyer needs is critical to growing your small business today. Since customers are able to gather plenty of information on competitors, costs, peer ratings and reviews and so forth, sales must dedicate themselves to understanding and empathizing with their prospective buyers. Getting to know your prospects and building trust will pay off in the long run. So, sell him the damn tires first! Wow him with a great experience. Get to know him and his needs. Be there for him when it’s actually time for him to consider buying a new pickup truck.
Coringa Consulting can help you improve your overall sales and marketing approach and help you implement strategies to better understand your customers and align your sales processes with buyer expectations.
