Another story from my observations of top producer selling methods…
Bill Silvers was the top producer for the largest textile manufacturer in North America. He was the second of hundreds of top salespeople that I observed working with prospects and customers. During the first sales visit that I went on with him, he was showing his company’s new seasonal textile samples to the owner of a dress manufacturing company. The owner said, “Bill, none of these samples are what we want for this spring’s line. We’re going in a different direction.”
Bill said, “Okay Manny. How about telling me about any changes you plan for your summer line?” They discussed that for the next fifteen minutes and then we left.
Walking to his car, I asked Bill why he didn’t try to persuade the customer that his samples would sell. He said, “Manny knows his business far better than I do. If I tried to persuade him, he would feel disrespected, resist my persuasion and he would resent me for trying. This way, I kept his respect and enhanced the probability of doing business with him in another few months.”
Persuasion is a great way to sell if you can find people who want to be persuaded to buy. But, think about how you would react when someone tried to persuade you to buy something you did not want. You would probably resist and resent them, too. That is why prospects who want to be persuaded are so rare that finding them is a real long shot.
If you really think you are a good persuader then you probably make appointments with people who are interested in your products and services. Interested people may seem to be in need of persuasion, though they seldom want to be persuaded and most of them resist. Salespeople who prospect and sell that way make loads of appointments. However, most of them don’t do much business.
Salespeople who think they are not great persuaders often sell a lot more. They gain a big advantage by focusing on finding and making appointments only with people who already want to buy what they are selling.
Good Selling,
Jacques
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True motivation in this article. Great sales reminders as well. A most skillful way of outlining the truth! We need to spend our time with those who ‘want’ what we are selling, not persuading those who might not even be interested.
you are exactly right. if any sales person really examins the sales he’s closed he will find persuasion really didn’t enter the picture.
I sell a truly remarkble service that does in fact …. [description of the service has been removed by the Blog Administrator]
After all that, the point is what Jacques writes I have found to be true. If there is pain and they WANT to fix you an environment where there is high probability of making the sale. Otherwise it is a waste of time, false hope, emotional pain from the let down of the sale that never closes and just drifts about like a rudderless ship.