Two Things to Sell in Every Sales Conversation

Whether you’re selling widgets, waffles, whiffle balls or wastebaskets, people purchase your product for only two reasons: good feelings and a solution to their problem. The mistake most sales people make is they think the good feelings are about them, not the Prospect’s feelings about him or herself, and they believe the solution needs to be their idea, not the Customer’s own good idea. How do you get it right? Focus on selling good feelings and solutions, not features and benefits.

First, people decide to purchase your product or service because it makes them feel good about themselves. It makes them feel smart, happy, confident, hopeful or perhaps even ecstatic, but the bottom line is that a positive feeling is generated about themselves, not necessarily your product. For example, no one “needed” an iPad when it was first introduced. BUT, they wanted one…why, because it was cool and so were they for having one of the coveted devices.

Second, people purchase your product or service because it provides a solution to their problem: a solution they choose, not a decision they are coerced into. People love good ideas, particularly their own.

What feelings are you selling?
If you want your potential customer to buy something from you, sell them on themselves first. Too many sales people start with pain points and the cheesy line, “What keeps you up at night?” This plan of attack is exactly that – an attack. And it doesn’t make your prospect feel very good. In fact, they might even feel so defensive they figure out a way to go elsewhere.

In order for your Prospect to make the “logical” decision to buy from you, they need to have a positive emotion associated with the purchase. In order for the Prospect to finally say, “Yes, I want to buy from you” the mammalian part of their brain has to be silently communicating to them, “I feel good about the decision I’m making. It’s smart of me to make this purchase.”

Most of us commonly mistake good feelings as: I need to get my customer to like me. If the customer thinks I’m great, then I increase my chances of closing the sale. This is not entirely the case. Humans are more egocentric than we give them credit for in the above assumption. Instead of worrying so much about whether the potential customer likes you, focus on whether he feels comfortable and confident with himself when he is with you. If the customer feels you are validating him, making him feel comfortable and confident, then he will like you because you positively reflect good feelings toward him. It is not about winning over the positive associations the customer has about you, the Seller, but making sure the customer feels good about himself, the Buyer. Building client rapport begins with making the customer feel confident about himself, not about proving your confidence levels to the customer. If you can validate the customer and make him feel good about himself, his liking you won’t even be an issue.

What solutions are you selling?
Sales people who close more frequently and consistently know there is always an underlying need to a surface want. The gal who wants to purchase a hammer really needs to hang a picture or build a bookcase. The guy who wants to purchase new accounting software needs eight hours of his week back, and fewer irate emails in his inbox. Award winning hospitals, once done administering medical care to patients, realize that in order to stay in business and provide excellent service they need to take on the persona of being in the hotel business. They know the solutions to the underlying needs of excellent room service, reservations and providing acceptable accommodations, however brief the stay.

What are the underlying needs involved with your product or service and how are you providing these solutions? Ask your Prospect the right questions to find out the solutions she truly seeks. What does she need this product or service to do for her? What will she gain? How will she define “success” from this purchase?

When you sell your Prospects’ brain what it wants: positive emotions about themselves to support the logical decision of purchasing your product or service to gain the solution to their real underlying needs, you will hear “Yes” a lot more often!

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