Close the way, the teacher's way

In last week’s sales content, we’ve talked about the two hurdles salespeople need to jump through to overcome the hesitation of prospects. One of which is fear of the costs or the risks involved in the transaction. The other is that we as consumers are still confused about the thing we are buying.

And as we mentioned last time, the real reason they hesitate to buy boils down to the uncertainty they feel about the product, the salesperson, and the company. And this uncertainty comes from logical uncertainty and emotional uncertainty.

In other words, buying this particular product should make sense and it should feel right.

The way to overcome that is to seek to understand first and then to be understood. The way to do that is through probing- asking relevant questions. The other way is to generalize the overall problem the market is facing and start with that.

But as we mentioned last week, we assume that prospects fully understand what we have presented. We assume that they have fully grasped what we have shared with them. And so we feel confident that they will understand why they need to buy what we are selling. The reality though is that most of them don’t.

And the reason behind that is both the prospect and us have different perspectives and worldviews brought to us by our upbringing. You see 6 but they see 9. Not only that but there is also the potential of information overload. When people explain too much to us, our brain subconsciously shuts down since it wants to conserve energy.

Listening to people explain or trying to understand them and connecting the dots takes too much energy- energy that can be used in some other things.

So how do we overcome this? How do we overcome the difference in perspective and the information overload? The simple answer is to simplify whatever it is we are presenting. That sounds easy and simple but how do we do it?

There are actually three techniques we could do that. The first one is to explain your proposal or offer in a way that a fifth-grader could understand. If kausap mo bata, paano mo papaintindi sa kanya yung gusto mong paintindi?

To be honest, it does not feel right to do this. I mean hindi naman mga bata kausap naten. Mas lalong hindi tanga kausap naten. (I mean kung tanga sila or bata sila, they won’t be as rich as to buy whatever we are selling)

But here is the thing that we need to understand: most prospects are not familiar with the subject matter. With regards to the subject matter at hand, hindi pa sila graduate. Of course, some prospects might have knowledge (or even expertise) on the subject matter. But even though they might have knowledge or expertise on the industry or market itself, most probably they have little knowledge with what you are offering- your product and how they can benefit.

Just think of it this way. If your work in-house, you have probably received tons and tons of marketing collaterals and information with your products. Your company probably have given you hours and hours of training about the product and the company. You and your managers and colleagues have talked about your product for hours and hours. Even if you are a freelancer, most companies would still give freelancers project briefings or seminars to make them more familiar with what they are offering.

So here is a quick question: how many hours did the prospect spend just to get familiar with what we are selling? Some prospects might have seen advertisements or even collaterals. Some might even have a friend who explained to them the product. Some meanwhile would listen the salesperson make their presentation. In this case, they have spent probably an hour or two or even less to know about the subject matter.

Compare that to the hours and hours of exposure we as the salesperson have. It’s like heaven and earth. Hanggang langit na alam naten, medjo nasa lupa palang level nila. We are in short the expert in this subject matter.

And even though some people might have prior knowledge with what we are selling, most people wouldn’t even care much if we re-explain it to them or re-clarify it to them. Why? Because people need more clarification. They need more clarity in life. They need more assurances and confirmation of what they know and believe.

Can you imagine a doctor explaining medical science to you? Unless you have a medical degree, you probably would not understand a thing. The doctor uses jargons or medical terminology and scientific processes to explain things to you. We just couldn’t understand. They are using a language that only other doctors or medical professionals could understand.

And the problem here is that so many salespeople do the same with their prospects. They use insider language or terminologies that are only used by other sales professionals in that field or even in that company. But the thing here is that the prospects we have aren’t professionals nor are they people inside the company. They are just patients needing a professional advice.

So yes, explaining our offer or proposal to them in a way that a fifth grader would understand is pretty important. Just think if you are a doctor, how would you explain a subject matter to a patient who has no medical background?

And for a more concrete application: don’t use jargons or insider language. Yes, using jargons or insider language might make us feel we are smart or intelligent. Pero aanhin mo na mukhang kang matalino kung wala naman nainitindihan yun kliyente?

Another concrete application? Do not overexplain and try to stay in planet earth. Many times, when we explain something we really have tons of knowledge about, we geek out and over explain things to people. The problem here is when we explain, we tend to go to another topic that is already different or irrelevant with our product or offering. The prospect just needs more clarity about Earth, so don’t explain Mars or Jupiter to them. Kung baga KathNiel lang yung pinag-uusapan naten, wag niyo na idamay yung BINI. So yes, do not overexplain and try to stay in planet earth.

Lastly, use concrete examples. Instead of explaining how insurance works, you can instead tell a story of what happened to your client and how the insurance policy had helped him. Or another good way is to use examples or personas to explain certain topics. “So I’ll give you an example. Let’s say Jim decided to buy this car, this is what they will have to do…..” or “So let’s say you have decided to buy this house, this will be our next steps.”

There are so many ways to do this but the main point here is this: how would you present your products and offerings in a way na a fifth grader would understand?

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