Enlightened Sellers and clients want the same thing

There is without doubt a level at which all sellers and clients both want the same thing. The problem is that it frequently doesn’t feel that way. Instead, there is a feeling from buyers that sellers are trying to force-fit their solution to what little they really know of the buyer’s challenges, and therefore a fear of choosing the wrong solution or provider. As I already mentioned, sellers have the fear of not selling enough or hitting quota.

Whenever I do a training programme and have a word-association exercise based on the word ‘selling’ or ‘sellers’, the associations are all negative. It’s interesting that sellers see it that way too. There’s the overwhelming sense of ‘doing something to someone’ rather than ‘doing something with someone’. In addition to fear (on both sides), there are many other reasons why we don’t start collaboratively.

Let’s get above the noise, past experience and expectations here and focus on the simple fact that we both want the same thing.

A solution that exactly meets the client’s needs (or at least as closely as possible)

If the client perceives that they’re not getting a solution that meets their needs, the chances are that they won’t buy from us, or won’t buy from us again. Similarly, if we don’t get a solution that meets our needs, we’ll also suffer (often financially if we surrender during the process).

We need to have conscious awareness right at the beginning of the sales process or pursuit and work on how we can collaborate to discover the solution that exactly meets their needs. There are a number of useful skills required here, but I want to stay focused on the principle.

Whenever a client or prospect invites us in and says the magic words…

“We’re having a problem with_______________. Tell us what you have in this space.”

There are three default behaviours I see regularly from unenlightened sellers:

They tell. This means that they recite a monologue of their recent learnings on the features and functions of their product or solution. Perhaps a diatribe on their company, their people, their geographic reach – or a host of other facts about THEM i.e., the seller.?

They accept. Rather than seek to understand at a deeper level, the seller accepts that ‘the client has a problem’. Rather than becoming really curious and probing deeper, the seller resorts to ‘broadcast mode’ and again focuses on their solution and the rest of the rehearsed diatribe.?

They guess. What I mean here is that the seller assumes that they both have the same understanding of certain words, phrases or descriptions. This, again, allows the seller to move too quickly to their solution.

The disadvantage of all three of these approaches is that we fail to understand what challenges our prospects really face in enough detail. We can often quickly get into dialogue and out of alignment at the very first client interaction.

Enlightened Sellers are aware that they have a choice when responding to requests from prospects or clients. Rather than tell, accept, or guess, they possess the skills and the emotional intelligence to mutually explore the prospect’s challenges and ensure they understand them in detail before they even consider presenting a solution.

If you have been struggling with a sales challenge for more than 30 days, should we be talking? Click this link to hear from people like you who are working with me.