I Know! I Don't Have To Listen!
I can’t begin to count the vast amount of times over the past 47 years as a working consultant I’ve heard a salesperson say, “There was nothing I could do, it wasn’t in his budget.” That’s analogues to a biographical author saying, “I can’t write my memoirs because my pen ran out of ink.”
More often than not your customer’s budget is little more than the “easy way out” for the customer who doesn’t want to divulge the real reason why he or she is attempting to avoid buying from you. It’s simply another rationalization in the stash of objections that your clientele uses in deferring the sale. Are they planning to buy from someone else, hoping you’ll lower your price (that’s you taking the easy way out), or is it that you haven’t convinced them your product or service will satisfy their needs? The latter normally happens when a so-called salesperson spends so much time talking, he or she negates the time in which they should have been listening. When you don’t know your clients needs it’s mighty difficult to satisfy them. If I were a betting man I’d put my money on the latter.
A salesperson’s job is to honestly and ethically convince their clients that their product or service will satisfy that particular client’s needs. As strange as it might sound, you can’t determine a client’s needs by talking, it’s done by listening. In a sales interaction with a professional salesperson, the client is doing the majority of talking.
The German poet, novelist, playwright, natural philosopher, and diplomat, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, stated,“If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.”
If you’re a salesperson or manager, which your probably are, and aren’t working with a coach (trainer) you’re not quite the salesperson/manager you could be! For additional information about David Richman and Butterfield Enterprises, Inc. take a moment to review David’s Linkedin Profile and what his clients have to say about him or if you would prefer, call (818) 368-1308 or email [email protected] visit butterfieldenterprises.com. And if you haven’t already done so, join David’s Linkedin network.