Why Every Sale Is A Complex Sale

Think about this, since you have woken up this morning, gotten online, started reading this article on how to close more deals, your future customer has already begun the sales process.

Right now, your prospects and customers are online, “googling” to discover information and ideas around products and services you sell. They are going to an industry meeting, where an expert or guru is speaking, and networking among companies and sales reps seeking referrals, or they are calling their peers or reading industry magazines to try and discover cutting-edge information.

If your name, your products, and your company are not coming up in those searches, if you are not being referred to in conversation, or are not even being mentioned in presentations and articles, then by the time you go in to make the sale, you are already behind. Your future buyers need to have heard of you and about you if they are going to buy from you. Moreover, your existing customers need to be hearing from someone else other than you, how amazing you and your products and services are.

Everything about today’s marketplace is different: Customers are far more demanding, skeptical and well-informed. Products and technology are continually changing at a rapid pace. Global opportunities have changed the competitive landscape. All of this impacts you and your sales process.

As a sales professional, you have to shift your process from that of traditional sales strategies such a product knowledge, and relationships building to a more complex sales strategy that combines marketing, sales, and value-added selling. You need to be prepared for a longer selling cycle and be ready to sell to and win-over multiple decision makers.

Remember, every sale is unique, depending upon whether the product you are selling is a commodity or a unique, custom product. Depending on the number of buyers or decision makers you have to interact with and ultimately sell. Also depending on the specific needs and challenges of the individual prospect on whom you are calling. Even if you specialize in one industry.

There are so many moving pieces in selling today, and that makes it complicated. Industries are experiencing so much change, and feeling the pressure of global competition. To sell in any industry, you need to know more than your products and services.

Your buyers need you to deeply understand the industry, the trends, and the players. They need you to ask strong and insightful questions that pull out the right information to get at the heart of their issues. Even help them uncover the problems beneath their problems, the ones they did not even realize they had. Plus they need you to have the resources and strategies to provide valuable and high-quality solutions that do more than sell them a product, they increase their revenues and streamline their production.

Selling today requires you to overhaul your sales strategy, and question what you are doing to move from traditional sales rep to that of a valued resource and partner. In essence, you need to know your customer’s industry, competitor, and company better than they do.

Here Are Three Strategies To Get The Deal Closed:

1. Attract Before You Ask – you have to dominate your market if you want to open more doors and close more deals. If you think competition is fierce for you, imagine it from your customer’s perspective. The amount of sales reps calling on them, and the companies to choose from, they are overwhelmed with choice. They are going to go with the path of least resistance, what is most comfortable for them. You need to be that choice. Work on building your reputation in the marketplace, getting above that white noise and standing out from your competition.
2. Do Your Homework – this is not your father’s marketplace. Just having a little product knowledge, and being able to crack a few jokes does not a sales rep make. You need to do your homework, do your research, and understand both the customer and the industry in which you are selling.
3. Go Deep – sales today is only partly about selling what your customer needs. It is really about helping them uncover the problems or opportunities they did not even know they had. Your job is to go deep, as the questions that get to the heart of their issues, and provide value at a level your competitors have not even thought about.

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