This post is as much about self-help as it is about informing the reader. Despite working in sales for many years, it can still be a struggle to work out the best way to go about doing it.
If you read my book, The Equation of Sales, you will see me state that sales is easy. Research your potential customer, identify a need, demonstrate that your service can solve that need and add value to the customer and close the deal. Straight forward? Of course not! the theory is straight forward, the practise is not. In my own case, for selling sales training and coaching, it is anything but simple.
It can be relatively easy for a sales person to identify a need. Persuading the customer that they have that need is another thing! Most people are quite happy with what they have and how they are working. They are comfortable with their processes, they get some results. They do not tend to like being told that they are not doing it very well. The biggest problem facing sales people is persuading their potential customer to change what they are doing - see my post about this, The World Cup of Sales Problems. This applies to any product or service. However, finding the right information to persuade someone to change can be difficult.
For sales training, it is definitely easy to find people with the need. I get approached at least once a week with people asking me to consider their services. They regularly tell me all about their services. They generally never tell me how their services will affect me. How am I going to be better off as a result of buying their services? I need to understand the value before I can be persuaded to buy. In all of these cases, I believe that I can help the person who has contacted me to be better at what they do. They have demonstrated their need to me directly. However, simply telling them that they are not doing their job very well and that I can help them to do it better, doesn’t get great results! No one likes to be told that they are not doing a great job.
However, help is at hand! There is lots of research about the value of training, such as regular training leads to increased revenue and regular training helps to motivate and retain employees. Surveys of sales managers show how the need for the sales process to change due to changing market conditions. Numerous articles demonstrate the need for dedicated sales staff rather than one person doing it as part of their role. The evidence is out there.
So, we have the means to demonstrate the need for change. However, the customer still has to want to change. They have to recognise the need to change. As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink! There are plenty of examples in life and business of people who failed to change despite being shown lots of evidence to persuade them to. In this case, we need to go a stage further. We need to provide more than bald facts and figures. Facts and figures are seldom enough to change peoples’ minds. We need to paint a picture of what better looks like.
There is a great scene in Friends where Rachel persuades a man to buy a boat by describing how much pleasure he would get by owning it. She paints a picture of him and his wife enjoying sailing up the river and being admired by their friends. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-ZI3y_9td8 if you want to watch. This is how you need to move difficult clients to the next stage. Paint a picture of how much better their life would be by adopting new processes; by learning new skills and by making more sales.
It may not be quite as romantic or appealing as sailing up the Hudson River but it is the only way to persuade people to change. Find the right story to tell them about how much better their life will be once they change.