Listen, educate and then sell. Sounds so simple but why can’t sales people follow this path?

I speak to many sales people on a daily basis. Sometimes I need a special software to handle our tasks and sometimes I need services to help out. It’s unfortunate that 9 out of 10 times the sales person will not follow this simple selling technique of listening first, then educating a prospect and only then going for the home run.

What usually happens is … a sales person starts his 10 minute speech of how good the company is. I don’t care about your 10 yr anniversaries or your achievements with other clients when it’s all talk. Show me proof.

Funny thing is … out of those 10 minutes of speech only 3 sentences kind of touch on the subject I am interested in. Look, I don’t mean to whine here, but I am sure you’ve been in a situation where you feel like you need to stop the sales person from talking as he is not addressing your problems.

How about asking a prospect ”what would you like to achieve Mr. X? or “What are some of the issues you need to solve?”… you get the point. Think about it … wouldn’t your sales speech be more relevant and effective if you know a little about the company and issues they’re having?

Quickly on Educating ….

We don’t ever want to feel dumb. Thus we appreciate people who explain things to us and clear things up for us. Educating someone will place you on their good side, hence you’ll gain trust and respect from a prospect.

Educate people about the product or industry you sell and only then sell.