Why are Selling Techniques so bad?

Why are Selling Techniques so bad UK?

You will know by now I’m on a mission to improve the nation’s selling techniques. It seems every day I get collect more evidence of just how big a challenge that is going to be! On the other hand a bottom less pit of potential work it seems.

Take my colleague Jonathan’s example from last week. Accompanying his friend to a car showroom he was well and truly underwhelmed by the sales techniques demonstrated – or not demonstrated as it turned out. Within a minute of approaching Jonathan and his friend the sales guy was explaining how effective this £68K Landrover was at going up 45 degree hills off road – and that they should check out the YouTube video to see for themselves. He went on to list all the features of this vehicle that HE would have been impressed by. Now I’m not sure what they teach showroom sales people at landrover but it sure isn’t modern sales skills on this evidence. Maybe they should get inside one of those Delorien cars from ‘Back to The Future’ and got themselves back to 1960’s America where they would have more success!

The problem? Where to begin! Firstly he didn’t even know who was up for buying a vehicle, or what stage we might have been in our buying process. He didn’t know ANYTHING about us at all and more crucially did not have any inclination to find out. That meant he remained forever in his map of the world, which was all about off roading and boy’s stuff. He was doing all the talking and NO listening at all. If he had made the effort to find out our ‘maps’ then the knowledge gained would have led to a far more fruitful chat for all of us, more enjoyable too and more likely to produce a win win.

This contrasts with a much more encouraging – sadly rarer story of a friend who after 25 years working in a factory found himself out of work as textile manufacturing moved abroad. His friend was a car dealer and to his credit gave John a chance at his used car showroom. With no real training and no experience John made a fabulous impact at selling cars. How? He knew about and had studied NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and applied it in the car showroom. Despite being given second rate leads as returning customers went back to the longer serving salesmen, John soon rose up the sales league table. He did this by leaving his map of the world and making efforts to find out about the maps of those he spoke to. His genuine interest in their buying circumstances and needs led to natural open questions and great answers. He soon found out that it was often the quirky stuff that sold cars, the little things that you can only find out about when you have built genuine rapport with your prospect.

In one particular example John approached a whole family looking around the showroom. Through careful questioning and brilliant rapport building with ALL the family, John elicited that due to a family history of prangs when reversing their previous vehicles, the deciding factor was the bleeper that comes on when reversing this particular car, not that common at the time. Only by building a great relationship – and caring – did John find out this information. Result? A Sale, of course – and a fantastic letter two days later from the family stating this was the best buying experience they had ever had. His boss and friend said he hadn’t seen a customer letter like that in fourteen years in the business.

So – please please please leave out your needs and wants and make sure you find out their needs and wants. Genuinely care about the relationships you have with your customers and prospects, be curious, ask open questions, listen instead of preaching and you’ll be surprised what it will do for your sales results.

Do let me know your good and bad experiences of sales techniques. Let’s crack this together!

In the meantime – I think I might ring the Land Rover Training Manager!

Are You Charging Enough?

Hello everyone

I try to catch up on business and personal development reading whenever I can - and I sped through several old business sections of the Sunday Times this weekend. There's always some great snippets and tips amongst the news, stories and profiles. One particular feature always catches my eye, called 'How I Made it', which features business owners and their success stories.

What stands out amongst those profiles is their ability to bounce back, to be patient for success, to learn from the knocks, to learn from anything in fact!

The gentleman featured in one particular week was Ed Reeves, founder of Moneypenny, a telephone answering service that now has an annual turnover of £7m.

I'm going to quote a passage from the article...He returned to Britain at 23 and settled in London. TIS offered to pay him commission if he was able to sell outdated land line phones for £5 each. After finding no takers , he raised his price to £25 - and promptly sold a thousand. He made £20,000.

Now I hear this type of story so many times during my consultancy and keynote speaking engagements. What then do you think of the fees you are charging? Are the prices you're charging down to your 'stuff' around your perception of the value of your work, rather than what the market thinks your worth?

There's a thought.

For those of us charging by the hour or day, remember the fee is not for your time only. Your customers are paying for your specialist knowledge - specialist knowledge you have that they don't have. They are paying for your acumen acquired through the qualifications you gained, the experience you've built up, for your commitment to your chosen craft, for the personal development you have put in.

Remember that when you next tell a client or potential client your fees.

Until next time

Leigh