Even though customers are not always buying, we always have to be selling. This is fact whether we have “sales” in our title or not.
Any interaction with customers affects their perception of who we are and what we represent. That perception has impact on their decisions when it comes time to buy. This is why personal social interaction is such an important part of the sales process. In Asia and Latin America, in particular, trust in us is often the most important part of the offering. Trust gives people comfort that they can bet on us even when they do not have a complete understanding of our product or service.
In a past blog, I talked about the three top motivators for the best sales people. Competing, helping and relating are the things that drive the best sales people to act in the best interest of their customer and, consequently, in themselves.
Competing when the customer is not buying – The 2014 Winter Olympics just finished. The Olympics include sports that offer clear winners such as downhill skiing and bobsledding, where it is all about who goes the fastest. There are other sports like freestyle skiing and figure skating where there is a combination of technical requirements and artistic elements. The latter is judged by human beings who give scores on a somewhat subjective basis.
Athletes will tell you that any sport that is scored based on subjective, personal observations is affected by the judge’s perceptions before the competition starts. If an athlete enters the competition ranked as the best in the sport, the judges will look for that best performance and often will see it even if other experts do not.
The same is true in selling. The sales team the customer pre-judges as the best has an advantage when the competition starts. Winning is not a guarantee, but it is helpful to start at the front of the pack.
Helping when the customer is not buying – Only showing up when the buying process starts is the worst thing a sales person can do. Customers evaluate our offers of help differently when they are in the midst of a buying decision. They know we are competing and naturally apply more scrutiny to what they hear or see even if we are genuinely offering help.
When we consistently show a pattern of helping even when buying is not happening, the customer sees our offer of help as genuine outreach. Providing assistance and/or relevant information on a consistent and predictable basis earns us VISABILITY, CREDABILITY and RELIABILITY that gives us an advantage when the competition starts. This happens because the customer has already learned they can rely on us.
(Caveat: If our help does not come from a place of genuine intent, customers will see that. This unfortunate circumstance typically happens when the seller asks for recognition or special consideration after delivering help. My dad used to say, “If you have to ask for recognition, you don’t deserve it.” I have found his words of wisdom to be right in most cases.)
Relating when the customer is not buying – Any effort to develop a deep relationship in the midst of competition is viewed with a skeptical eye. People are people and when they know they are being pitched they will be guarded.
If, on the other hand, we put in the genuine effort to develop a relationship with the customer when they are not buying, they have the capacity to view us with a more open mind. In Asian and Latin American cultures, having an existing relationship is a clear prerequisite before any real selling can occur. The same is true for American and European cultures even though the prerequisite is not as overt. People want mutual trust with those they do business with, and building that trust is hard when the only certainty is that the sales person wants the customer’s money.
The best time to sell is when the customer is not buying. Competing, helping and relating before the buying process starts is the best way to earn sales advantage.
©2014 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities® LLC
