“Don’t Spill Your Candy In the Lobby.” Of all the sales principles we’ve learned so far, I think this is one of the most fascinating.
In a selling situation, it’s tempting to sell. Just spill everything out – all the features of the product or service you’re trying to score a sale with, all over your prospective buyer. But why? What will this really achieve?
The answer is very little. First off, your prospective buyer is probably bored, intimidated, uninterested, and feeling a bit neglected by the time your sales pitch is over. But furthermore, trying to sell a product on features along is futile. Features tell about your product. Frankly, they do not sell it. A potential customer will sit and listen to you ramble through a list of features about your product, likely wondering why they should even care about what you’ve got to say.
Instead of eagerly spilling your candy all over the place, it’s best to start by figuring out what brings the customer to you. Who are they? What do they do? What makes them tick? Then, instead of features, you can sell benefits, which are a far more valuable asset. You can figure out why your product would meet a need that they’ve got and sell based on that. After all, you do want your product to actually meet your customer’s needs, right? You don’t just want to sell them any product, but rather one that will help you establish a relationship with them that will have them coming back to you in the future to purchase more! Through listening to what their needs are and then meeting those needs with a product, a sale will be far more likely than if you just give them your best “sales pitch” right off that bat and leave all of your candy in the lobby.
BoweryJE22
This is a very good post! I think that alot of people, especially when they are new to selling tend to do this unknowingly. However, bringing it to light and making good points on how to fix it is quite helpful! Thank you!
I agree! It is extremely important to be tactful and collect information from the potential buyer before attempting to sell. Blurting out price or jumping ahead in the sales process is very detrimental.
Great post. When we talked about this in class I realized I also did this way too often too. I usually just try and throw everything I have at someone to convince them but now i understand that it is way better to almost tease them and make them think “what does he have?”