Did we all realize how bad we are at sales, or was that just me? Last class, we were tasked with selling ducks. I don’t remember how many I sold, but it was not impressive. I thought I had all I needed; I was cordial, friendly, and approachable. I was confident too. Was it enough? No. In fact I might have been a little too cordial. I am fairly sure I put some people on edge a few times. Regardless, my sales tactics left a little to be desired.
It was the classic mistake. I spilled my candy…or in this case…duckies. No matter what I did, I could not seem to find a way to dig for pain. I knew what I had to do, and yet I continued to spill benefits and features without any regard for what the buyer actually wanted. This, naturally led to fewer sales on my part. There was even one instance where a gentleman said no on account of not having the money…while he was purchasing a $3 sandwich; this I found to be particularly amusing.
This begged the question to me: what should I have done? What should my strategy have been when I only had such a short amount of time? After all, the most amount of time I realistically had with a buyer was probably two minutes. Here is my breakdown. 1) approach. Be cordial, be welcoming, and be inquisitive. Ask questions that are relatively open ended, but closed enough to give an idea of what you are talking about. Draw the buyer in and make him curious. This is where my thinking went dark. He doesn’t know what I am selling. How many questions can I ask before he just leaves without even hearing what it is that I am selling? This is an instance in which I would suggest step 2): spilling a little bit of candy…but only as a teaser. Give them the gist but keep them on their toes and interested. Answer their questions with questions and get them to feel the weight of the topic at hand. Perhaps throughout this process, drop a few little bits of info to keep the prospect interested. Once you have found pain, inquire further (no more than 2-3 questions) and then offer the product.
Would this strategy have worked? I honestly don’t know. But I can’t think of any other way of feeling for pain, being inquisitive, and being quick. It is not as if you are walking into a 1 hour meeting, where the client already knows what you are selling and understands your business. In this scenario, you have to be quick, persuasive, and perceptive…or rather perception taking. This, at least, would be my strategy in future. I encourage push back and different opinions or questions. For example, should price come into a sales interaction such as this? If so when? How can more of the Sandler rules possibly apply to this scenario? When it’s just a number game, how often do you go for no?
RMcIlwain
Spilling your candy can be easy to do with a challenge like this because of the time crunch and competition aspect. Something helpful that my group learned was asking them if they have heard about it and if they did than it became easier to just have a conversation rather than blurting facts to them.