Today, I found an article in Forbes online that focused on 10 essential principles of selling that people continue to often get wrong. The Author, Kathy Caprino, actually had the opportunity to talk to Dave Mattson about why Sandler Training is so effective. I thought it would be good to delve into what Mattson talks about as timeless selling techniques that many salespeople continue to blunder, seeing as how he is the author of one of our text books. Sandler Training itself, has been around since 1967 and continues to provide 92,000 or more hours of training every year. It typically focuses on a lot of areas that are not seen as traditional selling techniques, perhaps this is why it’s so effective. Dave himself actually provided the author with his list of 10 ways sales people still continue to “commit sales suicide” today.
All 10 of these selling issues are very pertinent to selling in today’s world, but for clarity and time’s sake I will only discuss the few that I feel are most important. You can read the article here if you would like to see the rest. One of the big areas where I think it’s easy to slip up is when a salesperson “assumes” that the problem the potential client communicates is in fact the real problem. We’ve talked about this in class. It’s very important to dig deeper because the fact is that a prospects perceived problem may only actually be a symptom of their real problem. Therefore, we often need to ask some more probing questions in an attempt to get to the bottom of the issue. Often we will find that the real problem is deeper than what is on the surface. Another very important issue, where people tend to slip up the most, is that of “talking too much.” Mattson highlights the principle of the 70/30 rule in which as the salesman you should be listening 70% of the time and talking only 30% of the time. As salespeople we often think it’s important to give an entire rundown of our product and its features/benefits, but in today’s situation of information availability, the chances are the prospect can find this on your website. You need to ask pertinent, probing questions and just sit back and listen to the responses. This will help make you a better salesperson in the long run. The last issue that Mattson gives as one where people continue to slip up is this: “Keeping your fingers crossed that a prospect doesn’t notice a problem.” It’s very important to develop trust in a selling relationship. If a potential customer realizes that you’ve glossed over an important problem after the fact, the chances are they will experience buyer’s remorse or at the very least, choose not to deal with you again. “Coming clean” is something that Mattson highlights as a good way to develop respect and trust as a salesman. Most problems can be overcome in the process, so the best thing is to be up front with your prospect.
I know we’ve gone over all of these things in class but I felt the article was especially relevant given that it was basically an interview with Dave Mattson. Mattson shares his top 10 most overlooked principles from Sandler Training. If we could study just the 10 things in the article or even the three that I highlighted above, we would be on our way to becoming better salespeople.
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