In early February, when Professor Sweet was out, we had the head Coach come into class and speak about sales. I will admit, I was very confused as to what a college sports coach knew about sales and thought that it was just going to be “busy-work”, but I was surprised to what the coach had to say and all that he knew.
He stated that he used to be a salesman and his company sent people on a retreat to Clearwater, Florida and he had learned something that changed his entire life. This seminar was specifically about sales but he stated that everything we do in life is selling, whether that is your official job title or not, but he still uses this tactic to this day when it comes to recruiting, helping students, etc.. He started telling us about the tactic by stating that trust is everything and that there are two ways to sell trust: ability and intent. After that he went into a sales funnel that he had learned about at the seminar. First you have the Need Analysis, which is the beginning stage of selling: asking general, yet quality questions, the questions are always open-ended questions. The next step of the funnel is Need Awareness, which is when you start to ask the customer probing questions, digger deeper into their pain and what they need. Essentially getting a better idea of the customer and how you can best help them. Next is Need Solution, which is “features tell, benefits sell” as he stated. This means that the features the product or service provides an explanation of what the product is, but the benefits of it, such as lifetime warranty, is what will really sell the product, it is the highest incentive when it comes to sales. Finally, Need Satisfaction is the last part of the funnel. Need satisfaction is when you and the customer decide to do business with one another.
Hearing him speak had helped me to learn a basic and easy to follow process of effective selling. I will definitely be using it when I am selling my own products.
BoweryJE22
Coach always has some great things to say. He is a great salesman because he is so good at painting the picture and getting to know how you feel.
Ya I loved hearing The football coach come speak to us! His 2 points as you said about ability and intent I thought were so important. You can have on of the other, but you need both to be successful. If you have the ability but don’t want to use it, you will fail. Or, if you want to help but don’t have the ability, you will fail. We need to strike a balance of both. Great stuff!
I really enjoyed having the football coach come in and speak to us! I found it very fascinating that they wanted the salespeople to fail and then learn from it because it made them very humble. I liked his point about we sell everyday and everything we do is selling. I would love to have him talk to the class again!