RSSHow do we sell if we don’t understand needs?
Nov 9, 2009 Sales Related
When people first hear about Buying Facilitation®, they ask: ‘But if we can’t ask about needs and discuss our solution, how do we sell?’
The short answer is, you don’t. At least not when you are accustomed to. Because that’s not the first thing buyers need from you. The buyer first needs assistance navigating around their off-line decision issues. See, we actually enter our buyer’s sphere far too early in their decision cycle. And we end up attempting to gather needs, understand, and place product before a buyer really knows how to have this conversation with you.
The first thing buyers do – well before they are ready to choose a vendor or a solution – is to figure out what needs to happen internally for them to be assured that they can achieve excellence AND keep their organization in tact. THEN they are ready for you to understand their need and place your solution. The sales model does not help the buyer at this initial part of their decision cycle because it’s private, unconscious, idiosyncratic, and for insiders only. But they must do it – and we needlessly wait as they do. It would like finding the house or car of your dreams before you discussed a move or a purchase with your spouse or bank.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: call, data, gps, help buyers buy, I'll call you back, needs, understand
What Are Buyers Doing While We Wait?
Jul 13, 2009 Decisioning & Change Management
Buyers have lots to do before they buy. And it has little to do with your product or their need.
You know those times when buyers show up and, barely before you can ask them what they need, buy? That’s because they’ve already done what they need to do BEFORE they contact you and they are ready. Unfortunately, the majority of buyers don’t realize what they have to do until AFTER they’ve started discussions, leaving us to think they are in a position to buy. They aren’t.
Before I tell you what it is they must do before buying, I’d like to say that I’ve asked hundreds of people where their prospects go when they say “I’ll call you back?” Here are the responses I always get, and have gotten (the same ones) for decades. And in this order:
1. they are going to find a cheaper price; 2. they are checking out the competition; 3. they are checking us out.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: cheaper price, competition, decision issues, facilitate, I'll call you back, need, realtor, sales, sales model, sales skills
