Psychology of Selling

Establish Communication

1. Win:Win

Selling is often perceived as producing a winner (the seller) and a loser (the buyer). It is better to sell with the objectives of having two winners, ie “win:win”. Selling is about providing people with items and information that they need and will benefit their operations; a sale must include a satisfied buyer and a successful seller, both winners. This is particularly important if you expect to establish a long-term relationship with the customer.

2. Ask Questions

Sell by asking, not telling. By asking potential customers relevant questions about their operations and listening to their response, you can better assess their requirements and the corresponding benefits your product can provide. You will get a better insight into your customer and their interests allowing you to direct the conversation around this area.

Asking questions also gets the customer’s mind working. If the customer is talking and thinking, they will concentrate better on what you are telling them. Otherwise there is a danger that they will lose concentration and start thinking about other things. If the session with the customer is a two-way affair, the customer will feel in control and you can begin to develop trust. If the customer does not feel alert and in control, they will be reluctant to take a decision. (iii) Awareness

A key skill is awareness from moment to moment of what the customer is thinking and feeling. Knowledge of the company is not enough in itself. Who is this person you are talking to? What kind of mood are they in? Are they stressed or relaxed? You should adapt your approach accordingly. Asking questions, listening and observing will help you to get on the customer’s wavelength.

Aim for the session to develop naturally looking for the most opportune time in the conversation to introduce the benefits your company can offer.

Meet Objections

If a customer raises objections to the product, do not brush them aside but answer them one by one. Do not lie. Aim to meet objections rather than overcome them. Think about possible objections in advance, and prepare answers for each. Keep notes of every objection you encounter. Ensure you have an answer for the next time.

Create preference for their product/service (Sell the Benefits)

Personal selling is most frequently used where the customer requires a lot of information before they make a purchase. Sessions will often involve discussion of a lot of technical detail. It can be all too easy to blind the customer with science.

This may be a good way to establish a relationship with a customer who is interested in technical detail, but the salesperson should not lose sight of the fact that a product is not an end in itself. It is there to do a job, to provide benefits to the customer. For example, the feature of a photocopier may be that it is very reliable, the benefit is that there are fewer interruptions to work and less hassle arranging for the engineer to fix it.

Concentrate on the benefits of your product or service to ensure that the customer will understand exactly how convenient it is and how it will make their life easier.

An appreciation of what motivates clients to buy needs to be developed.  Motives will vary for different clientele eg, one customer may require a shorter delivery time while for another price is of greater importance.  The attitude and therefore purchasing pattern of the individual buyer may also fluctuate.  An understanding of the individual and what motivates them will help in planning a successful sales strategy.

Exercise 2. Features & Benefits

A common failing of sales people is to describe their goods or services to customers or clients in terms of their features.

- A piece of software may be described as intuitive

- A delivery service may be described as reliable

- A holiday may be described as idyllic

- A tin opener may be described as robust

These descriptions may, or may not, convey a meaning to the customer. To be sure that we are creating a preference for our product or service we should state that as a benefit. This is particularly important with technical products as it easy to fall in to the trap of “techno speak”. You may know what advantages a 20-gigabyte hard disk brings to a computer system but will your customer?

To convert a Feature to a Benefit you should prefix the term “which means that”.

This computer has a 20-gigabyte hard disk which means that it will store all your large files such as photographs and graphics for many years to come.

Try this on the four examples above and then move on to those below.