My Advice – Stop Selling, Let People Buy

How to Pitch & Win More Business

When strangers come to our door, we are often reluctant to open the door; why?

Mostly because we suspect they are going to try and sell us something, e.g. switch energy supplies, sign up for some new local service, change Wi-Fi providers.

The fact is nobody wants to be sold stuff, yet we buy goods every day, mostly from people who we trust and have provided us with good service in the past.

We are all reluctant to change!

Let me explain how I developed my particular style of ‘Solution Selling’.

Here is a little of my story as a Sales Professional and Executive Coach.

I started my working life as an engineering draughtsman, but changed my career early on when someone proposed the idea of becoming a Sales Engineer, which had the offer of a free company car. This was a big plus as I was very recently married.

The company I joined supplied a vast range (and still do) of engineering goods which included: pneumatics, hydraulics, electrical control gear, industrial valves and a range of mining supplies.

MARKET – COMPETENCY – PASSION

I was to learn over the years that all successful businesses must fulfil these three critical requirements:

A growing Market, be Competent and Passionate if they are to succeed long term.

My new employer had a big market as they supplied a range of equipment that could fulfil the need of all manufacturing companies

They were also well managed with a leadership team who were very passionate and focused on providing excellent service to our vast range of customers.

No Competency

I quickly realized I had only two of these qualities.

They provided me with the market opportunity and I was passionate about doing a good job and supporting my new family.

What was missing was the competency.

I knew a little about all the products they supplied after the training they provided, but not enough to be confident when speaking to engineers about the problems they needed addressing!

What to do?

I quickly realized that It was impossible to be knowledgeable on all these products, but what I could do was be a good listener and ask them what problems they had, and get them to describe to me, what would be a good outcome when this issue (problem) was addressed.

I quickly realized my best way of working was to find out what people’s problems were, then identify what a good solution would look like and then suggest how we could help fix their problem.

I could then bring my information back to the internal company ‘product controllers’ who were ‘subject matter experts’ in their particular product ranges. They could then, after some further engagement with my prospective customer, propose a solution to their problem.

Solution Selling

This method of ‘Selling Solutions’ has served me well through my business career as Sales Manager, General Manager, Business Owner and for the last 10+ years as a Consultant,  Executive Coach and Trainer to some of the largest and fastest-growing companies in the world.

We are back to where we started!

STOP SELLING, LET PEOPLE BUY

Let’s recap.

In a conversation with you, get your prospective customer to explain the problem (tell a story) they are experiencing, get as many facts and examples as possible.

Before bringing the meeting to a conclusion, paint a word picture of how things will be better having implemented your solution.

Objections:

In your initial conversation do not spend a lot of time discussing the detail of how you will implement your solution, for these two reasons.

1. You will probably not have fully fleshed out the solution you can provide.
2. When you start to explore a method of implementation, the prospect often starts to find reasons for not acting, e.g. It is not the right time, no budget, will need to discuss with others, fear of decision making/charge etc.

By Executive Coach Andrew Keogh of Aristo.ie