The Fatal Flaw
If I tell you the fatal flaw, will you avoid it?
Of course, you say that you will.
But, I'm not convinced because smokers know that their habit is dangerous to their health and they continue. Those of us who want to lose weight understand exactly how to do it but we continue to make bad choices that prevent us from reaching our goals.
"Wait a minute", you say. "Smoking is addictive and eating habits are ingrained from childhood. Those habits are much harder to break than a simple selling technique."
Hoping that you are right, I will tell you the fatal flaw and offer some suggestions for ridding yourself of it and replacing it with better selling habits.
The fatal flaw of sellers is making a product presentation too early in the selling cycle.
I'm not saying that you should keep the features and benefits of your product/service a secret - which I've seen sellers do to the utter frustration of the prospect. No, my point is that sellers are in too much of a hurry to make their pitch and this rush to make a presentation dooms their sale.
Understanding why the fatal flaw dooms your sale is a good first step:
1) Customers don't like to be sold. And when you are extolling the virtues of your product you are selling. Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, is fond of saying, "People don't like to be sold, but they love to buy" and it is the truth.
2) Making a presentation about your product before completely understanding the needs of the prospect might cause you to disqualify yourself. I've seen this on many occasions. One that stands out happened when I was working at a radio station in Atlanta that specialized in reaching African-American consumers. We were very proud of the fact that our station reached the older end of the adult 25-54 demographic and that our listeners were more educated and upscale than our higher ranked competition. Never mind the fact that we also had thousands and thousands of listeners that didn't fit that higher educated, more upscale model. We usually ignored that fact in favor of the story that put us in what we thought was a better light.
Well, we had ingrained this story into the sellers to the point where they almost always lead with it. One day I was out on a call with one of the sellers and almost immediately after welcoming us the prospect asked us to tell him about our station. My seller launched into a poetic and engaging homily about the virtues of our upscale audience and how that distinction separated us from that more downscale station across town. When he had finished, we sat expectantly looking at the prospect. Here is what he said,
"That's too bad because our product appeals to a consumer whose household income is under $50,000. We're not looking for an upscale audience."
Immediately, my seller started to backtrack and explain that we had plenty of downscale listeners in addition to our upscale but, of course, the damage was done.
3) You run the risk of commoditizing yourself and your product by fitting in to the pre-conceived notion of the prospect. Prospects don't really expect to be overwhelmed by the professionalism of the sellers that call on them. You shouldn't be surprised to learn that they view sales reps as a necessary part of the process but not a particularly desireable part of it. When you walk in the door and start pitching your product, you have met the very low expectations of the prospect and pigeon-holed yourself as just another peddler. Once you're "just another" your product is also "just another". And, any of the "just anothers" will do.
Now that you know some of the reasons why the fatal flaw dooms your sale let's figure out how to avoid it.
1) State the purpose for your meeting at the beginning. Not even the most untrained seller would declare the purpose of the meeting to be: "For me to make a presentation about my products and services and for you to buy them." While some of us may be thinking that, all of us would find some better way of putting it. In media sales, the purpose of meetings with prospects is: "To understand your marketing objectives so that we can put together a plan to help you achieve them." Or "To understand what you are trying to achieve through marketing so that we can help you determine if our product can help you with those goals." Some variation of this occurs in every B2B sale. (Of course, it happens in B2C sales, too, but the approach is necessarily different. For more on that type of sale, please spend some time on Skip Anderson's blog.)
When the purpose is stated at the beginning and it includes the necessary step of listening to the prospect, all participants will realize that the prospect must do the speaking before the seller.
2) Remember your manners. If a man and a woman are on an elevator, the man waits for the woman to exit before he does. Even if the woman smiles and gestures for the man to go ahead, one who has learned his manners would say, "Please, I insist," and sweep his arm grandly toward the open door. When you are calling on a prospect, the polite way to behave is to insist on going second.
3) Do your research but let the prospect be the expert. One of my favorite ways to start a meeting (after stating the purpose) is to say something like this: "I've done some research and learned this and this and this about your business. Can you help me fill in the gaps?" The days of expecting a prospect to educate us about every aspect of his business are long gone. But, prospects still want to be the recognized expert on their business and are willing to talk to the right people. By indicating that you have made an initial effort you gain the necessary credibility to be one of those people.
There are many more tips for avoiding the fatal flaw. Please add your comments and let us know how you do it!
>
Of course, you say that you will.
But, I'm not convinced because smokers know that their habit is dangerous to their health and they continue. Those of us who want to lose weight understand exactly how to do it but we continue to make bad choices that prevent us from reaching our goals.
"Wait a minute", you say. "Smoking is addictive and eating habits are ingrained from childhood. Those habits are much harder to break than a simple selling technique."
Hoping that you are right, I will tell you the fatal flaw and offer some suggestions for ridding yourself of it and replacing it with better selling habits.
The fatal flaw of sellers is making a product presentation too early in the selling cycle.
I'm not saying that you should keep the features and benefits of your product/service a secret - which I've seen sellers do to the utter frustration of the prospect. No, my point is that sellers are in too much of a hurry to make their pitch and this rush to make a presentation dooms their sale.
Understanding why the fatal flaw dooms your sale is a good first step:
1) Customers don't like to be sold. And when you are extolling the virtues of your product you are selling. Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, is fond of saying, "People don't like to be sold, but they love to buy" and it is the truth.
2) Making a presentation about your product before completely understanding the needs of the prospect might cause you to disqualify yourself. I've seen this on many occasions. One that stands out happened when I was working at a radio station in Atlanta that specialized in reaching African-American consumers. We were very proud of the fact that our station reached the older end of the adult 25-54 demographic and that our listeners were more educated and upscale than our higher ranked competition. Never mind the fact that we also had thousands and thousands of listeners that didn't fit that higher educated, more upscale model. We usually ignored that fact in favor of the story that put us in what we thought was a better light.
Well, we had ingrained this story into the sellers to the point where they almost always lead with it. One day I was out on a call with one of the sellers and almost immediately after welcoming us the prospect asked us to tell him about our station. My seller launched into a poetic and engaging homily about the virtues of our upscale audience and how that distinction separated us from that more downscale station across town. When he had finished, we sat expectantly looking at the prospect. Here is what he said,
"That's too bad because our product appeals to a consumer whose household income is under $50,000. We're not looking for an upscale audience."
Immediately, my seller started to backtrack and explain that we had plenty of downscale listeners in addition to our upscale but, of course, the damage was done.
3) You run the risk of commoditizing yourself and your product by fitting in to the pre-conceived notion of the prospect. Prospects don't really expect to be overwhelmed by the professionalism of the sellers that call on them. You shouldn't be surprised to learn that they view sales reps as a necessary part of the process but not a particularly desireable part of it. When you walk in the door and start pitching your product, you have met the very low expectations of the prospect and pigeon-holed yourself as just another peddler. Once you're "just another" your product is also "just another". And, any of the "just anothers" will do.
Now that you know some of the reasons why the fatal flaw dooms your sale let's figure out how to avoid it.
1) State the purpose for your meeting at the beginning. Not even the most untrained seller would declare the purpose of the meeting to be: "For me to make a presentation about my products and services and for you to buy them." While some of us may be thinking that, all of us would find some better way of putting it. In media sales, the purpose of meetings with prospects is: "To understand your marketing objectives so that we can put together a plan to help you achieve them." Or "To understand what you are trying to achieve through marketing so that we can help you determine if our product can help you with those goals." Some variation of this occurs in every B2B sale. (Of course, it happens in B2C sales, too, but the approach is necessarily different. For more on that type of sale, please spend some time on Skip Anderson's blog.)
When the purpose is stated at the beginning and it includes the necessary step of listening to the prospect, all participants will realize that the prospect must do the speaking before the seller.
2) Remember your manners. If a man and a woman are on an elevator, the man waits for the woman to exit before he does. Even if the woman smiles and gestures for the man to go ahead, one who has learned his manners would say, "Please, I insist," and sweep his arm grandly toward the open door. When you are calling on a prospect, the polite way to behave is to insist on going second.
3) Do your research but let the prospect be the expert. One of my favorite ways to start a meeting (after stating the purpose) is to say something like this: "I've done some research and learned this and this and this about your business. Can you help me fill in the gaps?" The days of expecting a prospect to educate us about every aspect of his business are long gone. But, prospects still want to be the recognized expert on their business and are willing to talk to the right people. By indicating that you have made an initial effort you gain the necessary credibility to be one of those people.
There are many more tips for avoiding the fatal flaw. Please add your comments and let us know how you do it!
>
>.
Tim, I agree with your assessment of "the fatal flaw." And, unfortunately, giving a presentation too early in the sales process is ultra common in the areas in which i train: retail and B2C selling. I'm on a mission to change that, but so many think that "selling" is "telling" and i like to say that "selling is listening" is a more accurate description of selling.
Reply to this
Great post Tim. I really enjoyed this post. I like the part where you talked about ruining your opportunities by bringing preconceived notions to the table. It sounds so simple, but I always teach my salespeople to start out the conversation by asking some key questions and listening. As the old adage goes:"Tellin aint sellin!"
Reply to this