Archive for Category: Features vs Benefits

Valuable lessons learnt in sales as we welcome 2016

Today is the last day of 2015.Let us look at the valuable lessons in sales we’ve shared across the year. As is tradition, and in keeping with the New Year cheer, herewith highlights of the Sales Pitch year. 2015 promises to be the year you want it to be, this column assured us in January.

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Asking ‘So?’ will let you look outwards to the buyer and the sale, not inwards to you

How do you get to speak in the language that connects with the buyer? By asking, “So?”. Virtually all in-house sales training busy themselves with product knowledge. So if I’m selling waste-water treatment equipment, my in-house training will focus on the types of plants we have, their specifications, what they can do and how they

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Align your objectives to buyer’s for a faster close

Aligning (instead of conflicting) your objectives to that of the buyer, will more likely progress the sale to fruition, faster. What’s the objective of a client meeting? The average seller will dismissively say, “Duh! To make a sale, of course.” The same question to the buyer will yield this sombre response: “To get information”. Conflicting

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Sell the Experience to close faster and get repeat sales

Sell the experience. I mean, what brings you more compelling memories? The five star hotel you stayed in or the treatment you got while there? The house you grew up in or the playful noises (or painful abuses) in it? The Caterpillar hiking boots, or the tiring yet exhilarating Mt Kenya hike? I’m willing to

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Product superiority isn’t sales superiority

Product superiority is about managing perceptions through sales superiority. And perception, being amorphous, changes with time. “The salesperson who has the superior product has an easier time selling.” True or false? I get asked. It’s not as simplistic as that, I say. Think through this with me. News is news, yet the Daily Nation has

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Product knowledge alone is not enough to clinch you that sale

Product knowledge is not enough. It needs to be sold. “Excuse me Sir; do you know the bank is giving away credit cards for free?” I’m sure that statement has stopped you short. Who offers credit for free?!…and that’s the point exactly. It caught your attention In a workshop I recently conducted, the true essence

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What Maslow’s hierarchy of needs teaches us about selling

To thrive the salesperson must make the discussion, not about the lowest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in selling, but the levels above it. And the levels above it are all emotional. The progressive salesperson plays in this emotional space. The Chairman of a renowned multinational manufacturing concern once startled his staff when he

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Three lessons in selling from a hawker

Something interesting happened to me as I was fueling recently. A hawker walked up to my car and politely asked if he could tell me something about the wipers. Intrigued, and not being much of a car enthusiast, I agreed. And the ensuing sale inspired these three lessons in selling from a hawker But first,

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