Sellers out to offer solutions, accept that their product has limitations but will not stop at seeking a solution for the prospect. Your product has limitations; it is not a panacea to all the client’s needs. This is a pill most salespeople struggle to swallow. It does not help matters when selling is seen as
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When selling luxury items, with understanding in hand, and getting out of your own way, intimidation by such opulence is lessened. “A pair of shoes for Kes. 280,000. That’s a bargain for Kenya’s billionaire club.” So screamed the Daily Nation story. The story went on to report, “…that an elite group of only 25,000 people
Don’t over think it. At the end of the day, selling is a basic human interaction. Learn from social interactions. It is the imagination that it’s not, that magnifies a molehill into a mountain in your mind; it’s the unnecessary painstaking analysis that freezes you in a paralysis. And what the mind cannot handle the
Avoid communication breakdown. “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. (George Bernard Shaw) Generally, in life, this predicament is the cause of many arguments; specifically, in selling, it is the cause of many lost sales. One of the exercises we do is my sessions has all the delegates
As the progressive salesperson you are, where knowing your competition is concerned, you cannot afford to be flying blind. Have facts about rivals. In a session I had a while back, I was disturbed at how little the delegates knew of their competition. Their average sales experience was two years and yet they struggled to
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
One lunch hour in Mombasa, my son and I walked into a supermarket and our nostrils were accosted by an aroma. We followed it to find two cheerful ladies grilling and selling the brand of sausages their aprons displayed, at a hundred bob a piece. We had ours grilled as we paid. Two hundred shillings
“But they have just come from a training; why aren’t they performing?” A common lamentation among managers in an organization, upset as to why the newly trained, highly charged, novice salesman isn’t closing business. These managers are unaware that sales people (on recruitment and after training) need an incubation period. Selling is much akin to
Negotiations are key to securing value with the customer. Here’s an example how. The other day I couldn’t get a head massage at my barber’s because the masseuse wasn’t in. So I asked him for the refund equivalent. I laughed at his witty response: “To compensate, next time you’ll get a longer massage.” And just
Love what you hate. Instead of complaining that the walk-in client only wanted a quote and won’t buy, invite him on a tour of the showroom as the quote is prepared. I drove though three successive fuel stations seeking air for my tires and received three successive, “haifanyi” (the pressure pump isn’t working), and, therefore,
giving quotes is frustrating, Love hate relationship, yin and yang
Human Interaction, Listening, Managing Sales Process, Relationship Building