feature
When selling, don’t be By Darren Fleming
ABOVE: This guy obviously cares more about himself than his customers. Would you buy from him?
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e’ve all seen the sales techniques that are just plain icky. They rely on tricks to get the customer to buy. The Three Yes Close, the Alternate Close and the old favourite, the “I’ll have to check with my boss” close, all try to trick the customer into buying. The problem with this style of selling is it makes you look like a dick. It plays the customer for a mug who can’t spot the 1980s sales tactics that makes everyone feel icky.
“Take your time and consider what has just been said by the potential customer. Consider what they have said before you reply.” More recent styles of selling have relied on feature/ benefits selling. This involves telling the potential customer the features your product or service has and how that will benefit them. 50 SPLASH! June/July 2020
While this is important for the customer to know, it makes selling all about the seller and not the buyer. Sales conversations that involve a lot of features/ benefits see the sales person talking more than the buyer. The sales person becomes a dump truck dropping a heap of information on a buyer in the hope that they will buy. While this type of selling is much better than the 1980s tactics, they still make you look pushy. The sales conversation is focused on the sales person and what they want to sell. It sees sales people speaking about how their pools are great, their service top notch and how they have great reviews on a social media platform. But this style of selling blocks the buyer from the conversation. When the sales person talks about what they have and why it is good it prevents the customer from emotionally connecting to what is being sold. You are being a self-centred dick. When we talk in any conversation we are investing in it and the outcomes it produces. (This is why sales rejection hurts so much. We invest in the sales process and that investment is rejected. It’s the