Sales Training Tip #344: What You Sell is Irrelevant

What you sell is irrelevant. It’s what people buy from you that’s important.

This week’s tip requires a little thinking but I view it this way: If I offer you a steak dinner but you don’t eat it, then what’s the point of me offering you a steak dinner?  Sometimes we get so caught up trying to make our sales offering and sales presentation so cute and neat that we forget to determine if it is even something the customer wants.

Before we can put any offer out in the marketplace, we first have to do some market research to determine if there is even a need to fill.  Too many times we get caught up in our own pursuit of the “shiny object” that we think everyone will want it. We fail to see how the idea doesn’t have any merit outside of our mind or our company’s philosophy.   How many times have we seen companies spend millions of dollars launching a new item, only to see it fail because they didn’t determine if it was even something the customer would be willing to buy.   Ask yourself the following questions:

Does this item / service fill an existing need?

If it does not fill an existing need, am I capable of creating the awareness for the need?

How does this differ from other solutions the customer might be able to use?

Who needs this and how critical is it to them?

What are the top five benefits as to why customers will buy?

When you begin to really answer these questions, you have a clearer picture of what people are willing to buy.

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4 Responses

  1. Bad salespeople think everyone is interested in what they are selling and don’t hesitate to tell people all about it. Good salespeople find out what people want and why they want it before presenting their solutions. Ears first, then the mouth.

  2. I sell a product that lots of people need. The key for me is talking to enough people in order to find prospects who are currently interested in what I sell. Many failed products may have had a market – but the outreach needed to find interested customers may have been missing.
    Further, it’s not enough just to inform buyers about what you are selling. You need a proactive response prompt – a clear reply if a prospect is interested! Otherwise, you may end up helping your competitor make a sale. Here is an article on writing replies and proactive marketing material that may help: http://www.prospectfactory.com/prewritten-prospecting-messages.html Thanks!

  3. Mark your comment makes so much sense. Too often sales people forget about the WIIFM (Whats in it for me?)philosophy. If we simply look at our clients or prospective clients from their “front porch” we can do so much more to help them.

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