I have a new mantra;
The best sales people can make the sale
without almost ever having to talk about
their product
When we are talking about our product, we’re NOT talking about the customers business. (There is one exception, I’ll get to that in a minute) When we’re talking about our product we’re focused on our need and not our customers. The best sales people sell by focusing on the customers; issues, challenges, needs, motivations, drivers, business metrics processes and more.
The best sales people can have a long conversation without ever talking about their product and by the end have the prospect wanting what they sell. The key to selling is to lead prospects to the sale through their own perspective, their own view of the world.
How long are your conversations before you start talking about your product? Can you sell without talking about your product.
The only time it’s OK to talk about your product is when the prospect is so ready to buy what you have to sell, they say; “OK, what do you have that can address everything we’ve been talking about.”
Once the client realizes you know enough to help them and they start asking you to talk about your product, then talking about your product is OK. Until then, don’t!
So true. My recommendation about when it’s time to talk about the product is to tell stories about how other clients have used the product. But, only based on listening to the client sufficiently that you can tell stories that are relevant to them.
I understand what you are getting at, but I think it is a bit of an oversimplification of the interaction. I can show someone I understand their business and am incredibly knowledgeable about what might be important to them, I can listen for an hour straight and I can frame the conversation around their needs till I am blue in the face, but at the end of the day the product/service is critical to the interaction.
Buyers will give you acccess, will walk through the buying process with you and will help make the sale based on all the things you talk about above and have talked about on your blog in the past. But if you have a crap product, they know it, will sniff it out and won’t put their butt on the line to buy a crap product from a really good sales person.
Completely agree, nothing can or should help a crap product!
I couldn’t agree more.
I’ve said the same thing for years even though it often gets that tilted
head, curious, “what the heck are you talking about” look. And the kick to conventional wisdom this
represents makes it even more appealing to me.
In fact I believe in this idea so much that we’ve built an App to help
drive this kind of sales interaction.
That said, sometimes we’re forced to talk about our product
before we want to. Ironically, this is many
times driven by the prospect, “just show me what you got.” And whether or not this is a result of not
managing the conversation correctly or not, it happens. The key is to talk about the product in the
context of its value – in as customized a way to that particular prospect as
possible – not the features and functions.
Loved the post!
It is tough when prospects drive you to talk about the product too quickly. It makes things harder for everyone. Let’s get things on the table first. Let’s see if there even is anything to solve for first.
agreed.
sorry for the poor formatting on my note, btw.
pat@getmyroi.com
makes sense..
great post Jim. I’m a life long product marketer / manager (well not quite) and fully believe understanding customers business issues is the only way to add significant value the customer relationship. Product focused sales are not only harder, but generally result in lower value deals.
I’m not 100% sure my wife would let me get this post tattooed on my chest….wonder what the next best option is?