Over the last decade we have seen a change in the way customers buy, which results in an alteration in the way we need to sell as well. So what do I mean when I say: “Sales is not about selling”? It basically comes down to the fact that the art of selling has moved on from the 'always be closing', 'sell anything to anyone’ etc. to a more ‘Value Based Selling’ approach.

Sometimes selling is defined as 'persuading someone to buy'. Persuading? That doesn’t sound right. No one should be 'persuading' anyone to buy. For me selling It's about enabling the customer to benefit from what you're providing. A two way process of questions and answers, information sharing, finding common ground between buyer needs and the services we have to offer. The buyer ultimately makes a decision based on the match of the product or service and NOT based on how persuasive the salesperson was.

The salesperson will ultimately be successful more often when he/she truly understands the client's perspective. When they understand that every buyer is different, they can drop the standard sales pitch at that point. The welfare of the client is paramount, so find out what his or her needs really are. Start looking for your added value.

Remember the last time you bought a car? Did the salesperson have his speech ready and wasted no time in delivering it? Did he talk about the specifics of the car, the top speed, economics, tax value etc.? Did he ask to inform about your previous experiences, your previous cars, your buying motivation, where you were in the purchasing cycle? Or did he have his own map and assumed that if he threw everything he had into his pitch, enough will hit the target and you would buy the car. Right? Wrong!

The right way would be for this salesperson to acknowledge that, though he himself might be a petrol head, only a relatively small proportion of car buyers are. By finding out about your car buying reasons he would quickly ascertain what a customer is looking for. What I’m trying to point out is that every one of your potential customers will be different in many ways. Just acknowledging that, will lead to empathy with the customer which you would not have had previously.

This in short shows that what you need to be successful is more insight in the needs and buying motives of your prospects. Start asking them questions. And I don’t mean asking questions to get answers, but asking questions to start understanding your prospects. Sales over the last decade has changed. More and more you see that salespeople need to be aware of the added value they are providing to their customers. They can only achieve this by understanding their customers.

Curious how we help others to improve their teams selling successes? Join our open training in April to learn more about the method of Value Based Selling, and much more! Get in contact.