My apologies for the directive title of this blog. Believe me; I have the right intentions. My goal for the last three years has been inspiring salespeople worldwide to change the way they sell. And I truly understand how difficult that is. After all, you have been trained, like hundreds of thousands of sales reps, to sell the way you sell. And your sales approach is still working. So why would you change if you are achieving your targets?
Opportunities are probably coming out of your ears. Customers and prospects are reaching out to you. They have supply chain issues and are looking for solutions. They know that you can provide. Your commission check is waiting again for you at the end of the quarter. It’s hard to believe that this will all end one day. But it will. We will return to normal, although hybrid situations are what we need to get accustomed to. And when that time comes, I want you to be prepared. Because then it will not be you who has the power of information (the solutions you sell), but it will be the Buyer. They will put your proposals in a spreadsheet, compare them line by line, and cherry-pick what they need. They will squeeze your price like a lemon because your competitor sales rep is proposing exactly the same. According to the Buyer, you now look equal, so if the price becomes the only differentiator, why wouldn’t the Buyer grab that negotiation advantage?
When that time comes for you–and many sales execs are feeling this already– you find yourself in a different world. You and your solutions are commoditized. And in that world, you are looking for ways to differentiate. So what do you need to do differently to have your business card in the top drawer of the customer? Why would they call you back to a second meeting and not your competitor sales rep?
The answer is to see the world from a buyers perspective. By that time, you need to have moved on from solution selling. Although you still sell solutions, you need to adapt to a different Discovery Process of getting there. You need to have the customer’s business goals and challenges in mind and come with the information they cannot find on the internet. During that conversation, you let the customer discover something about themselves. They realize that their current setup may not get the results they are looking for. You know:
- Where stakeholders in the buying group are in their buying process.
- How to influence them
- How to identify and overcome Hidden Competitors
- How to use your business acumen
- How to build consensus
During that Discovery, customers recognize risks they didn’t realize before. With your help, they see business opportunities to grab when changing. To be able to have that conversation, you need to sell with the Buyer’s perspective. You need to flip concepts on their head. You need to adapt to thrive. If not, your job will be in danger. Buyers won’t call you back for a second meeting, or if they do, they will squeeze you on price. So get ready now and stop thinking the way you have been trained to think.
Take action now and learn how to Sell with the Buyer’s Perspective.
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