Selling Simplified 4 - Text
Two Fundamental Factors
I have been involved in sales and persuasion for a long time in many different fields. I've trained a lot of sales people, sold things from million dollar homes to ten dollar ads (one ad sold for $158,150.00). It is my observation that most people, who fail do so because they give up too easily. To succeed at anything you must be so determined to succeed, that failure isn't even in your vocabulary. I will have a lot more to say about determination up ahead, but right now I want to share a revelation with you. It has been my experience that people give up quickest when things just look too complicated for them to figure out. When they just can't seem to get a handle on what they are dealing with. They're flummoxed, bewildered to the point of quitting.
It's the same with sales or trying to persuade someone to your way of thinking. I have seen countless individuals with great promise of success; give up prematurely because the process just looked too complicated. It is for that reason, some years ago as a sales trainer, I developed a very simplified way of looking at the sales process.
Regardless of what you are selling, I want you to recognize this simple fact: in sales you are always dealing with just two fundamental factors. The product and the price, the cost and the concept, now isn't that simple?
Some will insist on adding quality, service and terms as third, fourth and fifth factors in selling and that's perfectly O. K. But, quality obviously has to do with the product and good service in today's competitive market had better be a given. As far as terms being a separate category, terms are obviously part of the price because terms usually revolve around time and time is money.
So, it seems to me that it simplifies and clarifies the sales process if you begin with the understanding that, in sales you are dealing with two factors, the product and the price, the cost or the concept. Selling is always about the relationship between these two fundamental factors. It is always a question of the product's appeal in the mind of the customer in relation to the price of the product.
You might really want a new television set but you are not going to pay ten thousand dollars for it. The question will always be: is the product worth the asking price in the mind of the buyer? If the buyer can see how the product will solve a problem, meet a need, or fulfill a desire, then, if it is priced fairly and competitively, and if the buyer has the money, then she will likely buy it.
The initial objective, therefore, of the sales presentation is to sell the concept. To demonstrate the product is worth the price. We do this by focusing the customer's attention on the features, advantages and benefits of the product or service. Specifically, to point out how the product or service will solve the buyer's problem, meet a need or fulfill a desire and therefore is worth the asking price.
If the customer is sold on the concept, i.e. She really loves what you are selling because she can see how it would solve the problem or meet the need, but, for some reason, is not buying it, what would you say is the problem? Wouldn't it have to be price, since price and product or cost and concept are the only two factors involved and we said she loves the concept. Then, if she isn't buying, the problem has to be the price. She either wants to hold on to her money more then she wants to solve the problem or she just doesn't have the money.
Too bad for you if the customer wants it but can't quite afford the price and what you are selling has no flexibility in the pricing side of the equation. If you can't offer the customer a price concession or discount, as an inducement to buy, then you better hope you have little or no competition. Now, what some companies do to compensate for the lack of price flexibility is they offer latitude in terms (which I consider part of the price) or they provide better service then the competition (which is to my way of thinking, part of the product's appeal). No matter how you slice it, in sales it is simple; you are dealing with either the product or the price.
Mystifyingly Hard.
If all those who gave up prematurely had only looked at the sales process in this simplified manner, if they had seen it as a case of cost and concept, product and price I’m very confident they would not have been so mystified. Those with the potential for an incredibly rewarding career in sales, perhaps would not have dropped out and returned to the deceptively alluring security of a nine to five job. The promise of a steady paycheck every Friday is very tempting but it can imprison you and keep you from reaching your maximum potential. You are shackled by your own fear. This is unfortunate because only in sales do you have the opportunity for unlimited advancement and income.
One of the great attractions the sales profession has over most other fields is you will not be held back from your maximum potential because of some arbitrary factor like race, sex or age. Only in sales are we allowed to rise unencumbered to the level our own talent and ability will take us. Your advancement and income level in sales is strictly driven by your own merit. That is one of the things I love most about this profession.
Fairly early in my sales training career I developed this simplified approach to the sales process to encourage more of those with the promise of great success to stick with sales until they have mastered the techniques that will assure they will achieve their maximum potential in life.