Perspective: The Real Truth That May or May Not Be... But Must Be Sold To

From What Perspective Do We See The Crash?

• The person at fault
• The injured person
• The paramedic
• The police officer
• The spouse of the injured person
• The children of the injured person
• The boss of the injured
• The people who will have to take over the work of the injured
• The lawyer of the injured
• The lawyer of the person at fault
• The people a mile+ back
• The people coming up on the accident
• The people who just passed the accident and can move again
• The parents of the injured
• The parents of the person at fault
• The people who need to clean up the mess
• Yours

When you are in a sales presentation, how many perspectives are there? How many have you considered? Are you focused on just yours? Maybe you are considering his but he is considering his boss’ or coworker’s?

Perspective is the only truth and reality to each individual and although each perspective may be different, they are all true to the person with their respective perspective. Therefore, by selling the features you think are cool, they may see your feature as a problem. So what is the solution since you can’t read their mind and guys are not as intuitive as their wives? ;-)

When you offer a feature you need to find out a few things-- proper open ended questions will bring some or all of it out. “All of it” comes when they finally feel they can trust you. You break down those barriers by letting them speak and reveal. So, once you’ve offered a feature; what kind of questions should you ask? Something like:

• Who, in your company will benefit most by this feature?
• How would you best utilize this feature?
• What impact will this feature have on your business?
• Where will this feature fit in your operation?
• When will this feature need to be implemented?
• Why wouldn’t this feature solve your problem?

Get them speaking and they will sell themselves. Get them speaking and they will trust you more because they feel you understand them. Push your presentation and they will be skeptical. They know you will only show your best highlights but wonder what is in the fine print. Remember, in these days, they have the internet to search you out and read reviews about your product and services so if you are spouting off about how wonderful you are but don’t address a negative review they just read, then the trust factor diminishes. If you never give them the chance to express their fears based on a review they read, they will be reluctant to go with you even if you have the better product over your competition.

Get them speaking so you can find out which perspective is the most important, then see it from that perspective and sell what is important to them. Take life insurance; are they looking at it for their benefit? They are looking from the perspective of who will be left when they are gone and how they would feel if they were left in their loved one's position. Get them speaking so they will trust you more. Get them speaking so you can make a friend. Get them speaking because people buy from friends they trust.

About the Author

Scott L. Taylor is the author of The Opportunity In Every Problem” Mentor for unemployed and ex-offenders who are trying to get back into business society, and Director of Sales & Marketing for Cloudia Assistant. He is passionate about leadership, ethics, entrepreneurship, sports, positive reinforcement, motivational thinking, and loves helping individuals and organizations realize their potential and take the steps necessary to achieve it.

For more information, check out his LinkedIn profile, follow him or view the Cloudia Assistant website, www.cloudiaassistant.com.