REVERSE ENGINEERING THE SALES PROCESS ~ 1/3

Closing sales is tough. Let’s admit it. There is no “No sales” conversation when you talk to a prospect. Either you convince them (Sale) or they convince you (Rejection).

Most of the times, You cannot convince them. That is bitter reality. You have to get used to hearing NO. You will hear NO more frequently than YES. So the more times you will hear NO, the more YES you will get. There is correlation between both. It can be, 1 YES for 10 NOs, or 5 or 20.

#1 Get accustomed to hearing NO: Lesson # 1 is, You should get accustomed to hearing NO if you want to be successful. This separates great sales people from others. An average sales person loses heart here. A great sales person gets feedback, learns his lesson and moves on. Put your ego aside and focus on larger objectives. If you learn how to sell, your job is done. The rest is detail. 

#2 Sell experience, not the product. What are customers buying exactly. Are they buying your product or service? No! They are paying for the result that they will get out of it. They are buying experience. They have dreams, fears and hopes. Can you take them out of their fears? Can you help them live their dreams? Can you give them hope that they will move one step closer to what they wish to be once they buy your product? If you can show them how great their experience will be, it will have a major impact. Ever wonder why it is easier to decide on products where they activate our imagination? Families living happily and people enjoying their vacation. 

#3 Selling is transferring enthusiasm from seller to buyer. 

Before selling it, You were enthusiastic about your product. The customer buys it and now they feel equally excited. How about iPhone 11? How about a high ticket real estate purchase. As soon as buyer gets it, they should feel equally excited as you were before selling the product. 

And this enthusiasm should be on display while you are selling. There should be lot of excitement in your voice, body postures, the way you present and talk to your customers, every single moment of it should be filled with excitement about the product. 

4. Understand the type of customer you are selling to: 

There are 3 types of buying decisions we make: 

Emotional

Logical

Brainless

Brainless decisions are where we don’t spend any effort thinking about our purchase. It does not excite us anymore but we still buy. They are wired in our brains since long. We have been doing it over and over. Buying groceries, there are patterns that we follow each time we buy these products. Have to pick one loaf of bread among other options. Are we really buying from the best company? 

Logical: And then there are customers who try to make sense out of what they buy. They analyze features, compare prices and make informed decisions. Normally we see these customers in high ticket sales or B2B sales. They calculate return on investment before making a decision. They deeply analyze how a specific product will impact their lives or organization. 

Emotional: But most of the times, we are just falling for our emotions. Reptilian brain takes control of our logical brain. We like to buy coke or pepsi since they release dopamine. We like brands where our favorite celebrity endorsed the product. Many times, We make buying decisions on impulse without going into detail. 

Buying a perfume or body spray: Emotional decision.

Buying a new power generator for your manufacturing plant: Logical decision 

How do you define a high ticket real estate item? Well it is both logical and emotional. Logical because You want to buy the land which appreciates. Emotional because this might be the piece of land of your dreams and having purchased it, you will feel the sense of accomplishment.

Customer attrition is defined as, switching from existing or alternate products to your product. In sales, we want attrition in our favor. But Why would customers do that? They are already using a product or service. Why would they switch to another: 

If they are making brainless purchase, You need to confuse them first. Confusion is good, it helps people think more. Confuse them by raising awareness. Talk about features that they didn’t think about. Then step up efforts to get noticed as an alternate product. Another strategy is, since customer doesn’t really care about brands differentiation and they are buying it, You need to keep an eye on competitors. You need to increase sales efforts as soon as your competitor falters. If customers make brainless purchase without differentiating among brands, develop a good distribution strategy and maximize your presence. 

If they are making logical decisions, You need to be good at numbers and logic. Quantify how much your product will save money or generate more money as compared to your competitors. Prove to them that you have a better product or it is as promising as others. 

If they are making emotional decisions most of the time, You need to sell dreams. You need to sell experience. Fear sells and happiness sells. How they will feel once they have it. Everyone has dreams to fulfill. Everyone has fears that they want to come out of. 

5. Have strong belief in what you are selling: As a sales person, You need to have full belief in what you are selling. If you are not sure what you are talking about, it will reflect in your body language. You won’t be able to make as much sales. Your heart isn’t fully sold to this product. I say, if you are not sure what you are selling, you should better quit this product or think about redesigning the product based on prospects feedback. 

How to develop this belief? Solve customer’s problems! 

6. Develop a problem solving product ~ PSP formula: If you have a problem solving product (PSP) and You know You are solving the problem, You will have much more confidence selling the product.

 When it was launched, Facebook solved a problem of social connectivity. Google solved a problem to search internet with much better Page rank algorithm. Gmail solved the problem of low storage capacity mailboxes. Tesla solved the problem of fuel consumption. All successful companies that you look around developed products which solved real problems for customers. 

7. Solve their problem ~ Reverse engineer the sales process: Having said that, lets reverse engineer the sale process. Here are 8 steps to sales process. Read these points from #8 to #1 to understand a sales process. 

1. Customer buys your product or service 
2. Customer wants your product or service 
3. Customer is aware of product or service
4. Customer’s attention gets diverted towards your product or service 
5. Customer wants their problem to be solved
6. Customer knows there is a problem
7. Qualifying customer 
8. Introducing yourself to customer 

If you analyze this reverse engineered sales process, there are few things that you must do. For example, getting customers attention or qualifying customers. However, the most important of all steps is customer having a problem. If you are not solving their problem, You are wasting your time. You have to love their problem, not the solution that you have perceived about it. The solution has to be endorsed by customers and they will endorse it by paying you.

8. Listen to your customers. Listen to me! Listen to your customers. 

When you go to a prospect, listen to them. Listen to the problem they are having. Practise consultative selling. Advise them how your product can solve their problem. You may need to tweak the product because they may not need the product as is. Even worse, they may not need your product at all. But you know what. Developing a connection is more important than making a sale. If you show empathy towards their problems, they might refer someone else to you. 

Sell a product ~ Get commission 

Make a friend ~ Get commission for life 

Remember, Great products are co-created with customers. 

9. Care for your prospects: Having problem solving attitude and caring reduces risk for prospects. They feel more comfortable talking to you. You need to establish during conversation that it is all about the prospect, not you. You need to show empathy towards the problem they are having. 

When you go to a doctor, did it ever happen that they ask you to lay down and get ready for a surgery? They ask for symptoms, discuss the problem with you or your attendants and explain pros and cons of surgery. As a result, People believe in them. Instead of thinking that doctor is selling their service, people believe that doctors are caring for them. To add to that, people know that they have authority to operate. This authenticity that you can actually do it for them change the whole scenario altogether. 

Part 2 of this article is here: