Member Article

How finding your buyers story can lead to sales success

This article is written by Peter Boolkah, an award winning business consultant who has advised and scaled companies here and in the UK for over 30 years.

A different approach to selling your product or service is crucial to your success in todays market place. Customers want to know that you can solve their problems and help their businesses. They need to know that your expertise or product will make their business run more smoothly and/or gain more customers. Finding out what problems your customer is facing and coming up with a solution is key. Within these conversations it is important to show how you have problem solved with others to make them more successful.

Use your customer relationships and successes to build your customer base. When having conversations with them ask them ‘Is there anybody like you that has a similar problem that might be interested in having a relationship with us?’ Referral selling and getting references are the two most powerful ways of breaking through in a difficult market. Tell your story, your wins and successes and the problems you have solved. Then, think about who is in your peer network that might also benefit from what you are doing. Ask the question ‘Who else like you might benefit from the success we’ve had together?“ You will find that people love being leaders in something positive and sharing it with their peers. It suggests that they are successful and people like to share that idea. If you’ve got a good rapport, people love to make referrals when they’ve had a good experience so ask the question: ‘Is there anybody else you know that can benefit from my service?’

It is important to change your mindset from ‘It’s about me and my product,’ to, ‘It’s about my buyer and the one or two problems I can solve for them.’ This is important to feed into your team. We must be able to demonstrate to our clients how the team can work towards reaching the deliverables and targets we have set to solve their problem. With sales teams ensure that part of their training ensures they know the story of your service and product and are armed with customer successes and how to share them in the right way. Ultimately learn your buyers story too because every buyer has different motivations.

The way we get information has changed thanks to the internet. Twenty years ago our way of ingesting information was more physical, now it is digital and very easily accessible. The internet means that buyers will have done their due diligence and will already have access to a level of information on your company and your product. We must adapt our sales methods ad pitches to take this into consideration. Be a consultant and a trusted advisor in every sales process by helping people focus on the one or two things that really matter about their business. Do your due diligence on their business. We must also understand that people who are part of the buying process tend to be young therefore, their ability to find the information is probably far better than our ability to give them the information.

The decision making process for many businesses is a lot slower today than it ever has been. The number of buyers in a typical sales process is now eight or nine. This is why getting what we call a success statement into that first sales pitch call is so important. It helps focus the conversation and helps your buyer to prioritise early. Otherwise, you may find that Information overload slows down the sales process. Research studies suggest that 80% of sales teams think you have to share all your product information for the customer to make a good decision. This can overwhelm your buyer.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lucy Hood .