I have worked with a lot of people lately who have attended other people’s sales training programs and yet not getting results. The problem has NOT been the training itself but the fact that they were trying to sell the wrong thing.
Conventional sales training might teach you how to sell but it does not teach you WHAT to sell. It’s a classic mistake for people selling services to be trying to sell their specific services rather than seeking to solve specific problems their
target audience experience.
Take Catherine for example:
Catherine is a highly talented coach who has worked with lots of people on a variety of different issues. So far she has got her clients from personal recommendations but Catherine wanted to speed up the process. I explained to her that most people are not looking for a coach and have no idea that coaching can help them with their problems. Catherine was a little taken aback at that assertion. She had paid a lot for her coaching training and was given the impression that everyone was looking for a coach. Reality had begun to set in!!
People do not buy a drill, they buy a hole. People do not by coaching but what coaching will give them.
We started to go through the people that Catherine worked with and where she had the most passion combined with credibility. It turned out that Catherine loved to work with people who hated their jobs but did not know what to do with their careers. What Catherine realised that what she should be selling is fulfilling and well paid careers. In fact, she quickly realised that coaching is just ONE way she could earn money from helping people achieve a fulfilling and well paid careers. Catherine also started to realise ways in which she could attract these people to her and soft ways of encouraging them to start to spend money and also recommending her to their friends. She felt so inspired that she went from inactivity to masses of action in the weeks that followed.
How about you? Do you know
What you are selling? Take a moment to check that you are selling what your prospects want and not what you do. Take a look at where your passion lies and combine that with your credibility and you too could start to feel even more
inspired than you already do.
Best wishes
Richard
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on Oct 5th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Raises interesting angles this post Richard:
1. You’re selling yourself and have to take focus off yourself to do it
2. You are selling a result such as an improved situation, financial or otherwise, for the other person.
There are times when the other person is unsure of what they want. In those situations, better to have them focus on what they want to avoid.
Usually they’ll know one or the other.
Great post…again!