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Don’t Forget to Answer this Question When Selling

Written by: Cheryl A. Clausen

Article Overview: Sometimes you get so wrapped up in what you are selling and the business of trying to sell you overlook some of the most basic things required to sell. One of the basic things you must do when selling is answer this question for your potential buyers.

Don’t Forget to Answer this Question When Selling

Sometimes you get so wrapped up in what you are selling and the business of trying to sell you overlook some of the most basic things required to sell. One of the basic things you must do when selling is answer this question for your potential buyers. Why would I want that? Here's why you don't answer the question. You get caught up in talking about the various features your product or service offers. Plus you use your terminology to talk about those features.

Even buyers well educated on your particular product or service do not know all the terminology. When you presume they do understand all the terminology you both lose. You lose because using terminology buyers don't understand does not help your sales efforts. They lose because they don't understand how the feature associated with the terminology would actually help them get or avoid something important to them.

I was recently reminded of this common error when upgrading my computer. While I'm very adept with technology and do know a lot of the terminology I certainly don't know all the terminology. Why should I? I only need to know what's important in achieving the things I want the technology to help me achieve.

One of the features the sales person rattled off was "blue". Uh? I had to ask what is "blue". Once I understood that "blue" meant it was Bluetooth ready so I could use wireless accessories I was willing to pay extra to get the feature.

When you're selling a tangible product a buyer is already familiar with, like a computer, it's much easier to deal with the "Why would I want that?" question.

When you're dealing with intangible services, if you try to sell your service in terms of features you won't get the opportunity to answer "Why would I want that?" You won't get to answer the question because the potential buyer won't ask it. Therefore, you have to make sure you don't put the potential buyer in a position to need to ask that question.

Talking about your services in terms of features is a horrible way to approach selling any business service. The big reason why this doesn't work is because you can't sell a service until you've helped the potential buyer uncover a desire for the service in the first place. Buyers already want something. Those buyers must understand how your service helps them get it. Then you can discover what specific things your potential buyer wants as a result of the service. While getting those things is tied to your features buyers want to hear about outcomes not features. When you focus on the outcomes the buyer won't have to wonder, "Why would I want that?"

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Article Tags: answer the question, sales efforts, sales person, tangible product, wireless accessories



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