Is Selling Simple or Complicated?
Is Selling Simple or Complicated?
Before I start to specifically talk about selling, I'd like to first discuss 'complicated' versus 'simple'.
In the past we have been taught to respect and value the 'complicated.' Whole industries have cropped up to make complicated products, to convince us we need these complicated products and to then help us use these complicated products.
On the other hand, in the past we have not respected or valued the 'simple'. The simple is seen as common sense and by definition, since it's 'common' sense, its perceived value is diminished.
The absolute irony is that to make something complicated is simple and to make something simple is complicated! To make something simple requires a lot of effort and skill. To make something simple often requires a lot more time and expense than to make it complicated.
Recently people have started to demand the simple in their lives and are seeing the value in simple. Simplicity now sells and people are even starting to pay more money for the simple.
Now let's come back to selling and whether it is complicated or simple.
I think that not only have we been convinced that selling is complicated but we also use the perspective that selling is complicated as an excuse. Let me explain further.
We have been told that selling is complicated. We have been convinced that:
* As the products we are selling get more and more complicated, the selling of these complicated products must by definition get more complicated as well.
* As the number of people involved in making a single purchasing decision increases, the more complicated the selling becomes.
Since we've been convinced that selling is complicated, we believe we need complicated sales processes and sales tools in order to sell. As a result, lots of companies have appeared over the years to offer us complicated sales training and complicated sales tools that we believe we need because we believe selling is complicated. These companies make a lot of money from our beliefs and their very existence relies on us continuing to hold the belief that selling is complicated.
Complexity provides us with many additional sources of excuses and gives us the ability to cover up our failures. If you are selling complicated products, you can use the excuse that a prospect failed to see the value because the products are so complicated. If it is taking a long time for your prospect to make a decision, you can make the excuse that selling is complicated as there are lots of people involved. You could go on and on making excuses because selling is complicated.
I would like to propose that selling is not in fact complicated; it is in fact quite simple.
Even if the product you are selling is complicated, so what? You are not selling a complicated product; you are selling a solution to a problem. Your selling strategy and focus is around the solution to your prospect's problem and not around your complicated product. Whether your product is complicated or simple should not be relevant to the sales conversation.
Also, even if the number of people involved in the buying decision grows, you will still be having sales conversations with individuals. The only difference when many people are involved is that you will be having sales conversations with multiple people. These sales conversations will be identical with respect to the process and principles. What you do with the information gathered from these sales conversations is identical no matter how many people are involved in the buying process.
If you are willing to take on the belief that selling is simple and you are prepared to give up the excuses you can use if you believe selling is complicated, then what is your next step?
With respect to what's next, I recommend that you look at the sales process you are using and if it is complicated, replace it with a simple sales process.
Commit to finding and learning a simple, end-to-end, sales process that focuses on selling solutions to problems (as opposed to selling products) and which works whether one person or many people are involved in the buying decision. If you do, you will naturally be a lot more successful at selling and you will enjoy it a lot more too.
Selling really is simple. Simple sells. Try it and see.
(c)2008 Tessa Stowe, Sales Conversation. WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEBSITE? Yes, you can, provided you make all links live and include this copyright and by-line below.
Is Selling Simple or Complicated - To learn more about this author, visit Tessa Stowe's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
I'd like you to take a moment right now and, before you continue reading this article, decide whether you think selling is simple or complicated? Please now read on.
Before I start to specifically talk about selling, I'd like to first discuss 'complicated' versus 'simple'.
In the past we have been taught to respect and value the 'complicated.' Whole industries have cropped up to make complicated products, to convince us we need these complicated products and to then help us use these complicated products.
On the other hand, in the past we have not respected or valued the 'simple'. The simple is seen as common sense and by definition, since it's 'common' sense, its perceived value is diminished.
The absolute irony is that to make something complicated is simple and to make something simple is complicated! To make something simple requires a lot of effort and skill. To make something simple often requires a lot more time and expense than to make it complicated.
Recently people have started to demand the simple in their lives and are seeing the value in simple. Simplicity now sells and people are even starting to pay more money for the simple.
Now let's come back to selling and whether it is complicated or simple.
I think that not only have we been convinced that selling is complicated but we also use the perspective that selling is complicated as an excuse. Let me explain further.
We have been told that selling is complicated. We have been convinced that:
* As the products we are selling get more and more complicated, the selling of these complicated products must by definition get more complicated as well.
* As the number of people involved in making a single purchasing decision increases, the more complicated the selling becomes.
Since we've been convinced that selling is complicated, we believe we need complicated sales processes and sales tools in order to sell. As a result, lots of companies have appeared over the years to offer us complicated sales training and complicated sales tools that we believe we need because we believe selling is complicated. These companies make a lot of money from our beliefs and their very existence relies on us continuing to hold the belief that selling is complicated.
Complexity provides us with many additional sources of excuses and gives us the ability to cover up our failures. If you are selling complicated products, you can use the excuse that a prospect failed to see the value because the products are so complicated. If it is taking a long time for your prospect to make a decision, you can make the excuse that selling is complicated as there are lots of people involved. You could go on and on making excuses because selling is complicated.
I would like to propose that selling is not in fact complicated; it is in fact quite simple.
Even if the product you are selling is complicated, so what? You are not selling a complicated product; you are selling a solution to a problem. Your selling strategy and focus is around the solution to your prospect's problem and not around your complicated product. Whether your product is complicated or simple should not be relevant to the sales conversation.
Also, even if the number of people involved in the buying decision grows, you will still be having sales conversations with individuals. The only difference when many people are involved is that you will be having sales conversations with multiple people. These sales conversations will be identical with respect to the process and principles. What you do with the information gathered from these sales conversations is identical no matter how many people are involved in the buying process.
If you are willing to take on the belief that selling is simple and you are prepared to give up the excuses you can use if you believe selling is complicated, then what is your next step?
With respect to what's next, I recommend that you look at the sales process you are using and if it is complicated, replace it with a simple sales process.
Commit to finding and learning a simple, end-to-end, sales process that focuses on selling solutions to problems (as opposed to selling products) and which works whether one person or many people are involved in the buying decision. If you do, you will naturally be a lot more successful at selling and you will enjoy it a lot more too.
Selling really is simple. Simple sells. Try it and see.
(c)2008 Tessa Stowe, Sales Conversation. WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEBSITE? Yes, you can, provided you make all links live and include this copyright and by-line below.
Is Selling Simple or Complicated - To learn more about this author, visit Tessa Stowe's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
|||
George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
|||
Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
|||
John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
|||
Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
|||
Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Tessa's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
|
||
|
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Challenges Of Change EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES LIABILITY Pro-Forma Template Ethos Mentor's Services Tips for QuickBooks Backup |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Diversion Blogs
Top Diversion Blogs of 2009 | |
 |
Email The Reporters
Press Release Builder | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||