The ‘spectrum of selling’, from the point of access to success!

No one in selling wants to fail, and indeed I am sure that everyone in sales wants to ‘do well’. If this is true, then we need to remember and clearly understand the saying ‘success begets success’…which simply means that the only way to achieve success is to sell success.

Sadly, a very small percentage of people in sales actually sell success, and so it follows that only a few people ‘do well’ in selling. Some might think that high-achievers in sales are blessed with a positive form of personality, plus greater enthusiasm…and perhaps ‘the gift of the gab’. None of this is true, although there is no argument that high-achievers in sales probably appear to be more positive, more enthusiastic and more articulate. Looks can be deceptive though, because the truth is that successful sales people operate by a higher sense of purpose, and due to this different drive they naturally develop more positive, enthusiastic, expressive ways. Take a footballer that fearlessly fights his way through opposition players; in most cases this is not due to strength, aggression and courage – it is because his purpose is to ‘get the ball’…and yet it might be thought that it is his power or bravery that enables him to fight so hard. The courage and strength of a great footballer are developed as by-products of his purpose to ‘get the ball’, not the other way round. Most footballers are strong and willing to ‘have a go’, but without great purpose these assets cannot be activated in a consistent manner. As an example, the power of a bicycle is found in the back wheel, but it is the front wheel that creates direction…and so power minus purpose equals a tendency to meander, while purpose plus power creates a meaningful journey!

So here is the spectrum of selling, highlighting the three points of ‘purpose’ that drive sales people to oblivion, average achievement or great success:

The point of ‘access’. This position is the worst platform from which to operate, because it represents availability and not ability. This is the area where we find people who ‘have product to sell’, and yet they hardly ever sell much product! Why? Because every customer, in every market, is faced with abundant product access, plus they have a favoured form of buying product…and so when satisfied customers are faced with more ‘product sellers’ they dismiss this weedy breed with ease, and sometimes with rudeness they find hard to contain. ‘The point of access’ then involves a commercial form of begging, in a suit, not rags…but the suit will eventually become rags if this ‘point’ prevails!

The point of ‘excess’. This position involves product access accompanied by big discounts or  ‘special deals’, which will stimulate buying for as long as the discount or deal can be ‘accessed’. The winner in this area is the supplier with the least profit, because most discounters neglect to take new customers to a higher service experience after seducing them with lower prices…and so the new customers go back to their usual buying habits, and the regular customers will have bought enough product to stop them buying for ages!

The point of ‘success’. You probably have no experience of working in the kind of business your customers work in, so how are you supposed to ‘sell success’ to them? The answer lies in the fact that you sell to lots of businesses just like the one your customers work in, and so if you learn how your best customers create the most success with your kind of products…then you will possess proven and positive ideas to sell, and not just products. Customers can buy products anywhere but there is almost nowhere they can turn to find good ideas to create more success with products they buy. To sell success, show customers a ‘worst to best performance spectrum’ relating to your product, and then explain the ‘scale of strategies’ that cause good and bad results, and then lead them to the point of success!

When you make the effort to operate from the point of success, you sell higher results and therefore create greater levels of achievement for your company and yourself. Success begets success.