You’re doing your customer a favor!

One of the things that frustrates me the most about salespeople is when they feel they have to beg their customers. That they have to beg them for a meeting; that they have to beg them for a quote; and that they have to beg them for the order.

What does that say about you as a salesperson if you feel that you have to beg your customer for anything? Let’s face it, if you honestly felt that you had the best product or service in the world, then you would act like you are doing your customer a favor and not the other way around.

So many times, when I am in a sales meeting I hear the fear in a salesperson’s voice. I can actually feel the lack of confidence coming off them. I can sense the fear in their voices even when they are just talking about talking to a customer!

Why is that? Don’t they believe in their products? Don’t they believe in themselves? Obviously not. 

If you do not believe that you are selling the best products possible, if you do not believe with all of your heart that you are offering your customers the best solutions possible then you are in the wrong business.

Okay, I can hear you all the way up here in the great state of Maine saying that your company messes up once in a while, that there are real reasons why you are not that confident that you have the best product. That you feel the company could do better. And yes you are probably right. But that’s not your job. Your job is to present your company and its products in the best light possible., Your job if you want to be successful is to convince your customers that you are providing them with the best solutions possible. Yes, your job is to not only speak with confidence, but actually exude confidence from every pore of your being.

Selling with confidence is essential for success and you have to find ways to make sure you are always selling with confidence.

First you have to have confidence in yourself. You have to be completely self-assured. You have to believe that you indeed are the best salesperson selling the best product in the world and this starts with product knowledge. You know every detail about the product, including its features, benefits, and unique selling points.

Next you have to be passionate. Nothing sells like passion. Your enthusiasm and passion for the product are evident in your voice and body language. Confidence is all about passion. And the better you communicate that knowledge and passion the better you will do. You have to be able to articulate the value of the product clearly and persuasively, addressing any potential objections effectively.

The best way to demonstrate the value of your product is to tell stories. Customers love stories. Heck everyone loves stories. If you go into a meeting fully armed with interesting and appealing stories demonstrating the success of your products, the more engaged the customer will become. The great thing about great stories is that they are repeatable. When you relate a great success story about your company and your product to a buyer she will remember that story and pass it on as justification when she explains to the rest of her company why she decided to choose your products. 

And testimonials, your own customers bragging about what you’ve done for them…in writing no less. Thi is the absolute best way to get your positive message across. Testimonials from great companies are the absolute best. Success loves company and if you have testimonials from some of your market’s big-name companies, your prospective customers will want to jump on that bandwagon!

Focus on what your customers’ needs are. If you have done your homework as all greatly confident salespeople do, you will know all about this potential customer. You will know what their specific needs are, and you will be pre-armed with a complete list of just how in the end you can meet and even exceed those needs. There is nothing more impressive to a potential customer than realizing that you “feel their pain,” you know what they need, and you can satisfy those needs for them. In short you are demonstrating to the customer that you know his company as well as he does. And that yes you did him a big favor by coming to meet with him today. And you are doing him an even bigger favor by allowing him to buy from your company. 

Confidence is what sales is all about. Believing in your company, your products and services and of course yourself, is the only way to be successfully selling. It’s only common sense.