By Christopher Thompson
Published Sunday May 17th, 2009 – Union Leader NH Sunday News
How many times have you as a decision maker or consumer encountered the typical sales person who attempts to persuade you with a barrage of speeds and feeds about their product or service? I don’t know about you, but I have experienced it often and it’s starting to get old. It’s actually been old for a while. The product dump and speeds and feeds pitch happens fairly consistently. A sales person gets your ear and all they do is spew out features and characteristics of their product or service that they feel are compelling. This approach is also known as the “spray and pray” technique and is often the root cause for customers shutting down and losing interest early on in the sales process. The simplest way to explain this approach is when a sales person has the mentality that if they “pitch” or tell as many people about their product or service as possible, they will eventually run into someone who will be interested in what they have to say. While this belief may be somewhat true, I have found it to be high on the list of ineffective sales approaches and quite frankly it does nothing but annoy the people who are subjected to the onslaught of hearing how great your product or service is. To be blunt, most people could care less. Sorry if I hurt anyone’s feelings. Anytime a sales person approaches a prospect or customer in a selling situation, there is one main question going through the customer’s mind. That question is; “What’s In It For Me?” I often use the acronym WIIFM, (pronounced “wiffim”) to describe this meaningful question. Unfortunately, the vast majority of sales people get so caught up in their own presentation and approach that they often fail to address this critical question. A customer doesn’t care about the super high quality manufacturing process your company performs on every product. They want to know what that high quality manufacturing process means to them. See where I’m going with this? Trust me when I tell you, this is a very common mistake sales people make and it’s also one that when corrected, can drastically improve the probability that customers will be persuaded by your presentation and actually begin to move forward in the sales process. To avoid falling into the spray and pray trap, I offer the following suggestions: So What? Every sales person has a particular approach they take when selling. Presentation is most important, but as you go through your presentation on whatever it is you sell, put yourself on the customer’s side and ask “So What” throughout your presentation. If you don’t have good answers to “So What?” after you sprinkle the questions into your product or service presentation, you are likely not addressing what’s in it for your customer Document the Features Features are defined in the world of sales as compelling characteristics of your product, service or company. It is critical to have all of the features identified and most importantly, able to be discussed off the top of your head without much thought or effort. To give a few examples, a feature of a home would be an alarm system. A feature of a laptop would be a spill resistant keyboard. Add WIIFM to your Features Once you add the answer to “What’s In It For Me?” to your features, you are moving closer towards a compelling presentation that may actually persuade and sell. Sticking with the alarm feature of a house, what does that feature mean to your customer? It means a lot of things, such as faster service response in an emergency, peace of mind, reduced insurance premiums and the list goes on. I think you get my point. Once you have mastered the art of constantly addressing what a feature actually means to your customer, you are answering the WIIFM question that is going through your customer’s mind. And when you do this consistently, you will see a drastic improvement in your ability to persuade and address the true needs of your customers. Christopher Thompson founded Catch 22 Solutions and hosts the Business Advantage Show on WKXL 1450AM (wkxl1450.com). For more information visit www.catch22solutions.com
When will you post the current Union Leader articles? I want to share it with my team!
Posted by: Joanne Johnson | October 02, 2009 at 05:53 PM