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Those Who Can...Sell Professionally -- part two
Customer Segments: The Three Types
That Top Salespeople Target
Customers Who Buy from "Closers"
Customers who want to be "closed" are sophisticated customers who plan to handle all the details themselves. They will want a Hi-Tech explanation of a new product or service but don't want someone else administering or handling "their personal business" (a Lo-Touch approach). "Closers" focus on this group, which includes more sophisticated hi net worth individuals, small company entrepreneurs, and individuals who consider themselves to be financially savvy. These individuals pick and follow their own priorities and invest in special opportunities, including specialty vehicles, new features, and even specialized new products. They understand technical jargon and don't rely on any one single advisor.
Customers Who Buy from "Consultants"
Customers who want to be "consulted with" are successful but not technically sophisticated. They want a consultive approach, i.e., both Hi-Tech help (to learn more) and Hi-Touch personal service (to work through all the details). Consultive salespeople are best suited for middle and upper income prospects who usually work for medium or large companies and are advancing their careers and earnings. As a result, they don't have the time to focus on and handle all their own "requirements" single-handedly. In addition, because of their familiarity with managing or delegating, they are comfortable with a trusted outsider having access to their personal business. Consultive salespeople behave the same way key staff people in a business or government organization would. They research solutions, provide options or suggestions, but let the boss (customer) make the decision, which they "take care of" for them.
Customers Who Buy from "Relationship" Salespeople
Customers who focus on security and protection seek long-term "relationships". They don't place financial matters at the top of their value system. Security and transportation are a means to an end. They may be more interested in their family, their own skills, talents, or business. Going to a game, a wedding, or a neighborhood party may be more important to them than a car or any other product or service. Security is, however, a necessary part of the American dream. And while they don't often pay attention, they do worry whenever a problem comes up. They want someone they know and trust to turn to in times of need. Like a family physician, who isn't thought of until someone is sick, relationship salespeople are only thought of as friends or acquaintances until a need arises. As a result, top relationship salespeople tend to focus on middle class "typical Americans," retirees, and more cautious buyers.
Rule 3: The Single Most Frequently Used Skill of Successful Salespeople: Networking to Develop Quality Contacts
For most salespeople, you need only to measure the length and quality of their list of personal and business friends and acquaintances to predict how well they are doing. This skill and discipline of building a strong network depends on three principles:
1. Networks are built by making a point of meeting people in a non-selling environment.
Good networkers get involved in as many social, volunteer, or business groups as possible. While the need to network never stops, the first 5-8 years of a salesperson's career are most critical. The most successful independent salespeople selling directly to personal or business consumers target three to five networking activities a week. Depending on their target market, they volunteer for charitable drives or campaigns, join golf clubs, participate in business clubs, and attend key social events and a host of other gatherings. The most successful networkers go one step further. They find a reason to be invited to present themselves to new people. For example, luncheon and dinner clubs are constantly looking for "speakers" who have interesting and fresh topics that are not direct sales pitches. In fact, developing a knack for public speaking is a favorite technique to guarantee continual invitations, but successful speakers make sure the topics stay fresh and interesting. Top salespeople know that networking is a numbers game. The more they do, the more contacts they make and the more sales opportunities they'll ultimately have.
2. The "quality" of networking is a measure of how closely the demographics of the groups they target match the demographics of the best potential prospects for their services and products.
If they're targeting professionals in need of high end vehicle plans, etc., then golf clubs, stock clubs, and business and professional clubs, such as the Young Presidents Organization, create the most valuable targets. If their focus is on family transportation, then PTA's, scouts, and other family-oriented groups are most frequently followed. Regardless of the line of products or services they choose to focus on, the most successful salespeople spend their time with prospects, not peers or others who aren't in need of their services.
3. Meeting people is only the first step.
Remembering names (often through a card system) and following up (again through a non-direct selling approach) are the real keys. Top salespeople keep files, send thank-you notes, remember birthdays, send congratulations, and use a host of other techniques in a systemized, disciplined approach to remind people who they are. They want to be "top of mind" in the car category so that potential customers automatically think of them when an interest or need arises.
Rule 4: Positioning as a Professional Depends on Demonstrating Personal Character Competence and, Most of All, "Caring" BEFORE a Sales Call
Top Consultive and Relationship sales professionals sell themselves first, their services second, and only include the specific product as a step in offering a solution. Their service is responsive; that is, they "suggest" only after the need or problem has been carefully identified. They spend more time learning about the customer and researching more "tailored" solutions than presenting products. In a sense, they position their approach to customers as professionals who solve problems rather than high pressure salespeople who "push" products.
Rule 5: Most Customers Can't Evaluate Products, but They Can and Do Evaluate the Representative
As with most products or services, car customers have no way to make a sophisticated test drive or watch the product work. They judge by analogy. If the representative is judged reliable, competent, and trustworthy, they'll trust the product. If they can't evaluate the person, they won't be able to evaluate the product. Various sales tools, like test drives, comparison tables, and others are useful but only to educate customers. If the salesperson is trusted, the sales tools are trusted. Top salespeople keep in mind, however, that customers are jaded. They've seen too many commercials that promise too much. They've read so many conflicting ads that they don't trust the media. In this context, top salespeople consciously, or unconsciously, rely on two principles to establish and maintain their own credibility--the most important personal asset they have.
- They always deliver more than the customer expects and more than they promise.
- When they don't know an answer or when they make a mistake, they admit it and fix it as quickly and completely as possible.
They understand that people who admit mistakes and under-promise or under-promote are perceived as more competent and trustworthy.
Rule 6: Customers Don't Want More Choices, They Just Want Exactly the Right Product or Service for Them
Top salespeople focus on simplifying their customers' decisions. Technically-oriented mechanical types, marketers, and even some salespeople can be overly impressed by the breadth and depth of the product- line. But to most potential customers, cars are too much like computer software. There are too many options and too many features, all claiming wonderful advantages. The average customer doesn't want to have to go to school to learn how to pick the right "package." Like buying a suit of clothes, they want to be measured and fitted and walk out with exactly the right outfit. Top salespeople focus on telling customers what time it is, not how the clock was made. The bottom line they focus on is "sell the benefits they've tailored to fit the customer, not the features and options" of the product. Beyond the benefits, they only "teach" as much as that particular customer wants to know; but they'll keep on teaching, if they're selling consultively, for as long as the customer wants.
The Bottom Line
As you might have predicted, the critical skills of top salespeople are few and simple. Maybe that's what puts off our dear professor. The challenge to master them can only be won with guts, focus, discipline, and effort. And maybe that's why at least in sales, those who can...do, and those who can't...well, at least they can go back to college, hit the books and become professors!
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