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Shifting Sales Paradigms

Salespeople expect the customer to make the connection and depend on the customer's

ability to align their own problems with all of the proposed solutions available. It is very

difficult for customers to understand and manage the scope, details, and ramifications of

their problems and the characteristics of the myriad of available solutions that will best

resolve their individual problems.

The problems resulting from deficiencies in a customer's decision process are further

compounded by the tendency of conventional selling approaches to overlook the

distinction between the customer's decision process and the customer's approval

process. Customers always bring an approval process but, they seldom bring a quality

decision process.

A customer who cannot comprehend the solution will probably not buy it, will certainly

not buy it quickly, and won't be willing to pay a premium price for it. With the

comprehension level that low, every solution looks the same to them in regard to price.

What is your customer's level of comprehension? How well do your customers understand their own problems? How well do they understand your solutions?

Conventional Selling Methods

Depend on the ability of salespeople to determine the customer's decision process.

These programs instruct sales to find out what customers are looking for, what's

important to them, what they need, and what criteria they will use to decide to purchase.

Traditional Sales Processes

Are focused on sales numbers, not the reasons behind them. They understand numbers

very well and, they know that selling is a numbers game. The answer that we usually

hear can be summarized in two words: SELL HARDER! Their leaders try to solve the

problem by pumping up the system: this doesn’t work anymore!

Are you Challenging or Collaborating?

Do you find yourself debating with customers? Are your customers reacting defensively?

Are your customers challenging your recommendations? How much of your time with

customers is spent presenting, persuading, and convincing? This is the James Bond

approach. There is always a lot of collateral damage, and people are going to get hurt

on both sides of the table.

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When Salespeople start Overcoming Objections

They are placing themselves in conflict with their customers. This sets the stage for

polite disagreements and respectful differences of opinion. It often turns the sales

process into a battle in which the seller must somehow conquer the buyer to win the

sale.

This problem is inherent in all conventional sales processes because it focuses solely on

making the sale. Any reluctance on the part of a customer translates into a direct threat

to the salesperson's success. When you hear customer objections, what you are actually

hearing is the direct result of escaped or less than fully traveled exploratory branch. If

each branch has been completed to a customer's satisfaction, all of their potential

objections have by definition already been resolved. Forget about over-coming

objections.