Why do humans/salespeople have two ears and one mouth?

Somewhere in 1986, I was visiting one of my clients in Amsterdam. I noticed an excellent-looking piece of Italian ingenuity and design on his desk: an Olivetti computer!

At the time, I was training the Dutch Olivetti sales team, so you can imagine that I was curious about his latest purchase and how happy he was to use it.

So I asked him about his experience with the machine. "I have no clue about the functionality", his answer was. To my question, "why did you purchase it" he responded: "I like the design, and it looks impressive on my desk!".

This experience of thirty-six years ago was an eye-opener for me at that moment. It triggered my curiosity about why people buy and how salespeople sell. My interest became a never-ending journey!

Lessons learned:

It's the buyer who repeatedly decides what the value of a product or service is. If the salesperson believes mentioning features and offering the best price will get them the sale, forget it. This approach might work sometimes. But, you will only succeed most of the time if you get lucky or the buyer feels sorry for you and gives you the deal. People often have intense feelings about their reasons for buying something. Uncovering these deep feelings will lead to the core of their real needs.

Another option is that the buyer discovers the value of your offering by themselves out of genuine interest and decides to make you your day. Here is where their sympathy for you will work.

Professional salespeople ask the right questions during conversations with buyers, then listen receptively to discover more about the buyer, what moves them, their pain or compelling reasons to buy, and propose the right solutions that suit them.

The story above brings me to the title of my article: the Greek philosopher Epictetus said, "we have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak".

The best salespeople know this: they listen, probe, ask tough questions, lead the conversation and then propose the right solution.

That's why we have two ears to listen better and one mouth to talk less!

If you want to know more about ways to get to the depths of buyers' needs, contact me here. If selling value is something you wish to expand on, contact me also here.

Stagflation and price increases, how to break the news to your customers.

Stagflation is the new buzzword these days. It means growing inflation combined with slow economic growth.

As essential and raw materials increase in cost due to macro-economic and political factors, manufacturers and suppliers need to pass on price increases to their customers. Many are looking for a way to announce these necessary price increases without upsetting customers or prospects ready to sign a contract.

It's a recurring situation whenever there's a severe rumble in the world!

As painful as it may be to announce the unpleasant message, it's a must-do!

So how do you handle the increase when you know that your sales department will probably start objecting to this?

Here are some practical approaches on how to deal with this tricky issue:

• First, deal with it internally: set up a communication strategy to inform about the reason for the increase. Get people engaged and involve co-workers in coming up with ideas about how to announce the news to customers and, at the same time, soften the pain. Show appreciation for their ideas and use these in the information campaign to your market.

• Prepare and train your salespeople on how to sell the price increase. The message needs to be clear, informative, and transparent. The fact is that your organisation will probably not be the only one dealing with this.

• Involve your marketing department with sales in brainstorming, designing and executing a professional message to the market.

• Create awareness of your product or service's value to your customers and connect this value to what is important to them and their business.

• Prepare and train on handling objections to the increase and avoid excuse-making. Excuse making can only lead to non-acceptance or, worse, customer departure!

• This exercise should include your sales department and customer service desk, as they deal with objections of/or disgruntled customers.

• Decide on which customers need to be informed personally through face-to-face meetings or video conferences.

• Then, contact your customers and inform them about the price increase and why.

• Check and double-check if your message had a professional and credible impact. You can do this by using a short survey after delivery of the price increase to get feedback.

Interacting with customers, especially in price increases and other challenges, can be risky, especially when your co-workers are not well-prepared. If you want to know about best practices and how you can deal in the best way, contact me here.

You can also call me at +31 (0)642713033