Wants, Needs and Salesmanship

Junior Achievement has a program in its elementary curriculum that presents children with a series of things for which they must decide if having them is a want or a need. To watch seven-year-olds, whose ideas are mostly black and white, battle with a decision about whether a TV is a want or a need, is a very enlightening look into the sales process.

The humorist Will Rogers said, “Advertising is convincing people to spend money they don’t have on things they don’t need.” Take that one step further in the process and you’ll find that salesmanship is convincing people that they need the things they want. It is the convergence of wants and needs that provides the buyer with emotional fulfillment.

Making the sale is not the sole responsibility of the person who is expected to make the close. It happens through a series of contacts in a multi-step process. The fact is, every employee, regardless of the job description, title or position, is in sales.

How good are you or your employees at sales? Look at what should be happening at each point of contact and each step in the sale process.

Customers need to feel understood. The first point of contact is the advertising or marketing message that is delivered. Whether it is in print, broadcast or online media, it needs to communicate clearly and simply in a way that lets the customer know you understand what they want or need. Advertising that provides useful information about something that is of interest to the consumer is not perceived as junk or intrusive.

Customers need to feel valued. It is no surprise that voice mail and voice prompt phone systems rank high in creating customer frustration. Despite the standard empty message that “your call is important to us”, the reality is that phone systems make customers feel unimportant and there isn’t a single consumer who believes that message.

If your first contact is by phone consider what it feels like to be the customer making the call to you. If your first contact is when the customer comes to you in person, he/she should be greeted in a friendly manner within 3 seconds. If you go to your customer be sure you arrive at the time promised, do not extend the stay beyond what the customer expects, and arrive prepared and organized.

Listen to what your customer says. You need to be a bit like Sherlock Holmes when dealing with sales. You must listen and observe before you reach conclusions. Customers will send clues your way through the questions they ask and the reactions to your comments. Be astute at listening to their words, hearing the emotions behind their words, and observing their expressions and body language. Customers will actually tell you how to sell them if you are attentive.

Empower all employees. You can always identify companies that are run by fear vs. those run by putting the customer first. Those run by fear are staffed with employees who are unwilling to take an action or make a decision because they are afraid of doing the wrong thing.

Companies with a “customers first” ethic have empowered employees. This empowerment includes job cross training, being sure that every employee knows enough about the products to talk to customers, having employees know who is the inside expert for specific information so they can bring the right person into the process when needed, keeping all employees in the loop about the advertising and marketing, and rewarding positive can-do attitudes. Employee empowerment is often the difference between chaos and organization.

Use language to be positive and persuasive. Words are a powerful tool. The right words instill confidence, build relationships, and close deals. The wrong ones create doubt, destroy confidence, and cause delays and inaction in getting a decision. Use as few words as possible. Always use the shortest, simplest words. Be specific instead of general. Use words with positive meanings instead of negative or easily misunderstood meanings.

When Las Vegas began to see a drop in visitors the city reinvented itself simply by a masterful change in language. Instead of being a “gambling” destination (gambling being a word with a negative connotation), they removed two letters from the word gambling and became a gaming destination. Gaming is wholesome fun, something that families do all the time. New entertainment and hospitality venues couldn’t be built fast enough to accommodate the increase in visitors. Words are important.

Be positive about your company and your products. Don’t criticize your company, complain about your systems, or play the blame game with co-workers when talking to a customer. Your internal problems and issues should not be shared with customers. They don’t need to know, they don’t want to know, and if they do know, their confidence level in doing business with you will hit rock bottom.

It’s all about emotion. Consumers make buying decisions for emotional reasons. Logic is used to validate the emotional decision. Both Yale and Stanford University have done studies about the emotional benefits consumers want. If you provide one of the twelve most desired emotional benefits you fulfill the want and establish the need. And, you’ll get the sale.

Charles Revson, founder of Revlon Cosmetics, said that at the drug store he isn’t selling makeup, he’s selling hope.

Be sure you know what you are selling.

[For a list of the twelve most desired benefits, email me at carol@excelsiormarketing.biz and tell me you want the list. I'll email it to you.]

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