Selling and Buying

On my bookshelf there are several books on selling. The common approach is to define the benefits of the service in the context of the buyer and then demonstrate how those benefits can help the customer.

This is a tried and tested approach. I have been on several courses, I even have a "pain" sheet that reminds me to link my benefits to my prospective customer's pains. However, with the possible exception of "Cold Calling Techniques" which is essentially how to be underhand about getting past PA and receptionists, none of them really address the nub of the issue which is that no-one actually likes being sold to.

A consultant essentially sells the ability to be an outsider and provide an external perspective to business issues. It is therefore almost impossible to link this to any sort of pain before you spend time with the client. So since becoming independent, I haven't found traditional sales approaches to be a whole heap of use.

Instead I have adopted a different approach which enables me to determine if I really can help the prospect, allows the prospect to explore, possibly vaguely, defined frustrations and also lets both parties see if they can work together. Incidentally I was pleased to find this  approach actually described by a real-life salesman Grant Leboff in his book Sales Therapy.

The approach is this:

You, the business owner or manager are frustrated by some element of your business. For example, you are too immersed in actually running the business and fighting fires to be able to look at the direction you are taking, something doesn't seem to be performing as well as you would hope, your management team don't seem to be all pulling in the same direction or maybe you want to grow some area of your business and want someone impartial to bounce ideas off.

Rather than me beating you up with benefits and you countering them with objections, which I then handle like Ali v.s. Henry Cooper, we have a 2 hour workshop. I will sit down with you and your team and facilitate a discussion around the issues you want to explore. I will create a safe environment where we can openly discuss the issues and plans and together we will establish a shared understanding of the problem, a shared but possibly limited understanding of the underlying causes and a initial understanding of the steps that could be taken to remedy, improve or address the issue.

At the end of the session, we may have identified some areas where we can work with each other. The worst outcome is that we will have spent two hours together I know more about you and you now understand some element of your business a little better for having discussed it.

To be honest, you have nothing to lose. Why wouldn't you do this?

Give me a call and lets set up a time to meet.

01420 588172

07730 015658