The Single Sales Principle states that:
‘People purchase when a compelling want is met by a reputable answer that gives perceived worth’.
Simple. Too easy? Well, as Jim Collins claims in his e book Good to Great, “Freud, Darwin and Einstein all had one thing in common. They took a complex world and simplified it.” And Single Principled Salespeople do exactly that. They perceive that promoting does not need to be sophisticated. They merely make it straightforward for a buyer to purchase.
It’s one of the 2 issues they’ve in frequent. They are buyer centric, not gross sales centric.
The different factor that Single Principled Salespeople have in frequent is that they by no means comply with the 8 myths of promoting. Simply by no means.
The 8 myths of promoting have been taught by well-meaning gross sales managers, desperate to cross on the knowledge and information that their gross sales managers had handed on to them. Like a cult, nevertheless, nobody had questioned whether or not they have been true. The 8 myths could have labored of their day, however they merely don’t work at this time.
Do you keep in mind the way you felt if you found there wasn’t actually a Santa Claus? I keep in mind it properly. It was the twelfth December 1971 and my (so referred to as) greatest buddy Johnny Harrison broke the fateful information to me over a Curly Wurly. I felt like I had been had. You do not query what you might be informed as a child; you simply consider it to be true.
Well, that was additionally the way in which I felt the day that I found that every little thing that I had been taught as much as that time in gross sales was a whole lie; all myths. They have been theories that had no substance within the trendy world.
Walk onto most gross sales flooring and you may see the 8 myths of promoting proudly displayed on the wall (in all probability subsequent to the goal and the ‘Inspiration’ poster):
“Attitude Sets Altitude”
“People Buy People”
“Always Be Closing”
“Customers Like to Talk about Themselves”
“It’s a Numbers Game”
(*8*)
“Money Talks”
“Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail”
Be trustworthy, you consider in at the very least half of the 8 myths your self, do not you? You usually are not alone.
Most salespeople will quote them because the ‘gross sales gospel’. Suggest that they’re myths and they’ll assume you will have gone mad.
On the floor the 8 myths look completely affordable. In reality, set inside an image body, each seems positively motivating. And I’m certain they made so much of sense, on the time. But issues change. And so has promoting.
Myth 1: Always Be Closing
If it’s essential to use closing strategies to get a sale, you clearly have not demonstrated that your product meets their wants. Rather than pressure the shopper into a call they’ll remorse, merely return to the place you misplaced them within the shopping for course of, and begin once more from there. If you apply the Single Sales Principle® you need not shut… the shopper must be asking you to purchase.
Myth 2: Attitude units Altitude
Abraham Lincoln requested the query: “How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg”. No quantity of wanting within the mirror and telling your self ‘you are a tiger’ will work in the event you do not consider in your product.
The higher the worth proposition, the higher the perspective of a salesman. Single Principled Salespeople be sure that they’ve a deep, real perception of their worth proposition.
Myth 3: People Buy People
People purchase when the product/service cost-effectively meets the shopper’s wants. No quantity of schmoozing with a shopper will make up for a poor product match.
Being personable is, of course, vital in gross sales. But is not it vital in all vocations? Friendly plumbers are extra nice to cope with than unfriendly plumbers. Friendly bus drivers are extra nice to cope with than unfriendly bus drivers. Friendly attorneys are extra nice to cope with than unfriendly attorneys (until they’re in your workforce of course!) Ken Hubbard, the American author mentioned “Beauty is only skin deep, but it’s a valuable asset if you’re poor or haven’t any common sense!”
In the great outdated/dangerous outdated days, salespeople would use their allure (‘magnificence’) to cowl up for this lack of a reputable answer (‘frequent sense’). Today’s skilled purchaser can see by way of that. It’s what’s beneath that counts most.
Myth 4: Customers Like to Talk about Themselves
We have sat on 1000’s of gross sales calls. Some have been good. Some have been dangerous. And some have been downright ugly. The dangerous ones have been these the place the salesperson does not ask any questions in any respect. They launch into their options and advantages with no consideration for what the customer may very well wanted.
And then there have been the ugly calls. The salesperson knew that they needed to conduct a reality discover, and acquire as a lot details about the shopper as attainable. So they launched right into a ‘Spanish inquisition’, asking a listing of meaningless questions that did nothing however bore the shopper.
Yes, there’s a specific amount of data that must be recognized in a gross sales intervention, as with out it it’s tough to make a suggestion and know whether or not the chance is price combating for. But that is all in your profit, not theirs. Needs make gross sales, not buyer biographies.
Myth 5: It’s a Numbers Game
Average salespeople get a great distance by placing in lengthy hours and operating round contacting so much of individuals. They then submit ‘phantom forecasts’; over-optimistic gross sales projections primarily based on a pipeline of proposals that by no means convert into precise enterprise. This is as a result of the wants recognized within the gross sales name weren’t compelling wants.
Just having a necessity doesn’t suggest that the shopper will act upon it. Many of the offers on a salesman’s pipeline stay unclosed as a result of the shopper retains procrastinating over the choice. Playing the numbers recreation does not assist them ship extra gross sales. It simply creates extra work for themselves and everybody round them.
The Single Principled Salesperson ensures that the wants are compelling previous to presenting the answer. Why? Because solely then are they assured that the shopper might be motivated into motion.
Myth 6: Sell the Sizzle, not the Sausage
We love the idea of making displays sizzle. Our situation with the parable of ‘promoting the sizzle’ is with how salespeople assume that they will bamboozle a buyer with fancy displays which are excessive on present however low on substance.
At first sight, ‘promoting the sizzle’ appears to make excellent sense. The sausage scorching away on a griddle is more likely to promote than an raw sausage sitting within the fridge. But it’s because the sizzle fired up your senses bringing consideration to the truth that you might be hungry. The sizzle glad your compelling want.
Ever smelt a scorching sausage when you will have meals poisoning? It would in all probability make you’re feeling even worse. This is as a result of this time your want is not starvation. In reality, meals is the very last thing you want.
Myth 7: Money Talks
Listen to patrons and you’d assume that they actually do consider that cash talks. Buyers are a brutal species, taking sheer enjoyment of making a salesman sweat on worth. They trick them into considering it’s all about price, and if the salesperson does not drop their worth they’ll discover a provider who will. Indeed, some patrons truly consider on this hype themselves.
But prospects truly need worth, not the most affordable worth. If individuals needed low cost we’d all be driving round in 10-year-old vehicles and purchasing in charity outlets. Products are solely perceived as costly if the worth shouldn’t be appreciated by the shopper. You’ll by no means lose a deal on worth, solely on worth.
Myth 8: Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail
Salespeople are likely to fall into two camps: those that plan an excessive amount of and those that hardly plan in any respect.
Those who plan an excessive amount of are usually ‘busy fools,’ i.e. operating round doing little or no. When we exit with these salespeople on calls they present us all of the planning they’ve executed: a tour of the shopper’s web site; the earlier historical past; a listing of questions they’re going to ask; competitor data and so forth. The downside is they do not even discuss with it.
The second kind are these salespeople who do little or no planning. Indeed, most salespeople fall into this class. You could also be stunned to be taught that so do Single Principled Salespeople.
“Hooray!” I hear the cry from the gross sales group at giant. “What? No need to plan?” Not fairly!
Peter Drucker, the administration guru, outlined the distinction between ‘effectiveness’ and ‘effectivity’ as being:
“Efficiency is doing things right; Effectiveness is doing the right things.”
Single Principled Salespeople are efficient as a result of they determine the fitting issues to do. It’s why they typically work fewer hours than the common performers.
The cartoonist, Doug Larson, mentioned on time administration, “For disappearing acts, it’s hard to beat what happens to the eight hours supposedly left after eight of sleep and eight of work.” I believe we will all empathise with this sentiment. Life is simply too brief to be planning for the sake of it.
The 8 Myths of Selling Summary
Winston Churchill mentioned “Out of intense complexities, simplicities emerge.” Selling has turn out to be an advanced enterprise. But it does not need to be. Simple is nice.
And that is why nice gross sales individuals comply with the Single Sales Principle®. By focussing on matching compelling wants with credible options that supply perceived worth you’ll achieve promoting. We assure it. Follow the 8 myths and you’ll turn out to be pissed off and disillusioned with our fantastic career.
Original article written by Mark Blackmore (MD of Lammore)
For extra data on the ‘Single Sales Principle’ gross sales coaching programme contact:
Ben Thompson
ben.thompson@lammore.com
