For a very long time, the term ‘salesman’ has carried with it an air of mistrust, one that tends to put people on their guard. The hard working, average Joe trying to make a living selling cars that have been previously owned has had a difficult time living down the smarmy ‘used car salesman’ image. It’s a shame, but it is what it is. People don’t like to be sold to.
That’s not to say they don’t like to buy. People love to buy! But they need to believe it was their idea and their final decision. The second they feel like they’re being ‘sold’ on something, or if they read or hear words that signal a coming ‘sales pitch’, their defenses go up quickly and C4 dynamite can’t get through them.
Largely because of the Internet, yesterday’s car salesman couldn’t sell a car to today’s consumer. People today are much more shopper savvy than they were even a few years ago. They do their homework, by researching online and often come prepared to buy, but knowing almost as much about your product as you do.
If you’re to survive in today’s market with a product or service to sell, there are a few things you should know that will help give you an edge on your competition, and a much greater chance of gaining a new customer, not for just a onetime sale, but for repeated business down the road.
1. Get inside the head of your customer. Try to hear the dialogue that’s going on inside. What is that they really want? Here’s a hint: They rarely a product or a service because they want the product or the service, they buy because of how the product or the service makes them feel.
2. Selling is not about you…ever. Understand up front that the customer doesn’t care about you. They don’t care to read your ‘About our company’ page, they don’t care how long you’ve been doing what you do, UNLESS it directly affects them in some way. They may be interested to know how long you’ve been at your job if you’ll be working on their car, cutting their hair or cleaning their carpets. But it’s only because then it may have an impact on them in a direct way.
3. It’s pointless to try to sell based on logic or reason. Yes, it makes more sense to buy now before the price goes up, but people don’t buy based on sense or logical reasons. They buy based on emotions. They’ll rationalize the purchase later with logic, but don’t annoy or confuse them with it in the beginning. Tap into their emotions…and refer back to number one in this list.
4. The most important question you can answer for your customer is the one that’s foremost in his mind. “What’s in it for me?” The hard part is, they’ll never ask it. You just have to know that’s what they really want to know, more than anything else.
There are no real magic formulas to successful selling. The more you educate yourself on human nature, the more successful you’ll be. See your customer as a fellow human being, rather than a commission with legs and watch your sales skyrocket!
