Selling is problem solving
One of my disappointments in the sales world is that the stereotype car salesman - you know, the one who thinks way too highly of himself and way too little of his customer - is still alive and well. I see it all the time. If you want to see it, just do a quick Google search for “how to sell” and check out the tips and tricks, AND the titles of those pages. The overwhelming majority are about selling something to someone EVEN IF they don’t need it. Titles like, “How to sell anything to anybody,” or “How to sell your unwanted stuff,” imply a lack of value in the exchange. That is certainly problem solving, just for the wrong person.
In the last blog post, “What is sales…actually?” we determined selling is providing the best solution to the buyers problem. The question we were left with was, “How does that change the way we work?” I want to answer that question with three simple, but powerful behaviors:
Behavior #1: Ask probing questions
There are an infinite variety of questions you could ask a buyer. Most sales people are trained to ask questions and to listen. It’s basic sales training. The issue is not that folks don’t ask questions or that the questions being asked are wrong. The issue is with the intent behind the questions. 9 times out of 10, questions are being asked to steer the conversation towards a sales pitch. It’s a self-serving process that leaves any sales person with a conscience feeling like a fraud and any buyer with a problem feeling unheard.
The key is to help the buyer move from their presenting problem to the source of the problem. Slapping band aids on buyers’ problems will leave them disappointed and frustrated because band aids just postpone the problem. And that’s what most sales folks do because it’s about the transaction, which is a volume game. In, out, and on to the next one. To help a buyer determine the source of their problem takes time.
The easiest way to make this tangible is with an example. Imagine a customer walks into a performance footwear store looking for new running shoes. The sales person asks them if they need help finding what they’re looking for and the customer tells them they’re getting ready to run their first half marathon and their knees have been hurting during their training. As a seasoned runner, the sales person can leverage their experience running half marathons to make themselves credible to the customer and sell them the newest model of the top dollar item on the floor. They wouldn’t be lying, they’d be helping with the customer’s presenting problem, and they’d crush their sales goal on that transaction. But what they failed to learn in their interaction with the buyer was they had just started training two weeks ago and had been running 50 miles a week. Their issue wasn’t necessarily their shoes, it was their overtraining. They needed a better plan to ease into a higher activity load, not new shoes. The customer is going to have new shoes and continue to have knee pain. Had the sales person asked more about the knee pain and leveraged their running experience to truly help the customer solve their problem, they’d have likely recommended a running coach or PT in their network who could help analyze the issue and resolve the overtraining problem.
Behavior #2: Don’t sell garbage
If you don’t have a meaningful solution to a buyer’s problem, don’t sell it. You’re not actually providing the best solution to their problem and are wasting everyone’s time, energy and resources. Garbage isn’t meant to be sold. It’s been to be thrown away.
If you don’t believe in the solution you’re offering potential buyers, you need a new job or, better yet, help your company create true solutions to the problems you keep hearing about from the buyers you talk to. After all, if you’ve done a good job asking probing questions, you’ll glean some valuable insights that will guide your company towards true problem solving.
Behavior #3: Build a network
If you don’t have the best solution, you’ll need to refer the buyer elsewhere. Building a network is common practice and something everyone should do. But don’t just build a network of the most influential or powerful people. Instead, build a network of complimentary solutions, even competitor solutions, who you can confidently recommend to buyers when your product is not the best fit for their problem. Two things will happen:
Your customer will be extremely grateful and trust you. They won’t hesitate to refer folks your way.
Your network of referrals will start to reciprocate. What goes around truly does come around.
Think back to our earlier example of the half marathon runner looking for new shoes to alleviate their knee pain. Had the sales person referred them to a PT or running coach in their network, the buyer would have solved their problem and gained an immense amount of trust in the sales person for future running needs. They’d certainly send their friends and family when they needed new running gear. And the PT or running coach who received the referral would absolutely send their clients to the sales person in the future when they recommended new shoes. So although they didn’t close the sale, by truly solving the customer’s problem, they multiplied their sales for the future.
Ultimately, when you view yourself as problem solver, you add value to the world because you stop “selling anything to anyone” and start selling the right thing to the right person at the right time. You’ll also add value to your life because helping people is far more fulfilling than helping yourself.
It is a privilege to work in sales. People trust you with their problems. So ask probing questions, don’t sell garbage, and build a network of the best solutions. Be trustworthy for your buyers and see what happens. I dare you :)
