Forget the conventional wisdom about successful salesmanship. Yes, there are buyers who respond positively to the "slam, bang" type of aggressive salesmanship, but they are an endangered species. Like it or not, it's dangerous to view buyers as prey. In fact, buyers are redefining successful salesmanship.
Nobody likes to be sold. Instead, people like to be persuaded to want to buy. This is an important distinction, not clever semantics. It's true at every level of commerce--consumer and business-to-business.
The conventional wisdom about salesmanship needs to be dispassionately reassessed. Testing services measure such attributes as ego drive, persuasive ability, technical competence and presentation skills. That's unfortunate because these attributes aren't valued universally by today's buyer. Any "disconnect" is particularly evident when a salesperson with more than 15 years of experience meets a relatively inexperienced buyer of print, or vice versa.
Let's begin with the traditional notion that selling is largely tactical. One nationally known trainer has written that it's important to note chin-rubbing and pupil dilation on the part of a buyer because these are buying signals. Books have been written about "power dressing." One speaker regales audiences with a litany of tricks for getting beyond the receptionist. These tactics are helpful, but fail to recognize the essence of successful selling in 2004: honestly and imaginatively matching customer needs and opportunities with your products and services to forge a mutually profitable relationship.
Selling isn't trickery, acting or posturing. Selling is more than getting an order. It's all about creating the conditions that will lead to sales. Adherents of many of the best-known sales trainers have unwittingly credited a credibility gap that reflects poorly on all salespeople. This has led to no-negotiating car dealerships and appliance retailers, along with the perception among buyers that the customer service representative, not the salesperson, has their best interests at heart.
I'm not denigrating the importance of an engaging personality, enthusiasm and persistence in sales. Those are important attributes. But I am suggesting that a rehearsed, "one-size-fits-all" approach is not effective, even within a vertical market, in large part due to the fact that it's usually transparent to the buyer. As a leading medical writer said, "A physician needs to treat the patient, not simply provide a remedy for a disease."
Having written all of this, I plead slightly guilty to providing sweeping statements on the subject of modern-day salesmanship. A tactical approach may be more successful in the case of a major one-time sale, such as a plasma TV, a pool or a cruise. These sales are product-centric. They don't involve repetitive purchases, and the buyer may never meet the salesperson again.
Readers of this column are focused on building relationships through a process known as "the re-sell." It can be characterized as trust-building. When buyers have many alternate sources for the products and services you offer, beware of any step, albeit minor, that may erode trust and confidence. Consider the implications on the lifetime value of a relationship.
There is no formula for trust-building, no 10-step plan for success. Be sincere, be yourself, and treat every customer as though he/she is your only customer. Remember that the customer may not always be right, but the customer is still the customer.
Finally, no selling formula, no clever tactics and no level of enthusiasm can replace the need to establish the credible, meaningful reason(s) that someone should buy from you. Don't make the mistake of believing that, in this commoditized environment for print and promotion materials, successful completion of the last job has earned the right to the customer's next job. It has probably earned the right to compete for the next job.
Contributing Editor Dick Gorelick is an award-winning authority on sales, marketing and business strategies for the printing industry. As president of the Graphic Arts Sales Foundation in West Chester, Pa., he travels extensively, consulting, writing and speaking on sales training.
