The customer is being confused by the market more than ever...

For many professionals, selling is becoming an impossible mission. There are even books trying to convince us that "selling is dead." Yes, selling is becoming seriously challenging.
The first reason is: there are more and more competitors out there who swear they have a better product or service.

The second reason is: the customer is being confused by the market more than ever. The more choices there are, the less easy it is to decide. And we've all noticed how today's customer is more sceptical than ever about anybody who pretends to have the right solution.

There is a third reason: old-fashioned, classical selling doesn't work anymore. Whatever "great" arguments you present, someone can present a "better one". Whatever "clear and logical proof" you provide for your product or service, it may convince him it's logical - yet still doesn't guarantee that he'll buy from you!

Thus selling has gotten a bad reputation these days. We've seen a major change in trend lately and that is: businesses are focusing more and more on marketing. The apparent solution to the sales dilemma is to replace it with marketing. But is it working?

I believe selling has a poor reputation today because people get crush-sold or over-sold, but nevertheless the pendulum swing from sales toward marketing is wrong-headed.

In today's electronic age, the customer needs a trustworthy communication line more than ever. The shift of investing more in marketing and less in a sales team is due to the return on investment becoming less and less compared to marketing ROI. There is a detachment, but people forget that marketing helps people to sell better - it is not a substitute. The solution is to train sales people to sell the human relationship.

As a trainer and public speaker, I've personally trained over 60,000 people in more than 25 countries . My fields of expertise are sales and marketing strategy, people management and leadership.

These sales techniques have been formalized in our "Trustselling" system and involve what we know to be a truly workable technology of the mind. Our approach shows people the true meaning of selling/ "understanding". We are not talking about psychobabble. It's a precise science taught in our Academy .

Why do we use this method? Because it focuses entirely on analyzing and understanding that human relationship. From observing top sales people around the planet, I've seen that what works is knowing how to handle that relationship.

Unravelling what is going on in the mind of the prospect helps the sales person overcome the main barrier to any sale - trust. Breaking the barrier of trust has nothing to do with the product. It has everything to do with finding what the senior motivation is for that customer. In other words, what will make him buy.

There are three points that motivates one to buy and it is different with every person. Out of the three motives - economic, social, and personal - at least one will prevail. However, it may be all three. And economic reasons are far less the motivation than one would believe.

In my 35 years experience in sales, the make-break point in closing is finding out what is beyond the economic survival that has as much or more weight in the buying process. A true salesman is not one that listens, but one who can get the customer to talk. Only one out of every ten customers will openly communicate their needs and wants. The rest will not due to the lack of trust today; which is why we emphasize understanding human behaviour .

If a business is going to succeed, the merging of marketing and sales must occur. Our course teaches sales as an extension of marketing. "Marketing is finding out what people want OR creating that want. Salespeople must first find out what their customers want (or don't want), beyond what they just need.

So what IS the difference between marketing and sales?

Marketing gets one interested in product or service. Sales gets the customer interested in YOU and then in YOUR product or service. Today's purchasing is more of a relationship. It's the peace of mind, the customer service, the technical support - in essence the invisible. But that invisible is tangible in the one factor that every customer is seeking trust.

Our 3-step sales process is likened to that of a doctor:
1. Consultation
2. Evaluation/Diagnosis
3. Recommendation

As a career sales trainer I spend up to 65% teaching the first two steps. Then for the proverbial "close", this is defined as five different factors customers need to be closed on (in sequence) before he will buy. Ironically, price is not number one. Yet 90% of all sales people spend too much attention on it.

So what is the solution to the dying off of sales as a profession? The solution is not to disguise it as marketing, but to learn that Sales is a human factor and it's actually not attached to the product. Relationship is the key and we can teach you how to open that door.

Patrick Valtin ,
Chairman, U-MAN Belgium

Professionals having attended my sales seminars include representatives of: BMW, Renault, Peugeot, Mercedes, Toyota, Ford, Century 21, Electricite de France, Gaz de France, France Telecom, Assurance Generale, Zurich Insurance, AIG, Motorola, American Hospital Supply, Travenol, Unilever, Lendl, Coffee Lavazza, etc.