Meeting your sales objectives starts with being a good listener.
Being in a sales position is harder than people realize. You aren’t just selling automotive parts and service to your customers, but a value proposition. Understanding psychology and how people think is critical to sales, but listening and asking the right questions are the keys needed to meet your objectives.
“We tend to talk too much about ourselves and the products and services we sell,” says Bill Stinnett, sales consultant and founder/president of Sales Excellence, Inc., “but no customer wants the product or service you sell. They want the outcome achieved.” A do-it-yourselfer doesn’t want an auto part, per se: They want a car that will perform better. And a professional technician wants to make their customers happy by properly fixing and repairing their vehicles in the shortest timeframe possible.
Stinnett suggests redefining the sales process by first determining what the customer is trying to accomplish and then analyzing ways to help them meet those objectives. That way, they won’t feel like they’re being “sold to,” you’ll come across more as a source of advice and they will be more thankful for your assistance. It’s the difference between selling parts and selling solutions.
Reverse engineering
In order to meet higher sales goals, you’ll also need to determine what the customer needs to do before they can buy from you.
This is what Stinnett tags “reverse engineering” the buying process. He explains that we tend to focus too much on the “selling process” instead of breaking down the buying process and helping to facilitate it. If a potential customer’s buying process is set up so they can only make payments on certain terms or place orders a particular way, it doesn’t matter how great your sales pitch is, these other areas must be aligned. “Help them work through those things” so that they can do business with you instead of your competitor, says Stinnett.
Salespeople should also research potential professional customers if at all possible before a formal meeting. Use the Internet to do searches, review their services and take note of any press releases or local activity they are involved in. You should find out their different business lines (i.e. import vs. domestic, full-service or specialty). Are they diversified? What areas of service are their strong suits? What are their weaknesses? What is their greatest opportunity for growth? Even if you can’t find out all the answers, Stinnett says to ask them the questions when you meet so you can help them achieve greater success in the long run.
“Part of the value we bring as partners to our clients is the things we sell, but a lot of it is ideas and information,” suggests Stinnett. It’s not part of the formal selling process, he adds, but it changes their view of you. “You look like an advisor and a resource. Anything we can do to help our customer, whether it turns into a sale or not, is part of the relationship-building process.”
Increasing the sale
Stinnett challenges salespeople to ask themselves the following: Of all the money that your customers could be spending with you, what percentage are they, in fact, spending with you? They may only buy certain product lines from you, but Stinnett urges distributors to find out where they stand on other product lines. Find out whom they are working with and what you can do to motivate them to make a switch (be it by giving a larger discount, offering same-day delivery, more parts availability or better customer service like access to a help desk or TSBs).
The way to get in sync with your customer is to first listen to what their needs are so that you understand what they are truly trying to achieve. Then, and only then, can you influence their buying behavior.
