How many sales opportunities have you lost to competitors who seemed to have the insidetrack? It’s likely your prospect purchased from their emotional favorite.
Selling goes beyond communicating the value of your products and services. Selling isabout communicating the value of doing business with you. It is about connecting withyour customer and becoming their ‘Emotional Favorite’. Success in sales requires threethings:
1) A viable product that addresses a need
2) Credibility
3) Timing.
Some in sales claim in sales timing is everything; experienced sales professionals knowtiming is the ONLY thing.
There are a plethora of credible businesses with viable products. To be truly successful atselling you need timing – to be the first or second person your customer talks to when theyneed something. There are three simple ways to get timing:
1) Sheer numbers ? if you contact enough prospects, you’ll eventually findopportunities
2) Referrals ? someone tells you the customer has a need for your product or service
3) Become your customer’s ‘Emotional Favorite’ – the customer calls you first
Value Of Being FirstBeing one of the first suppliers in front of your customers at the time they need what yousell is key to getting the business. Once the customer begins to shape a solution around avendor’s product or service, they become emotionally tied to that solution. People tend tomake decisions and move on to the next problem.
What Is The Emotional Favorite?Think about the last time you purchased a product or service. When you picked up thephone, did you call the person who helped you in the past? The person who adds value toyour business or your career every time you ask for their assistance? Chances are you did.The fact of the matter is most people do.
It used to be that people bought from those they know, like, and trust. To be successful insales today, you need to go one step further and connect with your customers to becomethe person your customers know, like, trust?and want to see succeed.
The emotional favorite is the person your customers call first, regardless of what theyneed.
Becoming The Emotional FavoriteSo, if being the emotional favorite means you helping your customers fulfill their needs,how do you create this relationship where your customers think of you as their one-stopresource?
Start by asking questions about your customer when you meet for the very first time andat the end of EVERY sales call.
Think about the last time you encountered a ’stereotypical’ sales person, the one whoimmediately launches into a sales pitch. How did you react? After a minute or two, didyour eyes glaze over? As the sales person drones on, you stop listening waiting for anopportunity to end the conversation. Ultimately, that sales person falls to the bottom ofthe list of people you call when you need something. Not where you want to be if you’relooking to become the Emotional Favorite.
Asking The Right QuestionsObviously, you’re not going to start with ‘Hi, I’m Craig. What’s your greatest challenge?’
Start with open-ended questions: Ask about how the latest government policy changes, orshifts in technology has impacted their business. Relate their business to your otherindustry contacts and share some of your own insights. Then you can ask about theirgreatest challenges and you will likely get the answers you are looking for.
Frame your questions outside your existing sales professional to prospect relationshipbecause by default, your customer will answer in terms of your products or services. Startwith "Let’s forget about what I do for ABC Company for a minute" and ask:
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