How quickly do you tune out when the salesperson you’re dealing with starts to give you a pitch on the product or service they’re selling? For me it’s a matter of seconds. I can see their lips moving but my mind is processing more important things like, anything other than what they are saying. Salespeople today are still under the impression that “that’s how to sell”. I usually just lie to them and say, “that sounds great…. I’m not looking to buy anything today but I’ll get back to you in a couple weeks.” Am I a bad person? Not really. It’s OK to lie to salespeople. After all, that’s what they do. It’s a defense mechanism. People like to buy but they don’t like to be sold.
As I watched the news last night, I was riveted by a reporter’s story as she stood in front of a burning house describing what was happening in great detail. The story wasn’t about her but I certainly bought into the story. It got me thinking about the art of third party stories in selling and why they’re so effective. In my world, nobody really cares about why I or my company thinks sales training is important. Sure I could pitch them on the fact that we have 200 training centers in the US and are in 25 countries worldwide. I could tell them that we have over 900 hours of training content. All of our trainers sell which adds to our credibility. That’s all great stuff but who really cares (other than my Mom)? What I have found is that prospects are curious to know why companies invest money with us. From experience, it’s much more effective when I report conversations I have had with people dealing with similar situations to them.
It sounds like, “when I speak with owners of other companies they tell me things like":
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They’re frustrated with the lack of new business. Their salespeople are calling on the same accounts over and over again but not new prospects
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It bothers them that salespeople don’t call higher in an organization and because of it the sales cycle is much longer than it should be
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They’re tired of hiring mediocre salespeople. They sound good and look good on paper but you put them in the field and they don’t produce
These are the issues we fix but I don’t suppose these are issues or concerns of yours?
Stop pitching your stuff and start reporting.
