Are You Failing to Persuade People Successfully Because of Your ‘One Size Fits All’ Approach?

In the past, salespeople were often trained to follow a very standard “one size fits all” sales presentation or sales script.  The idea being that the standard presentation or script contained tried and tested selling techniques that would persuade the prospective customer to say ‘yes’.

This approach was symptomatic of the more traditional, transactional “push” style of selling that was prevalent in the past.  It is sometimes referred to as “spray and pray” or “show up and throw up”.  That is you deliver your standard sales message to every prospective customer and hope that sometimes it will get you a positive result.

As the world of selling evolved, perhaps in response to customers becoming more educated and resistant to the standard and all too common “push” approach, a shift towards a more consultative and tailored approach to sales became more common.

The salesperson spent more time understanding the customer’s context, circumstances and challenges so that a more customised solution could be devised that would more accurately reflect the customer’s unique needs.  This is sometimes referred to a “pull” approach, as the information the salesperson requires and, to varying degrees, the structure of the solution is “pulled” or elicited from the customer.

More and more salespeople began to be trained in consultative selling techniques and on the whole these have proved to be more effective than the traditional “push” approach.  In addition, more and more customers have experienced the consultative approach and have come to expect it and prefer it.

Criticism has sometimes been levelled at the more consultative approach that it is a lengthier and more time consuming approach.  Salespeople using a consultative approach have been criticised for being too customer-orientated and lacking the ability to challenge their customers and drive the sale to a conclusion.

So it would appear that broadly speaking we have two approaches to selling.  In my opinion debating the validity of the two approaches is short sighted.  What we appear to have is a continuum of selling styles and approaches ranging from at one extreme, a “push” or “hardball” approach and at the other extreme a highly consultative “pull” approach.

To debate the superiority of these two extremes adopting an either / or approach is to my mind a very narrow and unproductive exercise. 

What will be more productive and useful is to explore an approach to selling that is practical, flexible in approach (avoiding either a one size fits all or either / or approach and indeed incorporating the best of each approach as required), and most importantly is proven to improve sales performance.  Allow me to introduce you to – adaptive selling!

When using adaptive selling, the salesperson flexes, alters and varies their selling approach depending upon:

1.     The nature of the selling situation

2.     The stage of the buying process that the customer is currently in

3.     The specific interests and needs that the customer has in relation to the product / service in question

4.     The personality and buying style of the customer. The adaptive salesperson will tailor their questioning, probing, sales presentation and closing methodology based on the customer’s behavioural preference.  They will also respond to feedback (both verbal and non-verbal) that they receive from the individual and adapt accordingly.

Adaptive selling is a practical and powerful approach to selling.   Indeed research has demonstrated that the practice of adaptive selling is welcomed by salespeople and research has been shown that it increases their sales performance.

So are you adopting a “one size fits all” approach to your selling or are you adapting your approach according to the four areas outlined above?

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience. 

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

·                     Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success

·                     Bare Knuckle Selling

·                     Bare Knuckle Negotiating

·                     Bare Knuckle Customer Service

·                     The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

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How To Sell Effectively in the New Commercial Reality

We have discovered more about how the human brain works in the last five to ten years than in the whole of human history.  For example, we now understand more about how it functions when it makes decision, including decisions to buy or not to buy from salespeople.

How the human brain works is of great importance to salespeople. Due to advances in neuroscience we can now look into the human brain and discover what it likes and dislikes.  We can understand why it rejects certain things, such as some salespeople and some sales proposals!

However, a considerable number of selling techniques and selling systems that are used today are based largely upon a book that was published in 1922.  A very progressive gentleman called Edward K Strong wrote “The Psychology of Selling” and introduced salespeople to concepts such as open and closed questions, features and benefits, overcoming objections and closing techniques.

He was without doubt a man ahead of his time, and his work was so influential that its key principles survive to this day and indeed form the core content of most company’s sales training programmes.

As useful as Edward K Strong’s principles are, it is important to consider that the commercial world that existed in 1922 was very different to the world of 2014.  In the 92 years that has passed since the publication of Strong’s book huge advances in technology and society have taken place. These powerful changes have disrupted and changed the commercial reality that salespeople face almost beyond recognition.

In the new commercial reality customers are better informed and educated than ever before, they conduct on-line research to gain an advantage over salespeople, and profit margins are under pressure as they continually demand more for less. The relentless process of increasing competition and creative destruction accelerates on a daily basis, creating a highly competitive and cut-throat commercial environment that would have been unthinkable back in 1922!

In order to survive your business has upgraded its technology, its systems, its processes, and its business model.  However the vital question is: Have you upgraded your sales technology, systems and processes? Has your sales approach kept pace with the new reality, or are you in danger of being left behind?

The future of your sales success will increasingly lie in your ability to understand and connect with the brain that resides in the head of your customer.

Cutting edge neuroscience research, if understood and applied, will give you an unfair advantage that your competitors will hate. For example, neuroscience now shows us that only 5% of human decision-making (including the decision to buy from you) occurs in the conscious / rational area of the human brain known as the cortex. A massive 95% of decision-making occurs in the more primitive and largely unconscious regions – namely the reptilian complex and the limbic system.  I refer to this area of the brain as “the missing 95%”.

Although human beings have evolved our brains have not changed significantly in 100,000 years, leaving us with a largely primitive brain that has to operate in the new reality of our modern world. Due to our evolutionary history the more primitive areas of our brain exert more control and influence over the rational part of our brain than the other way around, allowing primitive unconscious mental processes and emotional arousal to heavily influence decision making and, at times, to dominate it.

The modern salesperson needs to understand how to connect with “the missing 95%”of their customer’s brain and help it to feel comfortable with them so that it is receptive to their sales messages.  Irritate or threaten it and the message receptors in the brain begin to shut down with the result that you and your sales pitch are rejected.  To succeed in the new reality salespeople need to master the art of “brain friendly selling”.

For example, you need to understand that hard-wired into the brain are the two most powerful motivating human drives - the instinctive desire to “stay away” from discomfort and to move “towards reward”. Stay away from problems / discomfort and move towards comfort / pleasure is the fundamental operating system of the human brain. These powerful forces are the triggers that cause your customers to buy.

To succeed in the new reality you need to be able to build these powerful motivating drives into your sales process, and motivate the customer to take action by showing how your product or service moves the customer away from the problems they are experiencing and towards the more comfortable future they desire.

If you can do this then you will succeed in the new reality. If you don’t then you are in danger of being left behind by competitors who have upgraded their sales approach to meet the increasing demands of the new reality.  If you harness the very latest powerful discoveries from neuroscience and incorporate these into your sales training, sales process and sales methodology your customers will become increasingly comfortable with you and will buy from you time and time again.

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience. 

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

• Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success
• Bare Knuckle Selling
• Bare Knuckle Negotiating
• Bare Knuckle Customer Service
• The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com