According to the statistics of many professional sales research institutions, in a relaxing sales activity, customers should talk for about twice as long as sales. This makes it easier to form a good communication atmosphere and helps sales to tap the needs of customers. The most likely result of "rushing to launch a product" is to say the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time. We often see sales people and the first person who answers the phone or meets them touting the features and advantages of their products, regardless of whether this person has influence on the purchase decision.
We know that different functional departments and people at different levels in customer organizations pay different attention to key procurement factors. The financial department is most concerned about the purchase price, the technical department is most concerned about the advanced nature and compatibility of technology, the user department is most concerned about the convenience of use, and the operation and maintenance department is most concerned about the stability of operation, failure rate and after-sales service. Even people in the same department and at the same level care about different factors. For example, for the purchase of notebook computers, some people like to be light and easy to carry; Some people like the big screen, which is suitable for editing documents and watching movies; Some people like fashion, value appearance and color, and so on. Therefore, a general product introduction is difficult to impress customers.
In fact, you should pay attention to asking more questions before introducing. The improvement of questioning skills can greatly improve the pertinence and effect of introduction. For example, the combination of open questions and closed questions, rotating questioning method, etc.
Moreover, in previous visits, especially the first visit, introducing products should not be the focus of the conversation. We know that a face-to-face conversation usually lasts less than half an hour, which includes the necessary opening remarks, the time for asking questions and the time for most customers to answer. What we need to pay attention to is as much background information and demand information as possible. Therefore, the introduction of the product really needs no more than five minutes, and the customer can explain it in detail only when he feels it necessary to know more. Correctly tapping customer needs is the guarantee for successfully completing sales activities. Many sales are trapped in some superficial statements of customers and can't really understand their real thoughts. This is actually not enough to tap the depth of customer demand. To truly understand the real needs of customers, it is often necessary to explore the needs behind their needs and the problems behind their problems.
"5WHY method" is a better method, that is, customers should ask "five whys" continuously when making requests. For example, the customer said, "The user department is very dissatisfied with your new equipment." Under the inquiry of sales, customers may say "because it is inconvenient to operate." If you think you have found the reason and think that the user department needs an easy-to-operate device, it may be all wet. Because, you don't know whether the inconvenience is due to design or other reasons. Continue to ask the second "why", and the result is "the new functional module added by the new equipment is not easy to use". Does that mean that this new functional module is unnecessary or there is something wrong with the design? Ask another "why" and find that it is "the user department will not use it." So, is the company not providing training or the training effect is not good? Then ask the fifth "why". Finally, I found that "a week's training is quite sufficient, but the manual you provided is only in English, and it is very laborious to read when you encounter problems in use." Finally, the problem appeared. What customers need is not simpler equipment or better and more training, but an easy-to-read Chinese manual for daily inspection. Price is one of the purchasing factors that customers are most concerned about. Often when we meet for the first time, customers will ask "How much is this product?" , but it itself does not expect a clear answer. The author's experience is that if the sales reveal the price at this time, the customer will usually keep it in mind, or even write it on your business card immediately.
Obviously, it is harmful to achieve profitable sales to involve the price prematurely. You know, it is a commercial practice from ancient times to the present that buyers and sellers constantly test each other's price bottom line during the transaction. Although in a general sense, transactions between bottom lines are all win-win results, there is a big difference between who wins more and who wins less. The direct consequence of involving price too early is to expose one's own price bottom line and lose the initiative in sales. At the same time, it is impossible for any product 100% to meet the needs of customers, and there must be defects, which will also be the reason for asking for price reduction. "If there is no yellow one, give us a 10% discount and we can buy other colors." And such a price reduction request is usually difficult to refuse. With the deepening of communication, the demand for price reduction has always run through commercial activities. The price quoted in the morning has undoubtedly become the target of customers.
Therefore, the best time to quote is after full communication and before the transaction is about to be reached. In this way, once the quotation is made, it can be directly transferred to the contract, reducing the bargaining factors and time. Moreover, in the early communication, the customer's needs were clarified and the advantages and disadvantages of the products were understood. At this point, these factors no longer constitute a reasonable reason for price reduction. "Customer is God" is a slogan, not the essence of business activities. Because, in many cases, customers are ignorant or unreasonable, and their requirements cannot be met. If you are at the mercy of your customers, you will not only be completely passive, but also won't be respected by your customers. It is the servant who answers immediately, not the equal collaborator.
When deciding whether to comply with customers' requirements, we should treat them differently, whether they are based on "needs" or random "needs". Demand is consistent with customers' long-term goals, long-term stability, and consistent with their inherent value pursuit; Demand is different, short-term, even one-off, more casual, unable to adhere to. Requirements are usually very specific and solutions are clearly described.
For example, "this kind of communication terminal has insufficient security protection ability and is prone to piracy." This is a demand, a long-term pursuit of operational safety by our customers, and also in line with the economic interests of the organization. It is clear, but how to solve it is not specific, and it is necessary to come up with a solution according to the specific situation. "It would be nice to have a small slot on the side of the equipment." This may be a need, very clear, the customer can even tell you the size and specific location of this slot. But the problem is that other customers don't think so. The reason behind this request may be absurd and naive, and the advocate may change his mind at any time. Obviously, you can't and don't need to satisfy it.
Therefore, sales should focus on customers' long-term goals, not short-term needs; Pay attention to the stable core needs of customers, not random temporary needs; We should pay attention to the demand that can be met, not the demand that can't be met or can't be met. On this basis, we can treat customers' requirements reasonably. The concept of budget should be understood from two aspects: first, the understanding and evaluation of customer procurement funds; The second is the calculation and control of its own market development cost.
Whether a demand has substantial budget support or not is completely different in value and significance. Accordingly, the sales countermeasures and investment are definitely different. Obviously, figuring out the customer's budget (including the customer's financial situation, budget situation and budget decision-making process) is one of the most important information that sales need to obtain. The top-level sales is to cut into the customer's budget decision-making process, guide the customer to arrange the budget, and even temporarily increase or rearrange the budget when necessary.
From my own point of view, market development is about input-output ratio. However, in order to seek absolute sales performance, sales take budget as the last restrictive factor to consider. In addition to the defects of enterprise sales system, the driving force of sales staff to pursue short-term interests is the most important reason. Many sales even regard "crying children have milk to eat" as an important basis for striving for company resources and achieving better performance. Obviously, this is unfavorable for the long-term development of sales in an enterprise, unless the enterprise lacks opportunities and possibilities for long-term development. The period when the budget is most easily out of control is mostly the market development period and the market maturity period. When exploring, in order to pursue market share, companies often do not have too many restrictions on investment, while sales tend to win more than less; Although the profit rate of the business is greatly reduced in the mature period, the expense habit formed in the start-up period and the growth period has fallen behind the times. Purchasing decision makers usually do not appear in routine meetings and exchanges. In all sales activities, they may only participate in 5% important activities. Quite often, sales can't satisfy decision makers. Even if you meet and communicate, the time is mostly less than ten minutes. This actually makes it difficult for sales to directly influence decision-making. Not realizing or unable to overcome this difficulty, many sales influences are limited to operators and consultants, such as on-site users, maintenance personnel or engineers in technical departments, and cannot obtain purchase intentions from decision makers. In fact, there is nothing wrong with working for operators and staff. But the key is how to influence decision makers through them, and then let them form a clear purchase intention.
Sales should realize that most procurement-related activities (more than 80% can be said) are not attended by sales, such as internal meetings of customers. Therefore, the result of sales is largely determined not by the sales activities of the sales itself, but by the internal communication and mutual influence of customers. In other words, sales activities have been going on, and it can even be said that many decisive sales activities are completed when sales are not available. Who will do it? It is people who have the same interests as you, including people who support you, people who support your company, and people who support your ideas. For example, skilled workers explain the benefits of a technical scheme to decision makers, and financial personnel recommend a moderate price for a product.
In this sense, sales is not the protagonist of the whole sales stage. On the contrary, sales should not strive to be the protagonist, but should become the director, provide props for actors, design lines, help them to complete sales promotion for themselves within customer organizations, and influence decision makers.
Therefore, it is not important whether sales can directly affect decision makers. It is important that the power of decision makers in purchasing decision-making can not be ignored, and there should be ways to influence them. The beginning of industrial products sales is the beginning of a relationship. Therefore, we are not selling products, but building a new relationship. However, many salespeople tend to spend hours chatting aimlessly and "making friends" with customers, and regard such sales as an effective means to establish relationships.
This understanding may have been correct ten years ago, when customers had plenty of time. Nowadays, work pressure and time constraints are the characteristics of most organizations. Unnecessary gossip will not only upset customers, but also reduce their professional sense of customers. More importantly, "making friends with customers" is not a widely advocated sales concept. The relationship with customers is a business relationship, not a pure personal friendship. The latter is not conducive to long-term healthy business relations. Sales, especially novices, tend to be isolated sales activities and lack of coherent consideration. The direct result is that the first visit did not leave a foreshadowing for the next visit, and the next meeting did not echo and consolidate the last effect. It is easy to make sales activities become scattered and single-character behaviors.
In fact, every visit, sales should try to pave the way for the next meeting and design the reasons for meeting again. For example, bring a prototype to the customer next time and an engineer to answer technical questions. Or, expand other ways to contact customers, such as inviting customers to visit the company, holding technical exchange meetings, asking customers for mailing addresses to send company publications, and getting photos of new products sent by customers. These arrangements, if you can communicate with customers in advance, can reduce a lot of unnecessary troubles and improve sales efficiency. I don't understand that every customer has its own characteristics and can't handle it flexibly. This is a common problem in sales. The deep-seated reason for this problem is that sales people always hold some very specific product promotional materials before visiting customers. In other words, they are limited and constrained by the specific form of products to be promoted.
Although, in many cases, we can't provide customized products, and the products are only designed according to the needs of most customers, or just compromise and average all the needs. However, in order to successfully sell products, we must consider customer differences, including differences in demand, financial situation, corporate culture and so on.
As many sales experts say, the factors that determine the success or failure of sales are often outside the product. Customer difference is one of the key factors outside the product. If we can't clearly understand and use it, the sales prospect will inevitably lack hope.