Four Keys to Understanding Sales

It's no secret that the sales process can be a tough one to understand. Between the jargon, the various stages, and the potentially confusing objectives — especially for newbies — it's easy to wonder how anyone actually gets through a sale.

The good news is that the sales process isn't nearly as difficult as it seems, once you understand the four key factors that go into a sale.

These factors are: 1) Prospect vs. Client 2) Positioning 3) Objectives 4) Strategies

If you can wrap your head around these four factors, then you'll be well on your way to understanding how a sale really works. We're going to start with the first factor, then move on to the next three.

Each of these factors is necessary for a successful sale, and we'll have to address them in order — carefully — if we want success in our sales efforts.

So let's take a look at the first factor…

1) Prospect vs. Client

One of the most important things to remember in sales is that no one will buy from you unless they're convinced they need what you're selling. That idea is fundamental, but it can be difficult to grasp when there are so many different pieces to the sale, and when there are so many different things that can trip up a sale.

The bottom line: If people don't believe they need what you're selling, then a sale won't happen.

Now obviously, this isn't true 100% of the time — otherwise there would be no salespeople in the world and we'd all be out of jobs. But it is true most of the time, and that's why this first factor is so important.

Every successful salesperson realizes that a client comes to them with his or her own problems and needs. If a sale isn't going to happen, then the sale will definitely not be made by the client. A client needs to be convinced he doesn't have what he needs.

The trick for a salesperson is to figure out where the problem lies within the prospect — especially if it's something big — and to find a way to bring it up in a way that makes sense for both parties, yet at the same time points out something that makes sense for both parties (like an urgent need).

Once you know where the problem lies, then simply ask for a meeting and a client will be there.

Now that we've got that covered, let's move on to the next two factors…

2) Prospect vs. Positioning

Positioning is essential to sales success because it's how you get people to believe they need what you're selling, and then into the meeting room so they can make an actual sale.

I've talked about positioning before, but I'd like to go into more detail about it here now. If you've been reading my columns here at www.positioningsalesguy.com , then you know that positioning sales is about getting prospects to view themselves as the type of people who need what you're selling.

If a prospect can see himself as the kind of person who needs what you're selling, then he will be willing to buy it and his position in front of the sales process will be improved. The greater the client's position in front of the process, the more likely it is that he will buy your product or service, and thus become a client.

To do this, you need to think about how your product or service fits into their world — how you position it against another product or service that they already use — and make sure they see themselves as someone who needs to have what you're offering.

A key to positioning sales is understanding what your prospects want to buy, and why they'd want to buy it. The more you align your prospect's needs with what you're selling, the better your positioning will be.

Next up on our list of factors we need to address…

3) Prospect vs. Objectives

Once a salesperson has figured out that a prospect needs something, then the next step is to convince the client that he can buy what he needs. This is where objectives come into play — they give your prospects a way to show themselves as buyers and sell themselves on buying from you.

Objectives are instructions that tell your prospects how to buy (or use) what you're selling from the customer's point of view. Objectives are written in the form of guidelines and can be anywhere from a simple-to-understand list to a fully-fledged strategy for getting the deal done.

Objectives are crucial for sales success because they show people how to actually buy from you, rather than just feel like buying from you. The more your prospects know about how to get what they need, the better position they'll be in when meeting with you.

4) Prospect vs. Strategies

Once a client knows he can buy what you're selling, then it's time to discuss the best way to make that happen. Strategies are essentially the methods that you and your client will use to get him from point A (not needing your product) to point B (buying your product).

To make sure strategies work, your job is to make certain they match up with the client's objectives — and at the same time, they don't conflict with each other or take away from how effectively he can use his own strategies. If a strategy — or several strategies — works well with what a prospect is trying to do, then he'll be much more likely to buy into those strategies.

You need to be careful with strategies, however, because if you're not careful, then you could end up getting your client stuck in a never-ending cycle of buying from you and using your strategies over and over again.

The key to success is to make certain that people aren't getting stuck in a cycle of buying from you and using your strategies over and over again. If this happens, the client will spend too much time on the phone with you — which could mean poor results for both parties.

From this point on we'll be moving very quickly through our four factors…

5) Prospect vs. Communication Styles

Second only to understanding how prospects come to buy from you is understanding how they communicate. Communication patterns are particular ways that people communicate that define who they are and what they buy.

Your job as a salesperson is to know what the desired outcome is for a prospect — how he will be able to make a sale — and then to make certain that your communication with him matches up. If you can speak in terms of your client's objectives, then he'll be much more likely to buy from you, because he'll understand your strategies, and because he can easily use his own communication style (i.e., the tools you gave him) when calling on similar buyers in the future.

Conclusion

My top three tips for sales success are (1) Prospect vs. Positioning, (2) Prospect vs. Objectives and (3) Prospect vs. Strategies. To recap, my first tip is that the prospect must be shown that he needs what you're selling before he's actually told about the need for it. Once this happens, then the prospect must be convinced he has what he needs and ready to buy from you.

As we can see from this list, knowing how to position your product or service is vital to any sales process you'll put yourself through in your own efforts to become a better salesperson.