Whenever you go into a sales meeting, you are on the spot. Your goal is to explain why your prospect should use your company’s product (or service). The best way to convince them is through demonstration.
Demonstrating what your product can do for them is a great sales strategy. However, it’s even better if you can demonstrate how your product will fix this customer’s current problem. What is the pain that the customer is experiencing?
Defining the Customer’s Problem
Your goal is to help your customer. Your product must fulfill a need. Hopefully, this need has previously gone unfulfilled. But what exactly is that need and how will your product help?
Noted American inventor, engineer, and businessman Charles Kettering once said, “A problem well stated is a problem half solved.” Noted scientist Albert Einstein reportedly said that given one hour to save the world, he would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and 5 minutes finding the solution. Two great minds recognized the importance of problem definition when solving a problem.
However, understanding your customer’s problem means you need to:
- Work closely with them to learn how their business operates
- Ask lots of questions and carefully listen to the answers
- Look at it from a variety of angles
- Leave all your assumptions behind
- Not try to oversell a solution just to sell the product
For a great blog on problem definition, check out, “Einstein’s Secret to Amazing Problem Solving (and 10 Specific Ways You Can Use It).”
Offering an Alternative Solution
Now that you understand the issues and difficulties that your customer faces, your role is to determine how your product can resolve it or at least resolve it better than your competitor’s.
That’s where your sales expertise and knowledge of your product come into play. Using what you learn about your customer’s problems, you can demonstrate to your customer how your product is the best solution.
Getting good sales figures is great for your career. You can do that by keeping your customers happy. You can keep your customers happy by showing them how your company can fix their problems. It’s a great sales strategy. Then you get customers for life.
For more insight into sales techniques, marketing strategies, building strategic alliances, increasing revenue, and more, contact 3rd Eagle.