The Sales Training Series: Sell Yourself Before You Sell Your Company

Research has proven that customers make five major buying decisions in the course of any major purchase. These decisions are always made in the same order. The first is whether to "buy" the salesperson—you. The second is whether to "buy" your company. Only after those two decisions are made will the customer seriously consider whether to buy your products.


This means that you need to sell yourself to the customer—by building rapport while conducting a good needs assessment—before you begin to sell your company and its capabilities. Not coincidentally, that needs assessment will also allow you to sell your company far more successfully. Why? Because you must first understand your customer's needs, before you can answer the customer's most important question about your company.
You must understand the customer's needs before you can effectively sell your company.
In deciding whether to do business with you, customers have three basic questions about your company:
1. What does it do? 2. What is it known for? 3. Is your company a good match for mine?
The first two questions usually can be answered with a rehearsed sales presentation that explains what your company does and the benefits that other clients have gained from doing business with you.
The third question is most important, however, and you cannot answer it with a generic presentation that relies on standard information. To persuade customers that your company is a good match for theirs, you must tailor your answer to their specific needs.
The best way to do this is to tie your company presentation directly to needs that you uncovered earlier in the sales call. You thus are able to present your company's capabilities as solutions to the customer's key problems and opportunities.

For Example:
"You told me earlier that service from your current supplier is taking more than 24 hours and that this causes you problems meeting your production goals. We would be a good match for you because our service response averages less than four hours. With our company handling your service you will find it far easier to achieve your goals."
"Are we a good match?" is every customer's most important question about your company. You cannot answer it before you have uncovered, understood, and agreed upon the customer's needs. "Sell yourself" first by demonstrating that you care about those needs. You'll be amazed at how much more effectively you can then sell your company.
In The Field:
If you are in a commodity business and competing with rivals who sell on price alone, it is especially vital to tell your customers a powerful "company story" that explains why they should do business with you. For National Camera Exchange, which competes in the commodity-oriented business of photographic equipment, differentiating itself from the myriad of price-only suppliers is a daily challenge. National Camera's added-value proposition lies in the expertise and consulting skills of its sales force. Its equation for success or failure is simple: If the story of that consulting capability isn't told effectively, the company loses to lower-priced competitors. Sales and training manager Sean Morgan says that an Action Selling sales training program made a world of difference. "Since more of our salespeople are telling our company story, we are posting higher numbers, and they look less like a roller coaster," Morgan said. "When the customer needs an education on camera equipment, it is critical to sales success to show them how National Camera is a good match for their needs."

Presenting Your Product

Presenting Your Product
We all know the expression "you only get one chance to make a first impression," well it holds true when it comes to presenting your product to your customer.

For starters, the last thing you want to do when a customer walks into your office is present the first product that pops into your head.
Before you present a product to your customer, you must first find out exactly what it is your customer wants and needs.
The first thing you want to do is introduce yourself to your customer. Offer them a seat and make them feel as comfortable as possible.
Get to know your customer, talk about non-business subjects, this will take some of the pressure off of the both of you and make it easier to talk to one another.
Once you believe that you and your customer have found a comfort level, begin to evaluate your customer's needs.
Start by asking questions to find out his reasons for coming in to see you. Find out what products he currently has and uses. And how much he pays for them. Find out all you can about the company he obtained his products from, and what he thought of the customer service he was provided with.

It is important to know these things for reasons of comparison.
Once you have evaluated your customer and have a pretty good idea of what his needs are, get ready to present the products you have, that you believe to be an ideal match to his needs.
But before you make your presentation, make sure that you are prepared. Have all the materials you need to make your presentation a solid one at your finger tips. Such materials would include, brochures and literature, not only to give to your customer, but to go over with your customer. Unfold the brochure in front of him as you discuss the product. Literature is also a good way to be prepared in case you are hit with a question you can't answer, this will be a good resource for reference.
The point that I am trying to make is; Present to your customer a product you believe they will need. Your presentation should be based on the information that you have gathered from your customer during your sales session.
You could be the greatest presenter of products in the world, but if you are presenting products that customers don't need, you'll never sell a thing.
So be sure to evaluate your customers before you start presenting your products.
This article may be reproduced by anyone at any time, as long as the authors name and reference links are kept in tact and active.