Throughout the course I will post some tips and tricks that helped me in my sales career, and what I've seen to work for other sales students.
Tip 1
Every buyer is different, and the previous buyer has nothing to do with the next one.
When I was selling door-to-door, there were several times when I was, not so kindly, asked to leave the homeowner's property. Sometimes doors were slammed in my face, other times I was straight-up yelled at. The problem is not so much hurt feelings, you get over that fairly quickly. The problem is the next customer interaction. Your brain makes a weird connection, assuming that the next person is going to act like the previous one. But why does that make sense? It shouldn't, right? What does one homeowner have to do with another? Unfortunately, you will get into a phase where it seems like everyone says "no." But that's okay. Hearing "no" is a natural part of the selling process, but as we'll learn in this course, we can prevent hearing the word "no."
Tip 2
Sell the clean floor, not the mop
This advice was given to me by my first sales instructor, so I think it wise to pass-on this information. The premise is simple to understand, but difficult to execute. As we will read in SPIN Selling, offering up feature after feature of a product or service does nothing for the customer long-term. Instead, we need to sell results, actions, and solutions to customer problems.
When I was selling windows to high-end neighborhoods, I was not selling a window, I was selling:
Lower energy bills
No more foggy mid-day view from broken seals
No more rooms that are too hot to sit in during the day
Beautiful framing in the home that let's in natural light without the need to ramp-up the air conditioner
Leak-free during a rain or snow storm
Added security with triple-pane glass
Same-day installation
Hassle-free workers and contact-less payments
Professional in-home consultation
Personalized placements using high-end technology
Very rarely would I even use the word "window" when talking to a customer. Why? Because windows, like many products, are not "sexy." They are not like selling sports cars. But, they are an essential part of the home, that many people put off replacing for far too long.
So when I went to a home and saw that the windows were wooden, from the 1950's with paint flaking off of them, I knew that I had an opportunity to not only beautify the home with 21st-century window technology, but also save the homeowner a lot of money on their heating and air bills.
The issue was not solving the implied needs of new windows, it was finding out what the explicit needs were of the homeowner, which we will see how to do in SPIN Selling.