If you operate on the assumption that people will benefit from using your products and services, then sales is entirely about helping others. Done well, selling today is helping people identify and address their needs in order to achieve their goals: to improve efficiency in a business, to make something easier, to live a better life in retirement, to be safer, live longer, and so forth. In this way, sales is not simply an appendage of the organization responsible for distribution, but the conduit for showing how your clients benefit from your products or services.
How you sell is a vital part of the value you create for the customer. While conducting research and observing my own sales teams, I’ve sat in over 1,000 meetings between sellers and buyers, and one of the things I’ve observed is that successful salespeople don’t “pitch” and they don’t “close.” That is, they don’t prattle on about how great their offerings are, and they’re not pushy (what some have called the “spray and pray” method).
What they do instead is engage in a mutual dialogue about what a client is trying to accomplish, and then apply the solutions offered through their products or services to the client’s needs. The very best ask smart questions, helping clients to see problems they didn’t even know they had or opportunities around the corner.
This is the cornerstone of our investment philosophy: Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive that even a mediocre sale gives good result.