The
best book I've seen on selling is titled Solution Selling by Mike
Bosworth. His basic premise is that people will only buy to
solve their "pain", and they won't buy your product unless you can show them
that it solves a problem they have. He lays out a process for quickly
identifying the buyer's pain and giving them solutions that will solve it.
One of his main points is to sell solutions, not features. I've used the
process for a couple of years in my other jobs, and it works very
well.
My
$.02....
Royce
-----Original Message-----Good reply, and as I have used this often, I feel the need to discuss what at times I have experienced.
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Mark A Patton
Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2002 10:10 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: ShopTalk: What is it worth?
Without going into a lot of detail, if anyone has read the book "Selling to VITO", this doesn't work with Semour or VITO.
For those that have read the book, allow me to butcher it's thoughts here to be as short as possible for those that haven't:
Semour wants all the info, bottom line, and often Semour equates value as most info related to dollar. Semour unfortunately includes marketing hype as info. A lot of times, Semour will ask for the "tech behind the scenes" so that they can learn and then in the future, hopefully replicate your process/skill.
More importantly, VITO doesn't care about specs, etc. He/She is bottom line. If you can't display why your solution is superior in a few sentences or less, you have lost. VITO doesn't care about specs, etc, he/she wants a "solution sell" that speaks to their basic needs.
I know this doesn't read well here. If you have a chance, grab the book and give it a read.
I know my most successful sells are when I prove I have a superior solution without going into all the "behind the scenes" tech. Many customers don't want to know about the tech, just that you can provide a superior club. In addition, these are the same ones that find it easier to equate a "higher" value to your skills.
Being that I live in Orlando, I have to mention: Don't destroy the magic, there is only 1 Mickey Mouse. In other words, don't give away your tech/skills, just sell the superior solution if at all possible.
Flame Away
Mark
