The Gut Feel: How intuition can lead you to success in business
Chapter Six: Intuition and Sales
Chapter Six
Intuition and Sales
Sales build a business and the art of sales requires specific skills, experience, and practice to be effective. Intuition is paramount through the sales process as an aid to guide the salesperson in making successful sales. Intuition can be developed through knowing the basic sales steps and practicing them to build up experience.
The importance of sales to the start-up company
Most companies begin on simple ideas. It is the success in bringing these ideas to reality and their consumer acceptance that determines how successful the company will be. Therefore if a company’s ideas in the form of a product or service are not successfully sold to the consumer, the company will not exist for long.
Where would have Thomas Edison been if he had not been able to sell the concept of electricity to the general public in the 1880s?
Where would McDonald’s be today if Ray Kroc in 1955 did not sell the concept of standardized burger quality and family orientated surroundings for dinning?
Where would have Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos been if they did not sell the concept of Nutrilite to the public, later forming AMWAY?
In each case it is not the invention or idea that is important, selling the product or idea to the public is what makes or breaks the entrepreneur. There are plenty of failed entrepreneurs with brilliant ideas or inventions in the trash-bin of history who were not able to sell their concept to others.
In the majority of cases, start-ups are about sales and nothing else. In a start-up company, the entrepreneur has to work harder and smarter than established companies just to survive the first six months to one year. It’s a steep learning curve for one with little experience, but a person can become very competent very quickly if they know the basic sales steps.
Sales are the frontline of all the plans you have for your idea and venture. It’s make or break and no other company functions can be sustained long without sales. Sales are the driving force of the company. The wellbeing of the company and everybody within it is dependent upon the sales function.
When I first joined the family business as a junior salesperson, one of the veterans pulled me aside one day and told me in no joking a tone that “a company is like a cricket match…..the salesmen are the batsmen, the production people are bowlers, and the accountants are the scorers.” Being a salesperson is a noble profession just like being a sportsperson, a samurai, or a commando – all having a number of important things in common; skill, practice and experience, with intuition as the guiding light.
The Noble Profession
Indeed sales is a noble profession, often forgotten about in the entrepreneurship and management books, even with the importance it has to the wellbeing of the firm. It is through sales that people know your company. Sales are almost a totally unsupervised environment where tact and social intelligence are important assets. Most of your and employees pressures and stresses will come from the sales area, and instant decisions have to be made on an almost daily basis. Sales requires problem solving skills, respect and like for the products you sell, a high level of self confidence, a willingness to sell and learn, an ability to get on with all types of manners and personalities, and the ability to take the hard knocks on the chin. One also needs high energy, patience, perseverance, a slight competitive tendency, and an ability to empathise with others. Least to say, sales is not only about working hard, but working smart, as one has to think all the time. Sales are about the abovementioned skills and above all, intuition which luckily can be built up and developed, as we will see.
Here are the Basic Principles
Before moving onto the basic sales process it is important to understand some of the basic principles of sales. First, it is important to understand that very few sales are actually achieved through rational decisions. Customers will generally not be very enthusiastic at first about the products or services you offer. One must always remember that sales are not an argument and winning any argument will generally not win any sale. Likewise, a sales interview where the buyer does not engage the seller with any objections, will also rarely result in a sale. Sales are created through systematic work, flexibility in approaches, tact, pleasantness, but with a dynamic and forceful approach.
Most sales approaches fail because we fail to communicate directly to the customer, understand how the customer really thinks, and don’t bother to follow up. Rarely on the first interview will you get any sale. Sometimes we blame our failure on anything else but ourselves, and remain too rigid in our approach, believing what we are doing is best. Intuition can help prevent these types of failure if it is cultivated enough to help us understand what is going on with the customer.
The product or service is actually of secondary importance. We don’t sell the product but actually stimulate the customers need for it, or in the case of a trade or B to B customer, stimulate the need for sales/profit.
Fortunately our ability to sell can be improved through knowledge, experience and a constant will to improve. The more we learn, experience, and practice, the more our intuition will grow and guide us through the whole process.
Building up Sales Skills
Generally customers have little interest in new innovations. Habit is a major part of our lives, where in the buying domain, risk and change are generally avoided. The customer is afraid of taking risks and wants to avoid extra effort. He or she may not want to improve present conditions and dislikes being criticized by those around them for making any “wrong” decisions. This is a major barrier to the entry of new products, services, and suppliers to the market. This attitude has prevented many new products succeeding in the market. We must portray our products and services as simplifications or developments that will fit easily into existing habits, rather than being something radical. We as salespeople must make allowances for these reactions and must recognize and influence customers if we are to be successful. The less habit is changed – the better the chance of gaining a sale. Again intuition is the tool that tells us our progress and guides the whole case we put across.
Presenting Our Case
The key in presenting any sales case requires the salesperson to;
1. Convince any customer that they are not the only one. Customers will welcome proof that the product is practical and many others use the product.
2. Convince any customer that new product acceptance requires no special effort, by offering help, instructions and advice on the introduction of the product.
3. Listen to criticism about the product, where one must be sensitive to any justified resistance based on the need to change habits. Don’t force people to change their habits. It is very difficult to convince someone of something he or she doesn’t want to be convinced of. He or she must go through a change. We must allow time for this process and develop the new idea, step by step (it can take weeks or months sometimes). Don’t take it head on and don’t find fault with the customer’s attitude.
4. Continued service through regular meetings will help initiate the required change in habits.
Patience, enthusiasm, time, and especially intuition are required to effectively put a case across to potential customers.
Gaining New Customers
As mentioned, potential customers usually provide resistance to buying new products. Some of these reasons can be summarized as follows;
1. There is a general tendency for customers to test a salesperson’s will and strength. With experience, intuition will tell you when this is just a game or a much deeper hesitancy on the part of the customer.
2. Customers like to observe salespeople before buying from them. Intuition makes you aware of this observation period and to develop empathy with the potential customer.
3. Customers are also busy people and intuition will tell you, when to persist and when to back down.
4. In B to B buying many businesses have a number of formal steps they must go through before dealing with the new supplier and buying a new product. Opening a new account takes a lot of work and one must also identify who is really the decision maker. Also remember a customer may have a limited budget or be thinking about the next stock-take.
Steps in the First Time Sale
Now let’s have a look at the basic steps required to make a sale to a new customer. The biggest success factor is your willingness to call on new customers. The best time to call on new customers is when you are having a good day and on a psychological high.
The first step is to determine the potential of the new customer. Can they use the product? Can they afford the new product? Do they use enough of the product to make it economical to call on them? The answer to all these questions usually has to come from a mental summing up through intuition.
With a B to B customer, one must determine the type of purchasing system the customer uses. In many cases where an outlet may be a branch, purchasing is conducted from a central office, etc. These issues may require some inquiries, so be friendly to all, as this will help you find the correct person. People generally like to help someone with a pleasant demeanor.
Plan your visit – anything not planned is likely to fizzle. Remember your sales arguments before you meet the potential customer. If possible, have samples, or in the case of a service all the necessary printed material to help you explain. Try to get the best impression across to the customer, especially when the customer is busy or distracted – body language counts. Try and use a little humor (not dirty) to build up some rapport and empathy. Anticipate the objections the buyer will put across and how you will deal with them. Plan how to start you sales meeting. You are like a samurai who must improvise according to the circumstances of the meeting. Intuition is your only friend during this process.
Empathy is a very important ingredient in the sales process. Empathy is a capacity we have to connect to others and feel what they are feeling. Empathy helps a person know emotionally what others are experiencing. Empathy is a type of imagination where we imagine what and how another person feels. Through our sensitivity we pick up other people’s body movements, facial expressions, tone of voice and narrative, as a means to sense their feelings, emotions and beliefs. Through empathy we reduce interpersonal ambiguity.
However we must be very careful to the differences within the various signs we read and pick up from others. For example a parent may have an aspiration about further education for their children, but what are the sub-conscious reasons behind their aspirations? This is not necessarily easy (even for trained psychologists) to determine without time to compare narratives and other signs given at other time by the parents. The potential motivations for a parent’s aspiration for their child’s higher education are shown in Figure 6.1. The reality could be any one or combination of these reasons.
Figure 6.1. Possible reasons why a parent has aspirations for their child to undertake further education.
Often the potential customer may put up a last reason why they don’t want to buy the product, sort of like straw resistance (discussed under objections). Once answering this objection, don’t be scared to ask for an order as sometimes it is difficult for the customer to conclude the discussion and it will just continue. Intuition will tell you when to ask, and when it is time to conclude, successfully or unsuccessfully.
If you are turned down (and this maybe 50% of the time) – evaluate. Sit down and go through his or her objections and how you handled them. Think about what to do next, listen to your intuition immediately after the meeting and record it in your dairy. Plan the next call and follow up.
Objections and How to Overcome Them
The sales meeting is primarily about objections a potential buyer will put up and how you handle them. Objections are a normal part of the selling process, and without them, sales are rarely made. The salesperson must identify the objections if he or she is going to persuade a customer to buy and make a sale. Objections actually help the salesperson as they indicate a show of interest from the buyer. Once again you tool of trade is your intuition.
The only type of objection that is dangerous is one that the salesperson doesn’t pick up, and/or doesn’t have any answer for.
The basic types of objections are:
1. Unspoken objections where the customer is not too sure how to express themselves (or is unable to because the salesperson does not give them a chance). You need your empathy here to pick these types of objections up.
2. Prejudice and preconceived opinions that are usually illogical and emotional objections. Reason and logic cannot counter them and your intuition is required to see where the customer is really coming from. Highly refined intuition is needed here.
3. Malicious objections where the customer puts the salesperson under discomfort, which may arise from the temperament of the customer. Intuition and patience is required here.
4. Simple requests for information that require further information to make a decision. You need intuition to read this need from the customer.
5. Prestige objections without any factual foundation which are usually raised just to show off to try to impress the salesperson and other listeners. Intuition will tell you when to placate the ego of the customer.
6. Objective objections about the proposal itself are requests to negotiate, where intuition is very important to read what is required to gain the sale.
7. General sales resistance that has a general prevailing negativity towards the salesperson. This usually occurs at the beginning and experience and intuition will guide you through handling this type of resistance, and finally
8. The “last stand” where a final objection may be raised shortly before the customer decides to buy. Intuition will tell you that the tone of voice will indicate that the customer is ready to buy once this objection is settled.
Dealing with Objections
With experience, intuition will tell you the right time to answer any objections. This is just as important as the answer itself. You can answer any objection;
1. Before they are expressed: especially if you sense the customer is about to make a particular objection. It may be a good tactic to forestall the customer by raising the question yourself. This saves you contradicting the customer and reducing the risk of an argument. Otherwise you may purposely wait for the customer to raise the objection and choose to answer it immediately after it has been raised.
2. Answering the objection immediately: is the most natural time to answer the query and may enable the salesperson to run on with the presentation arguments in a smooth manner. This may go like …”I’m glad you brought this matter up as most customers had that worry until….”, using the objection to reassure the customer that he or she is not the only one. Again intuition is the tool of choice here.
3. Answering all objections later: delay your answers if you can’t come up with a satisfactory answer immediately. Delay your answer if you don’t want to contradict the customer directly. Delay your answer if the objection is not important, and delay your answer if you feel the objection is irrelevant. Get the idea of the importance of intuition here?
4. Not answering objections: Leave objections alone if you feel they will disappear during the progression of the presentation, and certainly leave them alone if they are made from anger. Don’t take the bait. Don’t answer the objection if you think there is no harm in letting the customer think he or she is right. This is where advanced intuition comes in.
Approaches in Dealing with Objections
Some simple rules about dealing with objections are as follows;
1. Identify the type of objection as this will help you understand how to deal with it.
2. Answer in a friendly manner to prevent getting bogged down on any single objection.
3. Never directly contradict the customer unless you don’t want the sale, use “but”.
4. Show respect for the buyers views, nobody will buy from a person who doesn’t respect them.
5. Agree with objections that increase the buyer’s prestige and status to maximize the “feel good” factor.
6. Refrain from giving strong opinions, leave that to people running for political office.
7. Reply concisely so the customer understands what you are talking about. A customer who doesn’t understand the salesperson is not likely to buy the product.
8. Don’t deal with the objection longer than necessary. If you like hearing your own voice, take up public speaking.
9. Here, use your intuition to gauge how your answer if affecting the customer. If he or she is convinced “shut-up”, if he or she isn’t convinced, quickly change tact.
10. Finally prepare yourself thoroughly to deal with objections, remember you are a samurai, ready to repel any moves against you.
Techniques and Methods to deal with Objections
There are a number of techniques or methods that can be used to deal with objections and which one you utilize will depend upon your intuition in deciding which is most appropriate.
1. The preventative method: Prepare your presentation in a way that the customer doesn’t feel any need to bring up any matters.
2. The “yes but” method: Agree with the customer as much as possible, however groveling is totally ineffective. People don’t like to buy from wimps.
3. The boomerang method: see if you can turn around the objection to favour your arguments. Use any objections as starting points that can lead to closing the sale.
4. The deferring method: defer any answers until there is a more stable moment when both of you are settled into a real dialogue. Deferring any answers also gives you more time to find the most appropriate answer. If you don’t understand the objection, ask the customer to repeat it or even give a better example. If the customer is forced to put the objection in more concrete terms, he or she may even withdraw it.
5. Agreement and compensation: where any objections are justified, there is little point in denying it. You can gain in the whole argument by admitting the customer is right but at the same time pointing out that this is of little importance.
6. Repeating the objection and dampening it down: it’s so difficult to deal with exaggerated objections, so repeat it in a much milder form and then answer it.
7. Combing several objections: most objections can be greatly weakened if they are all answered together.
Building up Your Sales Skills and Intuition
Many new entrepreneurs believe that they have little experience in sales and fear this aspect of the start-up, when in actual fact sales can be the most exciting and fulfilling part of the business your operate. Meeting new people from all different walks of life should be an enriching rather than draining experience. Don’t worry too much that some people (actually very few) seem to get up on the wrong side of the bed and take their anxieties out on unsuspecting people like you.
The sales process is just like a school play. Practice makes perfect. The more you practice the sales process the easier it will become and most importantly you can develop your sense of intuition which will become your best friend during any sales presentation. This is why I made the analogy with a sportsperson or samurai. Things happen so fast as there is often little time to think and your intuition takes over. There are three things you can do to build up your sales skills and intuition.
1. Learn all your product information thoroughly by heart if possible so this issue is one less thing to worry about during the sales presentation. Practicing in front of the mirror, family or employees is a good way to do this. Practice until you don’t have to think about what you are saying. Remember to maintain the passion about the product in your spiel, as passion is contagious.
2. Learn all the possible objections that can be made about your products and the potential answers that can be made to neutralize them. This is best done in a group as a brainstorming session where everybody comes up with potential objections which you can list down and work out multiple answers to them. After a few sales calls it will become evident which objections are important and which aren’t.
3. Role play the sales process using different customer styles and objections to practice your techniques and develop you basis intuition about what will happen and how to best respond. The more you role play, the more experience you develop. Role play can also be used as a review tool of problems and situations that occurred in the marketplace, so that in the event of particular objections coming up again, you are prepared. If your role plays can be reviewed by camcorder by a group, role playing will be a much more powerful medium of learning.
When you have undertaken the above steps you will feel like an elite athlete, samurai or fully capable combat troop ready for any selling situation in the marketplace. You will begin to enjoy the sales aspects of your business with the new confidence and focused intuition you have developed, and never be alone again in a sales interview.
Summary
· It is not the idea, product, service, or event that is important, selling it is.
· In the majority of cases, start-ups are about sales and not much else.
· Sales has a systematic process with a number of steps involved, that if learned and approached correctly will greatly enhance your sales abilities.
· Many sales are lost through simple mistakes.
· Customers generally have little interest in new products, so effort is needed to sell them.
· Empathy is very important in the art of sales to guide you.
· The sales presentation usually goes so fast that you can only rely on intuitive thinking to respond to the customer and progress through the interview.
· Customer objections are a necessary part of the sales process. Very few sales will occur without any objections.
· Practice will dramatically improve your sales skills.
Some More Intuition and Sales Tips:
· To develop your empathy skills watch movies and try and sketch out the characters personality traits, motivations, and the thinking behind their behavior. You will find how much it will improve your empathy with others.
Next Chapter: Chapter Seven: Intuition and Growth
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