A product or service is designed to have a number of benefits and to solve a number of problems. We want to add value with our product and that is the sole reason for its existence. The problems start when we begin to focus on the wrong things, like features and even benefits instead of looking to the horizon and into the future. What is the main result we want to deliver with our product?
The most obvious thing in a product is which features, buttons and technical characteristics it contains. Therefore, it is mostly here we start when we meet customers, by presenting the product and the features. It may feel like a natural way to go, because after all, we have developed a product that customers should be able to use to solve their problems, right?
To see beyond the trees
A general expression says: "we can not see the forest for all the trees". This is highly relevant for us in sales. By focusing on the "features" we think are important, we miss the whole point. The only thing that is important to a customer is how our products and services can help him to solve his problem. What the product actually does in the end is not that important. Yet we fail so miserably at this point over and over again. We end up pitching the product instead of the outcome of using it.
Ask questions and find out more
How can we stay away from product focus, while changing the customers view on the world and at the same time influence purchasing behavior at an early stage? It is so easy to fall into the trap where we start talking about our products far too early in our dialogue. Instead of directly answering a question and presenting the product, we should ask another question. Let me give an example:
A prospect wants to buy Membrain, which is a tool that we Structsales work with when analyzing the sales processes of our customers. At this stage, it woul be easy to book a demo of the tool and start talking price. What we instead need to do is to start asking the prospect some well thought through and smart questions. One example would be to find out what the client knows about the tool and what he or she wants to achieve by implementing it. If it's not obvious from the customer's perspective, we risk making a bad delivery because we don't have a goal with implementing the tool.
Look from the outside and in
Another huge challenge we have in our sales organizations today is that most sales reps look from the inside and out. They start by presenting their products, their company and brag about their own clients. How would you as a buyer respond to seller number 50, who has exactly the same way of communicating and who is focusing on the products and features? Not in a particularly positive way, right? Start by putting yourself in the customer's world and find out how your product can bring added value to the customer, preceived value. See past your internal USP's and sit in the customer's seat. Ask yourself if you had been a customer, why would you have invested money in a vendors product?
Most sellers are product focused
8 out of 10 sales reps are product sellers today in the B2B world. The future will largely be automated in sales, according to some reports and trends. I agree 100%, and to survive as a seller, you need to develop, just as our customers need to. We need to reposition ourselves to deliver greater customer value and we need to charge higher rates. This requires senior and experienced sales staff. The only thing sad about all this is, what happens to the product sellers who remain? The answer is that they will probably not remain at all and might actually be replaced by machines, processes or the customer's own purchasing behavior that removes the product sales out of the equation.
Svenska