What's in Your KIT?
A drummer is a traveling salesperson who solicits orders for products using a sample and other marketing tools. Early drummers carried their samples by camel, donkey, horse, or automobile to buyers in their territory or sales area. Depending on what the drummer offers, buyers may be housewives (household brushes, vacuums, cosmetics), store owners (wholesale merchandise), or manufacturers (tools, equipment). The drummers' job is to solicit or “drum up” interest in their products using a portable sales tool kit, then take orders that will be delivered by others.
What drummers have in common is they all have knowledge of the product or service that they represent, information from customers about their needs, and the ability to develop sufficient trust to earn an order and payment. That's their sales kit.
Your sales KIT is the same: Knowledge, Information, and Trust. Whatever you sell, you must know your products and customers very well. Most important, you must earn your customers' trust so they will purchase from you. If any of these three ingredients is missing, the transaction won't happen.
Whatever you sell — razor blades, radio advertising, or industrial regulators — you must know more about it than your customer does. To be successful, you should know how it works, why it works, and — most important — what problems it can solve for others. Your employer can provide basic product knowledge, but you should be sufficiently curious to find out more. Depending on what you are selling, talk to the designers and engineers, speak with the marketing people, and ask existing customers what they know about what you're selling.
In addition, know your competitors' products. Learn more about them than your customers know. Also perform online searches to find out everything you can about your competitors and what they are telling your customers.
The products you represent were developed with guidance from a marketing department somewhere, probably employed by the manufacturer. A key to product marketing is developing a unique selling proposition or point (USP) for each product. Each selling point is a feature and its benefit(s) to the customer. Some of these points are unique to the product that you represent; your competitor cannot or does not offer the same USP. Knowing your product requires that you identify and understand each
Not all USPs are unique. Wonder Bread, for example, “helps build strong bones twelve ways” say the ads. Actually, the bread is enriched with calcium and other minerals and vitamins — the same ones used by other major bakers. What's unique is that the bakers of Wonder Bread used this feature as a primary marketing point to sell their bread.
Not all products are appropriate for all buyers. Some products that you represent will be the best solution for numerous specific applications, but may not be for others. For example, an automotive diagnostic tester may be the best on the market and be an excellent solution for auto repair shops. However, due to the price, it isn't appropriate for the home mechanic. In selling this tester, you must know the needs of your prospect. What is the problem that it must solve? How will it be used? What is the budget for its purchase? How much time, money, or frustration can it save the user?
How can you learn more about your customer? Chapters 2 and 4 explained how professional salespeople use questions to discover the buyer's needs. In most selling situations, begin with open-ended questions that allow the buyer to talk about those needs, then use closed-ended yes/no questions to focus the buyer on specific products and benefits. The point of your questioning is to help the customer come up with an answer to: What problem do I need to solve? Depending on the product and customer, the answer can be:
I need a reliable automated widget that can reduce manufacturing costs.
I need a computerized payroll program that will reduce costly errors and better track employee time.
I need a human resources service that can ensure our company is complying with new federal and state hiring laws.
I need an advertising program that reaches our core customers with a message that we are expanding our hours to better serve their needs.
I need a truck that can deliver and off-load building materials at remote sites.
Until you've discovered the problem that your customer needs to solve — and helped the customer verbalize the problem — your solution is not welcomed. And you can't identify the problem if you don't gather information about the customer, the second component of your sales KIT.
Chapter 2 defined
There are numerous techniques for developing customer trust outlined in this book. In essence, building trust first means acting trustworthy. Customers should be able to depend on what you say; they should respect your knowledge and your opinion. If you are knowledgeable, confident, and respectful, your customers will more easily trust you to assist them in their buying decision. Most important, don't say or do anything that makes a customer mistrust you. Too many salespeople reduce customer trust by using unrealistic superlatives (fantastic, perfect, unbelievable, best ever, etc.) that most customers know cannot be true. Instead, they appreciate accurate and verifiable descriptions (most popular, proven, award-winning, good quality, etc.).
One proven technique for developing trust is to make a statement, then immediately back it up with succinct and understandable facts. “This article in
