Sales People Sell – Experts Bore People

How do you know they are an expert.

You can tell they are an expert because they just can’t wait for a chance to show you how much they know about their chosen area of expertise.

As soon as they start presenting information about their product or service their endless knowledge is uncapped and it starts to flow.

As the details continue to gush out, the sales prospect’s eyes start to glaze over. Soon the words lose their meaning and the prospect is looking for a way to interrupt, or a reason to escape.

The expert thinks they are selling. Many started out as sales people, but once their product, service, or industry knowledge, got to a certain level they stopped being sales professionals and started boring people.

An expert is self focused. Their pictures and self talk that goes on internally while they are presenting are all about them and what they know. The more information they present the better they feel.

To use an N.L.P term (Neuro Linguistic Programming) they frame the sales meeting with a prospect as a chance to display how much they know.

This can be to make themselves look superior because they believe prospects buy from experts.

It can be because they believe prospects want to know everything about a product before they will buy.

Think of an expert as someone who tries to answer an unknown question by presenting all the possible answers and hoping that one of them is right.

A sales professional uses words sparingly. They know they only have the focus of their prospect for as long as they keep them interested. A sales professional presents the features of a product that the prospect is interested in, and always links them to the benefits the buyer will gain.

They frame the meeting from the buyer’s perspective. They are not there to show off their knowledge, they are there to discover what will be the key to selling to this particular sales prospect.

Sales people make sure they have used sales questions to discover what the prospect wants.

They find the question before presenting an answer.

Only when they have the details of the wants, needs, and desires that the prospect has do they start their sales presentation.

To stay a sales professional and not fall into the role of an expert you only need to remember one sales tip:

Always ask sales questions to establish what it is that the buyer really wants, and then present only the features and benefits that meet their wants.

That may sound easy, and you probably think you do that know. But so do many of the sales people I manage and coach.

Many sales people don’t have a structure to their sales questioning stage of the sale.

They don’t ask enough questions, or they ask random questions with no clear direction.

Often I hear a string of closed questions that require a Yes or No answer. This makes the prospect feel like they are being interrogated because there is no train of thought just a stream of questions.

Once you have discovered all the buyer’s needs, wants, and desires, you can move to the sales presentation stage. Then you present only the features and benefits that will meet the requirements of the buyer. Then close the sale.

Don’t become an expert and continue presenting information. Don’t bore the buyer.

The best way to be a sales professional, and stop yourself from being a boring expert, is to follow a sales process. Use a sales process with sales stages so that you:

• Have a structure for your sales questions.
• You know when to start your sales presentation.
• You only present the features and benefits the buyer wants.
• You know when to stop the presentation.
• And you know exactly when and how to close the sale.