DCI's Publication Date: June 20, 1997

Can You Sell Change?

By Ron Karr
President, Karr Associates Inc.

As you know, the buzzword of 1996 was CHANGE! When you think about it, there is no better word to describe the life of a salesperson.

Regardless of what product or service you offer, everyone sells change. If you are selling to a new customer, you are asking the customer to change vendors and change the way they handle things. If you are trying to increase sales volume with existing customers, you are asking them to change the way they have been doing business with you. If you are talking to an angry customer, your goal obviously is to change their opinion of you and your products.

If you are going to be successful in selling your clients on change, you must first embrace and live the life of a change agent. In other words, you need to walk to your talk.

Changes Affecting Salespeople

Salespeople today are being hampered by changes happening all around them, such as:

• Many industries are consolidating, thereby reducing the number of customers.
• The human gatekeeper has been replaced by a new gatekeeper: voice mail.
• Customers are getting smarter by having easy access to information.
• Competition is getting fierce because technology makes it possible to develop and market competitive offerings in record time.
• Your product lines keep changing as your company tries to meet the fast-changing needs of the marketplace.

Change Effects

All of the changes above require changes in the way you sell today. Since competitive pressures are at an all-time high, it is difficult to differentiate yourself by products/services alone. Differentiation is going to occur in how you handle the customer contact, whether it be by phone, mail or in person. Your ability to differentiate yourself from the competition will lie in the overall mix of products and services you offer your customer. To succeed in this selling environment, you must change the way you position yourself with the customer. You must be perceived as being a valuable resource.

Resources make significant and unique contributions to their customers in the following areas:

• Increase customer’s profits
• Increase customer’s productivity
• Reduce customer’s operating expense
• Help customers maintain a competitive edge

All of these areas refer to both business and consumer sales. As an example, look at the millions of dollars being spent on advertising in the health and beauty industry. What are they selling? The looks and perception you want or need to maintain you competitive edge, whether it be personal or business related. You will succeed in making yourself unique, invaluable and irreplaceable in the mind of your customer by helping them with one or more of the objectives listed above.

Becoming Invaluable

Whether it’s trying to get through voice mail, maintain sales volume in a shrinking industry or increase sales, the hardest thing for you to do as a sales executive is to gain your customer’s time and attention. If you are meeting face to face or talking on the phone with a customer, you have their time, but not necessarily their attention. Resources gain both their customer’s time and attention by concentrating on the customer, not on their need to make a sale. In fact, by concentrating more on your customer, you will wind up selling more. Resources do not lead by features and benefits. Resources lead by wants, needs and fears.

Obviously, this means you need to start the conversation by asking questions. And this is where most sales executives go wrong. They ask the wrong kind of questions. They ask their customers what are they currently using or how are they handling certain situations. This line of questioning will not motivate your customers to give you their undivided attention. They already know what they are doing. What’s in it for them to verbally communicate it to you?

On the other hand, if you start out by asking your customers what their goals are for the future (profitability, productivity, etc.) and the challenges facing them, you will be guaranteed to get their undivided attention. Everyone is in a hurry to get to the next level. Resources become extremely valuable when they can show the customer that they are indeed the best solution for helping them attain the desired results. Asking your customers where they are trying to get to will create the perception that you represent a potential solution. The answers to your questions will guide you on how to present your products and services. If you do it properly, you will be perceived as being a solution second to none.

Today’s Salesperson

Grover Cleveland once said: "It is not that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem." Resource know that once the customer identifies and clearly sees the problem, only then will the customer notice and value the solution for what it is truly worth. If you take this approach, you will increase your success in differentiating yourself from the competition and dealing with today’s market challenges. You will be qualified to sell change!

Copyright 1996, Karr Associates Inc. Reprinted with permission.

A speaker and consultant, Ron Karr is a featured presenter at DCI’s Sales Management Conference. Please see our online brochure for complete program and registration information. Mr. Karr can be reached at (800) 423-5277.