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Neil Rackham turned the world of high-ticket salesmanship on its ear. By observing over 35,000 actual sales calls, he scientifically isolated & identified the specific behaviors exhibited by successful salespeople. He called it SPIN selling.

Situation, Problem, Implication, Need Pay-off.

It should come as no surprise that one of the things that he discovered was that successful salesmanship means asking a lot of questions, before presenting products. This is just common sense. What would you think of your Doctor if he told you, “Here take these Zoloft tablets, by the way, what seems to be bothering you?” Probably not very much, so don’t “show up & throw up”, ask questions.

So far, so good, but what kind of a questioning process most often resulted in a positive result?

Here’s what he discovered.

At the beginning of the sales cycle, good questions about the buyer’s situation were well received, provided these questions were perceived by the buyer to be relevant, and to illicit information that was not easily obtained elsewhere. The best situation questions were those that built on the seller’s research. For example, “Many of the homes in this area have sump pumps, do you have one too?” Neil characterized these “situation” questions as being of a fact-finding nature (who, where, when, what, how, yes/no). They serve to give the salesperson a frame of reference for the client’s specific setting. The client appreciates being treated as an individual, but quickly becomes impatient with too many of these “situation” questions.

The successful salesperson maintains the customer’s interest by following on with questions that seek to identify or better understand a problem that exists within the prospective clients situation. For example “Do you find it worrisome when you travel, wondering whether the power might go out causing the sump pump to stop working when you’re away?” Again this shouldn’t come as a big surprise to anyone, right? No problem, no sale. But Rackham soon discovered that getting a customer to admit to a problem & then address it in a sales presentation was rarely enough to win the sale.

It is a basic tenet of behavioral psychology that people engage in behavior that takes the least effort and provide the highest payoff. If someone see’s a product as being very valuable but the effort to purchase that product is large it will decrease the value of the product and they will probably not engage in the behavior required to acquire the product.

In Keynote’s recent publication concerning the online retail industry, they cite several factors that lead to diminished customer experience during online retail consumption. Diminished customer experience can be translated as “acquiring this product or service takes to much requires to much effort to acquire the product or service’s perceived benefit”.

25% of consumers cited having to register in order to make a purchase as their number one frustration. 37% cited research oriented reasons as being highly frustrating and diminishing their consumer experience.

Realizing that online consumers are motivated by either a goal achievement orientation or an experiential orientation and these are supported by a functionality variable we can see that registering in order to purchase a product or service impedes the experiential motivation and inability to obtain consumer information about a product or service impedes the goal achievement motivation.

So, considering the online consumption experience from a behavioral psychological viewpoint, consumers will be less loyal to websites in which their experience is not positive, and their efforts to obtain information are not conveniently rewarded.

Online interactivity needs to be pleasurable, and information should be provided in an up front, easily acquirable manner. This means examining your purchasing process, your information gathering mechanisms, and your search and information acquisition mechanism in such a manner as to render them client center, pleasurable, and functional.

Remember, online consumers will be more likely to engage in a purchase process if the perceived benefit of the product or service outweighs the perceived effort to acquire that product or service.

When was the last time you thanked your customers?

This often neglected gesture is a very powerful sales tool. As a small business owner, I want to know that the companies I chose to work with appreciate my business. Here are some of the opportunities you have to thank the people around you.

1. When they place an order or make a purchase of any type. This may sound pretty obvious but my experience has taught me otherwise. Do you remember the last time a retailer thanked you for shopping at their store? Has the cashier at the local grocery store thanked you lately? What about the clerk at the gas station around the corner? How about your suppliers or companies you use to support your business? I use several hotels across the country to conduct my training workshops and some of my sessions are multi-day program which means I can spend several thousand dollars. Yet, I can count on one hand, the hotels who have thanked me for choosing them versus one of their competitors.

2. When they refer you to another potential client. Much of my business is generated through referrals and I take great pains to thank everyone who refers new potential clients to me. A good friend of mine sent many referrals to an associate yet, the other person did not take the time to thank him or reciprocate. Needless to say, my friend has stopped sending potential clients his way. Simply because he wasn’t thanked.

3. When they contact you regarding a service issue. Most companies don’t think of thanking customers for complaining. Far too often, business people and employees try to redirect the blame or justify what went wrong instead of thanking their customer for pointing out the shortcoming. However, when people do express their concern with something, they are providing you with a golden opportunity to take corrective action and improve your business. Shortly after launching my website, a client encountered a problem and received the incorrect item for an online order she had placed. I thanked her because she helped me correct a problem I didn’t know existed.

Virtually every business you contact has this question in their mind. To truly maximize your revenues you need give people a reason to buy from you versus a competitor. Here are a few strategies that will help you differentiate yourself from your competition.

First, it’s important to understand that people make their buying decision on two levels – logical and emotional. The logical aspect revolves around the product or service and includes such things as product specifications, warranty, price, colour, size, ease of use, etc. Anything directly associated with the product is a logical need. The second buying motivator and, perhaps the most powerful, is the emotional aspect of the sale. These criteria are the less tangible needs and include feelings of success, relief, pride, joy, fear and concern. For example, a person buying a pair of jeans will have specific logical needs such as waist size, inseam length, colour and style. But, ultimately, the emotional aspect of how they fit and look will influence that person’s buying decision.

To uncover your customers emotional buying requirement learn to ask, “What are you looking for in a…?” followed by “Why is that important to you?” The first question helps you learn the logical need while the second question will help the customer express the emotional reasons behind their purchase. In the hundreds of sales training workshops I’ve conducted, I’ve learned that most salespeople and business owners have a tendency to leap into a product demonstration before they have learned what is important to the customer. Invest the time accurately and thoroughly learning your customer’s need and wants. This will help you to begin differentiating yourself from your competitor.

The next step is to give a presentation that focuses on the customer’s needs. Rather than discuss everything about your product or service, focus first on what the customer identified as being important. This demonstrates that you listened to what they said and will help you separate yourself more effectively.

When presenting your product or service ensure you discuss the benefits as well as the features. The feature is “what it is” and the benefit is “what it means to the customer.” A great way to phrase this is to say, “Our equipment extracts 97% of the water from your carpet (feature) which means your carpets will be dry to the touch within three or four hours (benefit).” This addresses the customer’s emotional buying needs which means there is a greater likelihood they will buy from your versus a competitor.