“...the future of salesmanship and innovation alike will increasingly depend on giving people easier ways of selling themselves on whatever it is you’re selling. It’s not enough to be persuasive; you’ve got to make it easier for people to persuade themselves.” ~ Michael Schrage
This quote was taken from today’s edition of BNET Insight. The author, Sean Silverthorne, captured the essence of today’s successful selling model. The key behaviors in your model is to find ways that enable the customer to identify for themselves what they need. Sometimes they don’t know how to articulate it, sometimes they don’t know how to describe it, and sometimes they don’t even know they want or need it. It is your job to facilitate that process, first.
“To effectively sell in this new environment you must know how your customers want to be communicated with and how to utilize effective conversational skills to help them discover and articulate what they want and need.” ~ SalesCooke
I would call this resource selling. Pursuasive selling is dead. Understanding how to be a valued and trusted resource is the sales model people are embracing. Next time you want to go in and pitch your product be mindful of how your customer wants to be communicated with: they are not interested in what you are selling and they want to discover or articulate what they need. Let them talk, share and communicate. It will be much more productive for both you and your customer.