The Psychology of Selling: Increase Your Sales Faster and Easier Than You Ever Thought Possible pdfdrive com

The Best Companies
The very best companies have the best-trained and best-looking salespeople.
Companies like IBM and Hewlett Packard interview prospective salespeople
several times to be sure, in advance, that these are the right people to represent
them in a competitive marketplace. They take prospective salespeople out to
dinner to see how they use their utensils and how they handle themselves in a
social situation. They meet their families to measure the positive or negative
dynamics between and among the spouses. They interview these prospective
employees both individually and in groups. They know that an enormous portion
of the buying decision is going to be determined by the person who is actually
selling the product.
Identify the Basic and Secondary Needs
Be able to identify the basic and secondary needs that your product can
satisfy, and then demonstrate this to the customer. You do this by asking
questions skillfully and listening carefully to the answers. Sooner or later, the
prospect will become interested by asking questions about what the product does
and how it works. This becomes your selling opportunity.
For example, in selling computers and software to businesses, amateur
salespeople usually spend a good deal of time talking about all the different
functions that their equipment will perform.
But the customer does not care. He wants to know if the product will pay for
itself, and how long it will take before it pays for itself. The customer wants to
know how certain he can be that the product will pay for itself. He needs to

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know if this is an intelligent business decision or not.
Put Him in the Spotlight
Instead of thinking about yourself, focus all of your attention on the customer.
Since you can only think about one thing at a time, the more you focus on the
customer rather than yourself, the more relaxed and confident you will become
—and the more positive and animated he will become. Whenever you start to
feel tense in a sales situation, immediately ask the customer a question about
himself or his business, and listen to the answer.
Imagine that you are in a darkened room with the customer. There is a single
spotlight on a swivel above the customer’s desk. This spotlight is voice
activated. Whoever is speaking causes the spotlight to swivel around and focus
exclusively on him. Who is supposed to be in the spotlight, you or the customer?
Since the customer is the most important person, the spotlight should be on
the customer most of the time. Whenever the customer is talking and replying to
your questions, the spotlight is on him. Whenever you are talking about him and
his needs, problems, or objectives and requirements, the spotlight stays on him.
The instant you start talking about yourself, your product, your service, your
company, or your life story, the spotlight swivels around and focuses on you.
The customer is left sitting in the dark.
The more the spotlight is on him, the greater the possibility that you will make
a sale. Keep the spotlight on you and your company, and the likelihood that he
will buy becomes less and less.