A Few Basic Truths About Selling
July 22nd, 2010Answering a question for someone, I realised this was a good summary of my latest thinking on selling.
Here are a few basic truths about selling:
1. People don't buy needs, they buy wants. If you're positioned as a 'need', they buy on price. Selling at the lowest price is rarely a good way to do business.
2. Businesses don't buy based on quality, or the best presentation, or even, who's a friend of the boss. They buy what will fit into their existing infrastructure with the least amount of red tape and politics.
3. People don't change from what they have to a competitor. They'll change to something entirely new, if it fits #1 and #2 above, but convincing them simply to switch phone services means that first you have to convince them that their previous choice was wrong. This is a losing battle.
4. People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. You must earnestly believe that your product or service is going to change the world, or why should anyone bother?
So, to summarise: whatever you're selling must be sexy and irresistable, something you believe in deeply and passionately, something fundamentally different from what they're doing now, yet which will fit into their existing infrastructure without pain.
And that's why selling things like phone systems or services, office supplies, cleaning services, and the like, is so very hard.
If you'd really like to find work during difficult economic times, consider this: think of something you absolutely love doing. Not a business idea, just a thing you love doing. Now, think of the money you or others spend on that. See how you can build a business around your passion.
Doing something you love will not just make your life more fun, you will be much more valuable to others, and selling will become the natural process of sharing something you're excited about, and finding others who feel the same.
If you'd like to discuss that further, and get some suggestions, please feel free to give me a shout, either here or at my email address joel@bizba6.com