We can divide salespeople into two types. The first type, and arguably the most common, is a salesperson who needs something from their prospective client. The second type believes they can fulfill a client’s need.
The first type needs a meeting, an opportunity, and a won deal. These salespeople are concerned with what they need to succeed. These sales reps tend to exert effort to cause the client to do something. A client will recognize this salesperson wants something from them, often without the salesperson knowing they are pushing.
The second type of salesperson focuses on what the client needs. By paying attention to their main contact and their stakeholders, they provide the client what they need to improve their results. This second salesperson feels that selling is effortless, with no reason to push.
Your Buyer Is Trying to Buy
Your client accepted your request for a meeting because they need things. They need help understanding why they struggle to produce the results they need, what they need to do to improve their results and the factors they need to consider to make the right decision.
Your client didn’t agree to meet with you so you could log a new opportunity in your CRM, or to please your sales manager with the coverage they can’t get enough of. Yet, our type one salesperson is only concerned about the things they need, instead of what the client needs.
You are better off focusing on what your client needs. The more you try to pursue your needs, the more likely you will lose the deal. Buyers already complain that salespeople are pursuing their own goals instead of helping clients reach theirs, something that has buyers suggesting they are better off without the salesperson, something that should not be true.
You might not notice you are pursuing your goals instead of your client’s goals, but your contact will notice your self-orientation.
How to Make Selling Effortless
If you have viewed my 17-minute cold calling course on YouTube, you may have noticed that from the first communication with the client, I am asking to help the client by offering to provide them with an executive briefing, one that will provide them with insights that will help them succeed.
You might also notice this promise comes with two risk reversals. The first is the 25-minute meeting. The second is the ability to keep the insights and share them with their team, even if there is no next step for the salesperson. In doing so, this approach will have you showing you need nothing from your client, but you are there to help them get what they need.
In The Lost Art of Closing: Winning the 10 Commitments That Drive Sales, you will make every next step something that will benefit the client in the pursuit of their goals. Each chapter has an example of how to help the client understand why they must have the conversation to move toward their goal, with you helping them pursue their buyer’s journey.
To do this effectively, it should feel effortless to both you and the client. Recently, one salesperson pushed hard for me to buy what he was selling. Even though he pretended he was trying to help me, anyone could notice that the deal was for him, not me. He was frustrated because he was exerting effort to move me to buy. He didn’t have the self-awareness to know he was projecting his need for a deal.
Make It Easy for Your Client to Buy
We must carefully thread the needle here. First, never show you have a need in the sales conversation. You are there to take care of your client’s needs, not to take care of yourself or your needs.
Second, you want to show you are interested in serving your client and their goals. The more you focus on what your client needs, the more effortless it is to sell. When you know what your client needs to reach their goal, your guidance and ability to create value for them, make it easier for them to buy. Should you remove your needs and focus on what your client needs, you are likely to score points with your contact and their team.
What Type of Resource Are You
Our first type of a salesperson, the kind that needs something from their client, will not be the best resource for their prospective client because they will not focus on what their client needs. This is like a doctor who takes their medicine while their patient sits by and wonders if they will get the help they need.
The second type, the salesperson who needs nothing may focus on helping the client with their initiative.
Effortless Selling
If you feel as if you must exert effort to win deals in B2B sales, you are likely trying to produce the result you need instead of what your client needs. Wanting creates the problem of having to push. If you must push, you are not selling, and you are not experiencing the effortlessness that would make it easier for both you and your client.
How you sell is more important than what you sell. How you sell determines the outcome of the sales conversation you have with your contacts and their teams. You will never win all the clients you want, but you will win the clients that want you. This is the nature of sales. One advantage in effortless selling is having an extreme other orientation. The more you focus on what your prospective client needs from you, the less difficult it is to sell.
Leaving this article, assess how focused you are on your client and their needs or how much you worry about what you need. If you need help, go here.
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