Dieting and Selling
Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training
It often struck me that there are striking similarities between how new diets and new selling approaches are marketed . Every now and then a new so called revolutionary diet comes along that is the answer to every one’s prayers.
Remember the Atkins one a few years back, for a while it was in every newspaper and everyone knew someone who was an Atkins convert. You also had your various detox diets, the GI diet, Don’t eat after certain times diets, eat what you want of this but none of that diets, juice this diets, juice that diets etc and soon some one will think up of some new brainwave of a diet that will sell a million books and make someone a millionaire.
The reality however is very simple, irrespective of the fad, good or bad, losing weight is based on a simple principle, if you put less calories in than the body burns, you lose weight. So when you break any of these diets down, they all effectively trying to get you to do the same thing, they just dress it up differently.
Now new sales theories and techniques all work in a very similar way and are marketed accordingly. Lets look at some of the claims that some of the more popular variants make.
No more cold calling types:
I personally think these are some of the funnier ones, no more cold-calls actually means cold-calling just not quite as cold. So it might mean that you are calling a referral or that you do some research before you call. All excellent advice but at the end of the day if I call someone who I have never had a conversation with before, its a cold call plain and simple.
Selling is not about numbers types:
When you break these down, you ll find that they still actually deal in numbers ie. The basics here been is by actively pre-qualifying your leads, you improve your ratios, Great! This again is sound advice but to proclaim that selling is no longer about numbers as a result is pure crazy.
Client Pain vrs Client Need types:
I say tomato, you say tomato. So we used to say uncover the need, now we say get the client to talk about their pain. Fans of client pain over client need will proclaim otherwise but when I have a pain I need a painkiller. If the client wants to buy, selling is about taking the opportunity to sell, where’s the pain in that lol.
Questions vrs Answers types:
The premise here is that selling is not about asking questions its about getting the right type of answers. Of course selling is about getting the right types of answers but I ask you which came first the chicken or the egg?. This is a nonsense, to obtain the right answer, you ask the right question. Selling is always about questions and answers in other words, its about communication.
you can dress it up but selling is first and foremost always going to be about getting in front of as many prospects as you can that want to buy your product . Of course its about been better at all the bits in between but unless the opportunities exist, selling skills and techniques are irrelevant.
Posted By Niall
Tags: sales techniques