Whatever You Want…

In 25-plus years of selling, the most common competitor in sales, the competitor who is always present and who wins way too much of the time is “Status Quo” aka “I don’t know” or “Inertia”.

To better understand this, recent research into “Status Quo” identified that one of the biggest reasons for this is a product-oriented approach when selling.

A product-oriented approach is when we talk incessantly about the features and functions of the product rather than a customer-oriented approach focused on the best outcome for the buyer.

When status quo wins, we have failed to tap into the buyers’ real issues and motivators – what are they seeking to fix, accomplish and avoid. Fundamentally we have failed to demonstrate how our offering can achieve the desired outcome for the customer.

As sales professionals, at Upstream we first engage the buyers in the good, bad and ugly of their current daily struggle. From there, we endeavour to help our client recognise that he or she has a problem. While all the signs may be pointing to it, unless we enable them to recognise the frustrations and challenges of their current state, “S tatus quo” will be continue to prevail.

At a recent Upstream completion, a new client simply said, “Is that it? You made it all so easy” which to us is the best feedback!

So keep this in mind …

If your clients are not happy with you then they will go somewhere else where someone listens, cares and delivers.

Make sure you have a clear understanding of what your clients really need… try to understand their mind set and their daily challenges and blast them out of their status quo!

At Upstream – we are SMEs ourselves – we do understand the stresses and strains of running our own business – we do not accept the Status Quo …