Do You Sell Hope?
By Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 3 Minutes
Insight from Best-in-Class Companies
After combing through hundreds of customer, employee and sales rep interviews at best-in-class companies you may want to consider doing it.
Logically, it makes sense. Until the prospect buys they have no idea if the claim/s you make about your product or service are actually true. They ”hope” they are but they don’t know for certain.
But hope goes even deeper, prospects hope that your solution can help them fix their issue, solve their problem and/or improve productivity/performance.
In reality, what we found was that high performing reps get this.
In our interviews, we found that top sales people had an unique and personal connection to their customers.
How do they do it? They are very good at asking questions. They get into the head of the buyer – understanding their business AND personal motivations for making the purchase. Not just their business needs.
For example, we found reps selling to aerospace engineers in very vulnerable situations. A piece broke in a prototype that they needed to demo, or they were searching for a hard to find item that was out of stock.
In another company selling to small business owners, reps understood the importance of getting the label right because it was the physical manifestation of the brand, more importantly, the deep connection to the business owner…who oftentimes, created it.
Giving someone hope is not only uplifting and motivating, but it also establishes a level of depth to the relationship. Think, what does this person hope to get out of this decision?
By adopting this mentality, early in the relationship/buying process, it will force you to dig deeper into their needs (personal and professional). It makes you more empathetic, and changes the dynamics of the sales experience.
A purchase, especially in B2B, is more than just a transaction, it’s the hope that the product or services will deliver on a promise (mostly likely made by you). And that decision is more personal than we recognize or cater to.
I “hope” you get the point.
