MORE EXCHANGES ON "HOW TO SELL FURNITURE TO THE WALK IN!"

MORE EXCHANGES ON “HOW TO SELL FURNITURE TO THE WALK IN!”

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© February 5, 2010

NOTE: This missive has generated a flood of comments by email, in person, and by phone. What follows is typical, along with an elaboration.

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A READER WRITES:

Excellent article. I wish all sales managers would accept that the concept
of closing is an outdated antique. People don’t want to be pressured to buy;
they want a knowledgeable professional to assist them in getting what they
desire. I'm going to forward this to Mark, I'm sure he'll agree.

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DR. FISHER COMMENTS:

First of all I want to thank the reader, a person who is a veteran in sales and has used the strategy that is suggested here for years. He is a professional.

Others not professional sales people, but forced by circumstances to sell in this difficult economy have also responded. What I have to say here, I repeat again, is in CONFIDENT SELLING FOR THE 90s, that idea is that the selling problem is never the buyer's, the problem is always the seller's.

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Confidence doesn’t come from looking in the mirror and repeating the mantra, I am confident, I am confident, I am confident.

Confidence comes from recognizing that today selling isn’t about a product even though the seller may be selling a product.

Confidence is in recognizing that the seller must:

(1) See the problem through the buyer's eyes,

(2) Understand selling in not all about the seller but all about the buyer.

(3) Know the buyer's business as well if not better than the buyer because selling is all about a partnership between seller and buyer.

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Let us say you have merchandise, for example women’s dress apparel, and you are carrying samples around in your car, and you are a bit self-conscious, even shy, about presenting them to the buyer.

Your self-consciousness is because you sense you will be rejected, not taken seriously, or that the buyer will have no interest in your merchandise. You are looking at selling as if it is all about the seller.

Consequently, before the seller is out of the car, a giant wall appears. Virtually every sales person confronts this wall, whatever the seller is selling. It doesn't exist except in the seller's head but that does not make it any less real.

People who have been successful in sales embrace this wall, which is the seller's assumed anticipation of sales resistance. By embracing the wall instead of denying it or running from it, the seller loosens a brick or two. It allows the seller to see the buyer through the crack provided by the break.

The wall doesn’t suddenly disappear. It is there because the seller has constructed it brick by brick with the rationale why selling is so difficult.

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What has been said in the previous pieces applies here as well. I hope a little elaboration proves helpful.

The seller can deconstruct this wall by imagining what the buyer is like and what the buyer's major concerns are. What is the buyer's top priority? Secondary concerns? How has the buyer been able to cope with the current economic crisis?

Given this information, how can I as seller improve the buyer's status?

It may surprise you to find that you as buyer have a lot in common with the buyer you would like to sell. Then ask yourself, what is the basis of my own sales resistance?

Voila! A light turns on. Sales resistance is natural to us. It is a healthy mechanism that protects us from making stupid purchases or getting in over our head.

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Imagine you are selling yourself:

(1) Put a positive face on, the kind of face that would cause the buyer’s face to mirror yours when you introduce yourself;

(2) Expect the buyer to be suspicious, even cautious, or not available.

Don’t get discouraged, ask for an appointment and a better time when you might discuss your merchandise. Don’t throw your samples in the buyer’s face before you have explored the buyer's suspicions. Keep them in your satchel for now.

(3) The suspicious phase has many twists and turns. These are quite normal. We mimic our four-legged friends in that we fight or take flight.

Fight in sales is for the buyer to challenge the seller. The buyer may express a low opinion of the seller's wares:

"These dresses you are selling are just rags. I'm not interested in being conned again.”

The best way to deal with such an outburst is to throw the same words back at the buyer.

“These are rags?” Then use silence. If the buyer doesn’t speak, say something like, “It would be helpful to understand why you see these dresses as rags or that I am out to take advantage of you.”

(a) You never defend your product. As much as possible, you avoid becoming defensive.

(b) You are interested in learning the source of the buyer’s animosity.

(c) You are not the center of attention. The buyer is. His outburst is an opportunity to make the buyer important by showing a genuine interest in why the buyer feels as he or she does.

(4) The seller's interest from the beginning is to partner with the buyer which means step (3) cannot be avoided. In fact, step (3) is essential to establish trust in the building of consensus. This puts seller and buyer on the same side of the desk, figuring out a business plan where this merchandise will enhance the buyer’s business.

(5) Now the seller brings out the samples!

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In the twentieth century, the focus was on dominance (Winning through Intimidation), or conning (Sell the Sizzle Not the Steak), or finessing (assumptive close, penalty of delay, implied scarcity).

It was a mucho game to go from step (1) and barge through steps (2) and (3) and land on step (4) with the seller’s order pad out.

Television and the Internet, ironically, still sell as if it is still the twentieth century, but professional sales people – as this reader writes – have moved beyond that contrived nonsense.

* * *

In chemistry, the higher the valence is on an atom in a molecule the more intense the chemical activity. A psychologist developed a theory that he called “expectancy valence motivation,” the idea being that success breeds confidence or a higher valence and concurrently a higher expectation of further success. This is especially true in sales.

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There is no seller reading this that has not had more rejections than acceptances in a selling career. That seller, who is still engaged in selling, has realized that rejection is not all about the seller, but all about the buyer. Once the buyer is seen clearly, once the seller's self-constructed wall is worn down, seller and buyer are partners and the sale is a fait accompli.

It starts with knocking out a few psychic bricks until one day the wall is so low the seller can climb through the barrier. Still, the seller should never assume the wall is totally demolished because then the seller is likely to trip over it and fall on his confidence.

Be always well,

Jim