Do you know why a few salespeople still engage in the `hard-sell’?  It’s simple:  They have to.  It’s all they have!  They lack the knowledge required to solve client problems and even if they did, they don’t know how to gather the required information.

They have no `leverage’.

Your parents may have told you `knowledge is power’ – it’s true.

This is a concept I learned from the late training guru Don Butler more than twenty-five years ago.   When a prospect knows the price and everything else s/he `needs to know’ to make a decision – and the rep has no idea what the real issues are or how to solve them – the prospect has all the leverage!  When this happens, it takes A LOT to `lift’ the sale!

What if the leverage was all on the sellers side?  What if we moved that fulcrum much closer to the buyer leaving almost the full length of the board on the seller's side?   How much `power’ would it take now?  Very little, right?  No hard-sell required.

You don’t need a `hard sell’ if you know how to create leverage!

Leverage is created by knowledge – knowledge the seller has that the buyer doesn’t!  It comes from not only knowing your product – important but highly overrated and overstressed by far too many companies’ product development people who are overly proud of their latest creations which they can’t wait to share with the rest of the world – but more importantly, knowing how to get to the root of client issues and their implications for their future success.  The ability to do THAT and then APPLY your product knowledge is what makes the difference.

Selling Strong

The ability to sell strong isn’t something many salespeople have.  It comes from conviction, based on a philosophy and a deep-seated sense of integrity.

Integrity and character is hard to measure.  It’s like an iceberg.  90% of it is below the surface and invisible to other people.  Talking about it is just that: Talk.  But, actions are visible.  It’s the other 10% that people CAN see that provides a hint as to what’s under the surface.  It’s what you do when it’s NOT convenient.

Take the ad rep who talks all day long to prospects about how one-time ads to build a brand or following are a waste of money; but will then turnaround and book that one-time ad as soon as a merchant says he’ll buy one.  That rep has just lost credibility.  That merchant may like the rep; but s/he will never respect the rep’s knowledge or opinion again.  The rep’s actions have demonstrated, beyond question, that s/he is just like every other ad rep on the street.   That rep will never build a real following.

This usually happens because, while rep may have product knowledge, s/he lacks true professional strategic diagnostic sales process skills – knowing how to question on a professional level - and the true background marketing knowledge – not taught in product classes – to apply to the merchant’s situation.

A rep who has those skills, can demand credibility so easily withheld from the plethora of novices all calling themselves `professional’.

Sell `strong’ and you’ll never have to sell `hard’ – and it will look `soft’.

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