Much has been written about various sales methodologies over the years. Spin (not to spin?), Consultative selling, Relationship selling, Solutions selling, or Value selling to name just a few.
What most of these concepts have in common is that they all strive to find a clients need, and then sell to that need. What are they looking for? Where is their pain? We endeavor to get to the expressed opportunity, find out what they’re about to buy, and then go for it.
Largely, this is a fishing expedition. In other words, one is always on the hunt to discover a stated need as defined by the customer, and with that, we attempt to pitch and sell to basically the same need as every other sales person is pitching and selling to. By and large, this is how most sales organizations and sales people operate. They react to a need, instead of identifying and creating a need or opportunity the client had no idea existed, a need or opportunity the client never had any idea they could benefit from in the first place.
There’s an inherent problem with this approach, which is that this will always leave the sales person in a position of reacting to known opportunities instead of creating unique opportunities. Opportunities to sell something that competitors hadn’t the foggiest idea were an opportunity in the first place.
This, as you may have guessed, requires creativity. It also requires a superior and in-depth understanding of a customer’s business and industry such that as an outsider, the sales person is able to envision opportunities to add value in ways that competitors haven’t thought of.
Example: A construction company is passively considering relocating to accommodate future growth. While there is no imminent need, the client begins the process of evaluating the disposition of their current property, and then purchasing another, larger, and more suitable location. On the surface, this appears to be simple enough. To start, they begin consultations with commercial real estate brokers, the experts in this field.
As they navigate through this step, they’re provided with available sites by various brokers, with some listed on the open market, and some off market. Of the four they’ve met, three take a conventional and anticipated approach; when is the client thinking of moving? What are they looking for? How much do they want to invest, etc.? The client is provided with various predictable options in the hope he’ll be interested in one or more of the options presented, and sign a mandate to work exclusively with the broker.
As the client works through the process, he becomes increasingly disenchanted with the whole idea, principally because the notion of dealing with (getting rid of) an enormous amount of archaic equipment piled up in their yard seems beyond daunting. On the one hand, he knows they’ll never use the equipment (they have replaced it with new and modern equipment) but on the other hand, disposing of it (or moving it to the new site or junk yard) will involve a lot of work, expense, and create no value add. While the “junk” occupies not an insignificant amount of real estate, the actual cost of letting the status quo prevail is minimal, while getting rid of it just adds another challenge to the exercise. Given everything else the client has to deal with, this is one more headache he isn’t sure he wants to take on. Slowly, his interest in the project fades; maybe next year will be a better time to think about it…
Of the four real estate brokers interviewed, three of them listened intently, but also recommended the client circle back once the junk issue had been resolved; they didn’t want to waste their time until the client was actually ready to pull the trigger.
Now the forth broker, she was different, she looked for a way to add value and expose an upside the client (and three other brokers) hadn’t thought of and thereby create an opportunity. The problem was twofold. First, the work and bother the client would encounter in dealing with the equipment, and second, the lack of motivation given there was no real perceived upside in moving forward beyond allowing them to move.
The forth broker understood that to nudge the client forward, she would need to find a no hassle/no cost solution to the junk, and hopefully a financial benefit, or more to motivate the client out of his lethargy, so she began to dig.
What she discovered was the construction company had a long history of supporting their local homeless shelter. Next, she made contact with a used equipment auction company (an existing business contact) and arranged for a meeting to discuss the potential value of the used assets. Then, she assured that if the sale proceeds were donated to the shelter, they would qualify as a taxable donation for the construction company. By being first knowledgeable, (she had the auctioneer relationships, the result of being imbedded within the construction industry) and then creative, (a two fold benefit to the client through an actual monetary gain as well as a marketable good will opportunity) she was able to create an opportunity where one had not existed.
All the while as she worked alongside the client attempting to put the deal together, she further forged her relationship and worth with the client. By the time the other three brokers got even a whiff of what she was up to, the ship, as they say, had long sailed.
Being creative, and thinking outside the box are critical to creating opportunities where they didn’t previously exist. The sales person who takes an approach of “what do I know/see that they don’t know/see” will almost always, if not always command an insurmountable competitive advantage.
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