Sales POP - Purveyors of Propserity
If You’re “Telling” You’re Not “Selling”–You Need to Be Asking
Blog / Sales Management / Jul 24, 2017 / Posted by Shawn Karol Sandy / 11663

If You’re “Telling” You’re Not “Selling”–You Need to Be Asking

0 comments

This week, I think the universe has been “telling” me to write this blog post. It must be a sign when I can look back at this week and recall 1 face-to-face meeting, 2 phone calls, and 9 (yes nine) emails–every one of them aimed at directly getting me to buy or getting me to take action to buy. All messaging involved their stories, their product, their prestige, their accolades, their features or their next steps.

Listen up people: when trying to speak to me and get me to do something, should you not be doing your best to discover what is important to me? In other words, asking not telling?

Selling is really simple when you boil it down:
Selling is about communication; Understanding and then articulating the value you can bring to another person (or their business).
Value is subjective, so in order to understand what someone else values, you must first ask them the right questions.

“Telling” about your product or features or services is not selling.

“Asking” is selling.

“Learning” is selling.

“Listening” is selling.

Engaging your customers isn’t about getting them to ask more questions about you (though that can be good).

Engagement happens when you get people to tell you what’s important to them. What they need. What they want. What their obstacles are.

How do you know what to recommend to someone if you don’t know what they want, need or can afford?

Are you telling or are you asking?

Are you telling or are you selling?

Think about your sales communication – all of it:

Are you engaging customers or prospects with the hope that they ask more questions about you or sit back and listen while you ramble on all about yourself?

Or are you asking them to tell you more about themselves?

Until next time, keep kickin’ butt!

Pipeliner empowers salespeople to know exactly what questions to ask. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

About Author

Shawn founded The Selling Agency after a successful sales career working on building solutions for Small Businesses. Shawn's titles include: Market Director, Sales Director, Marketing Director, Development Director, and Entrepreneur. She focuses on organizational selling and strategies.

Comments

..
..
.
Sales Process Automation
.
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. For information on cookies and how you can disable them, visit our privacy and cookie policy.