Strength-based selling
It is clear to anyone who has ever tried to sell something that there is no one perfect way to sell. What works for some does not work for others. “A right way to sell does not exist. There are as many sales representative as sales techniques.” This quote describes well the root of the problem – there is no recipe for the perfect sale, and I know this well from experience. Therefore, it is pointless to seek answers from other vendors and copy their techniques.
How to determine your sales technique?
As in other spheres of life, we have different talents in sales. Gallup scientists have been studying and measuring the effects of force development on performance in sales organizations for decades. What they discovered is actually quite logical – the most successful were those salespeople who knew their talents and used them in their sales techniques. Since each one of us is unique, it makes no sense to be guided by someone else’s technique, but you need to recognize what lies ahead and develop those strengths and turn them into a personal approach. No matter what part of the sales chain you are in, whether you are directly involved in sales or want to improve your team, it is important to understand how to turn skills into successful sales results. This approach is also useful for those who already have some success, but if they started focusing on their talents, it would only grow.
What is actually a Strengths-based sales approach?
A self-reliant sales approach recognizes what is unique and distinctive about each salesperson and turns those talents into strengths and tools. If we work together, I can recognize your skills and teach you how to use them in sales. Once you start using your strengths and start building a technique based on them, you will be able to build better business relationships and offer the client something unique – something that makes you special.
Salespeople achieve the best results by improving what they already are, and the biggest danger lies in the fact that we often want to be someone we are not.
As in everyday life, no two individuals are the same in the sales world. Likewise, there should not be the same sales approaches. Someone can do their best by working in a super-analytic way, while others work best by building a relationship with a client. Each of us has something of our own on the basis of which we can build technology and therefore conquer the business world. If the seller knows their skills, recognizes their talents and tries to develop and act in this area, they will also develop better self-confidence that will help them in building new business relationships.
If you are a team leader, consider the following ideas:
- Give your team a chance to describe their successes or best moments.
- Recognize the talents of your team and understand why they succeeded in certain moments.
- Give them opportunities to do more of what they are best at.
- Don’t try to change people into what you want them to be or into something they are not.
There is no point in following some outdated rules and standards – each member of your team is unique and the best thing you can do is recognize their talents and encourage them to use them. If you encourage your employees to use their natural strengths instead of trying to turn them into something they are not, you will discover how successful this approach actually is. This approach will benefit you as a leader for the profit and team work of your employees, your team because they will work on themselves and coming to work will mean developing in a direction that is natural to them instead of pretending to belong to some norms and to your clients because you will show them something authentic, that only you offer. In the same way that sales focus on the target group and tailor the marketing approach according to that, sales are based on benefits and explain an individual’s sales talent and how to recognize and maximize it.