The Pre-Sales Diary: Don’t Sell, Set Expectations!
Yep, that’s true, salesmen and selling is a turnoff for many corporate customers. There is nothing worse than having the feel that you are being sold something, the ego kicks in, nearly all the time.
The biggest secret of successful selling is to not ‘sell’ your product/services/concepts or whatever it is that you sell do.
What we need to do instead is to create a NEED of our products/services/concepts or whatever it is that we do.
That need comes from understanding what the business does, you have to ‘feel’ the pain. Really, you have to have real customer intimacy built into you. And that happens with good sessions where you don’t talk, but just listen!
The advantages you get are:
1. The customer does not feel threatened (by your sales attitude). When you set the right expectations (with scopes and limitations), you appear not to be ‘over-selling’.
2. She/He finds at least someone who is really ready to listen to their pain points before proposing their offerings (or at least pretends*)
3. You have a better idea of what is the environment like, let the customer give you insights into their experiences, sometimes they even share your competitors’ info with you.
4. You have a better idea of knowing their expectations. This will lead you to carry out a proper gap analysis of what is needed and what you can offer.
5. This way, you will propose them a solution which is much more customized for their unique needs rather than propose them a generic (sub par) solution.
6. You can set the expectations right from the beginning, this way, they don’t think you will deliver them a rocket ship while you are only offering them a bicycle.
7. Setting the right expectations also means that you set the right value as well. Do you ever get those concerns like ‘You’re offering is expensive?’ Yes, to a point, being cost competitive is always nice but by setting right expectations, you can negotiate to something close to what you might like.
8. Setting right expectations lead to better success in deliveries.9. Setting right expectations let you gain trust and that brings repeat business and you get good referrals.
10. Setting the right expectations also allows you to understand the right product/marketing gap and enables to feedback the two divisions on how to close this gap.
11. By learning how to say NO and pass out possible business tasks, by drawing lines, having those tough talks (with high risks of losing deals) earlier on, head on, you will be able to gain the right trust immediately.
* its all about Business, nothing personal.
Knowledge Works 
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