فصل 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

YOU ARE IN THE PEOPLE BUSINESS

THE PEOPLE BUSINESS, NOT THE “X” BUSINESS

Manufacturers are constantly pushing product awareness and product knowledge because they believe this is the weakness of their sales force. They think if the salespeople just understood how the product worked and the benefits of it, they’d sell more. While it’s true that salespeople must have a great understanding of their products, one must not forget that it’s people who buy those products. That’s why it’s vital that salespeople know about people first and products second. I’ve known salespeople who understood the ins and outs of the product and every detail, but were unable to close the deal because they had inferior understanding of people. Being superior in product knowledge but inferior regarding people knowledge equals minimal results.

If you understand the product before you understand people, you’re putting the cart in front of the horse. Realize that you’re in the people business first and the product business second. Certainly, you need product knowledge. You have to know the benefits of the product and how it compares to others, but first and foremost you need to understand people and what they want before you can sell the product or show someone the benefits of it.

Most salespeople I meet spend too much time selling the product and forget that selling is 80 percent people and 20 percent product. This is illustrated by people buying inferior products every minute of every day. Why is this? Because people buy for reasons other than just the product benefits.

A person stops in at a convenience store after work and buys a carton of milk. Is that brand of milk the very best they can possibly drink? Is it the best price in town? That person doesn’t know and doesn’t care because it’s not the carton of milk that he’s buying. It’s the convenience he’s buying that will get him home to his family as quickly as possible.

The shoeshine guy at the airport does not understand that it’s not the price or the quality of the shoeshine that keeps people from stopping at his booth. He doesn’t realize this because he thinks he’s shining shoes. The reason the businessman doesn’t stop for a shoeshine is because he doesn’t need a shine; it’s not because of the cost. The businessman is concerned about missing his connecting flight. If the shoeshine guy advertised SIXTY-SECOND SHINES, he would have to expand his booth to handle all the business. To hit the right button to close the sale, you have to realize that you are in the people business, not the shoeshine business. Learn to think like customers think. Products do not think, feel, or react. People do.

I live in Los Angeles, and my wife and I buy gas from a station on Sunset Boulevard where the owner comes out, greets us by name, fills up the gas tank, cleans our windshields, and gives us a bottle of water for free! Am I buying the gas or the service? Is this about people or the grade and quality of the fuel that is being put into my car? Is the owner selling people or gas? Where do you think we fill up? If you understand people, then you’ll get the right answer. The owner of the station understands that he is not in the gas business, he is in the people business—which is why we continue to buy from him.

It has been said that people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. I believe this is true, and I can validate it with commission checks. I never consider that I am selling a product, but I do consider that I am helping a person make the right decision. I have sold fish, cars, clothes, real estate, videos, jewelry, investments, and even ideas. I found that I did best when I was interested in the individual—the “human being” who wants to enjoy life and solve a problem by buying my product.

More often than not, salespeople launch into their pitch without knowing anything about the customer, which is a surefire way to miss the sale. What is important to the buyers? What do they need? What is the ideal scene for them? What is it they are actually trying to accomplish with a purchase? What is it that really makes them feel good? If they could get everything they wanted, what would that be? These are the questions that will let you know how to sell them.

Take interest in the client instead of interest in selling him something. When a buyer goes out looking for a product, he doesn’t care how much you know about the product, he only cares about himself: His time, his money, and doing the best thing for himself. He cares most about himself at this time; you and your product are way down on his list of concerns.

THE MOST INTERESTING PERSON IN THE WORLD

“I may not be the most interesting person, but I am the one I’m most interested in.”

—Anonymous

People are far more concerned and interested in themselves and their family and in doing the right thing than they are in having another product, no matter how much they need or want it.

If you don’t show as much interest in the buyer and his concerns as you do in selling, he’ll know that you are only in it for the commission. Be more interested in the customer than you are in yourself, your sales process, your product, or your commission and you will make more sales.

My wife and I recently met with a veteran high-end real estate agent who was showing us a house. As we were walking through the property, I began to tell the agent what was important to us, at which point she cut me off and continued to pitch the house. You’d have thought this agent was a rookie to the business, but on the contrary, she’d been in real estate for more than twenty years. Maybe that was part of her problem. She had joined the ranks of those in the real estate business and had forgotten that she was in the people business.

Ninety percent of all salespeople don’t take the time to listen to the prospect or find out what that person is actually looking for! While this agent has been very successful compared to others, imagine what she could sell if she were genuinely interested in people and in determining what they wanted and needed! It would certainly save her time, as she would then know what to show me and how to sell me. It’s easy to do, but you have to be interested and you have to know how to communicate. Not talk, but communicate! True communication requires finding out what is important to people so you can identify what they actually want and then deliver it. What do people value? What is important? Why is it important? How do they want to be spoken to? What is going to cause them to take action?

Once I was selling a condominium to a couple in Tucson, and I observed that the husband wouldn’t look at me. After a couple of minutes, I bluntly asked him, “Excuse me. Why won’t you look at me?” He was shocked at first, but then he started talking to me. I took interest in him, and when I did he started communicating with me. I asked him what his ideal scene was with regard to a place to live. The question allowed him to open up, and he told me everything they were looking for. During the conversation, the subject of golf came up, so I showed him where the closest course was. He went on and on talking about golf, and he didn’t stop until he’d signed the documents. I barely even sold the condo; I just took interest in him, got into communication with him, and made him more important than the product I was selling. I found out what was important to him, I listened, and then I closed.

COMMUNICATION = SALES

If you don’t get into communication with the buyer, you have no chance of ever making the sale. The dictionary defines “communication” as a process in which information is exchanged between individuals through common symbols or behavior.

Just talking about your product is not communicating, since there’s no exchange of ideas between you and the buyer. In sales we’re interested in communication that gains access to information, which can be turned into action. To gain information means that your communication should include lots of questions. What do you want this product to do that your present one doesn’t do for you? What would your present product have to do so that you would be satisfied with it? On a scale from one to ten, how would you rate what you are using/own now? What would make it a ten? This type of (interested in you) questioning will help you discover what the buyer wants, what he needs, and, most important, to what he assigns value. Additionally, asking questions demonstrates your interest in the individual, and people want to know you are interested in them, not just in a sale.

Years ago I was shopping for a computer and the salesperson started reeling off details about the speed, the memory and storage capacity, the megabytes, and all this technical information that meant nothing to me. I walked away from him feeling like a zombie from all of the technological terms and misunderstandings that he spewed at me, and I didn’t make a purchase. A week later I wandered into another store and met a real salesperson who approached me and immediately started asking me questions rather than spewing data. He asked me if I’d be traveling with the computer and what the three main uses would be to determine how I would be using it and what would make it valuable to me. That salesperson showed more interest in me in sixty seconds than the other guy did in fifteen minutes. He was also genuinely interested in finding the right product for me rather than in making a sale. I told him that I’d been considering buying a particular model, and he promptly explained that the computer I was considering was more than I actually needed and that in the end I would spend more than necessary. His helpful advice increased my trust, putting him in the position to control the sale and keep me interested.

I wound up buying two laptops and a desktop computer from him in less than twenty minutes. Before I left, I asked him what else I might need and then purchased extra memory cards, software programs, and extended warranties. The first guy took fifteen minutes demonstrating his product knowledge, but he didn’t bother to find out anything about me and he didn’t get the sale. Why? He put product knowledge before people knowledge. The guy who sold me the product and got the commission also had plenty of product knowledge, and that was essential for him to guide me to the right product. But he didn’t put the product knowledge first. He put me first. The human quality involved in selling can never be replaced, and it becomes even more beneficial the more deeply entrenched we become in the machine age.

I want to clarify: When I suggest you ask questions, it is not done with the intent of manipulation. This strategy has been greatly misused by sales trainers over the years. You are asking questions to find out more about how to help the human being in front of you rather than how to manipulate that person.

Many books on sales suggest a tactic of collecting information to use against the buyer later. They even describe tricks such as suggesting that the salesperson doesn’t answer questions but that he responds to the buyer’s questions with more questions. That is manipulation, not communication with the intent of helping the buyer, and it will not serve you over time.

I’m in the people business, not the product business, and I’m certainly not in the business of manipulation.

PEOPLE ARE SENIOR TO PRODUCTS (CRITICAL FOR EXECUTIVES)

Make this a fundamental rule you live and die by: You are in the people business, not the product business. People are senior to products! People are senior to processes employed by companies. No product or sales process will ever be successful if it doesn’t make people senior! A product is dead; people are not. A process is a function and is always less important than people. To the degree that a company’s sales process becomes more important than people, that process will fail.

A personal friend of mine who was a rookie commercial real estate agent asked me for a meeting about an investment property I was considering. I won’t mention the name of the company he worked for, but I can tell you that it’s one of the largest firms in the world representing apartment buildings, and it relies on a very stringent sales process.

I told my friend to come to my house for a meeting. He told me it was essential that I come into his office rather than him coming to see me. I thought this was strange and told him, “Just meet me at my office and let’s figure out how I can buy something from you.” He called me back and insisted that I come to his office! This was totally uncharacteristic of my friend. I asked him why he continued to insist on this, because there was no way I was going down to his office: If he wanted to meet with me, he’d have to come to my home or not meet with me at all. At this point he agreed. When he finally got to my home, we sat at my kitchen table and I asked him why he continued to insist that I come to his office. He explained that he’d been to a seminar and the company’s sales approach insisted on the client going into the salesperson’s office. This was a “control” point that the company promoted to its young salespeople, suggesting they would be able to control the client and get more listings.

While it’s vital to have a sales process in place, the moment the process becomes senior to servicing the customer it will always err! This particular process failed to include me, the buyer! By the way, my friend never sold me any real estate. Instead, he quit his job at that company after I convinced him to come and work with me managing my property. This proved to be a very successful decision for both of us. He went on to become a prosperous business owner and real estate entrepreneur. To this day he thanks me for not meeting him at his office! People are senior to processes.

I remember when the Hummer H2 first came out. I was so excited after I’d seen one that I immediately called up a Hummer dealership because I wanted to buy one. I didn’t need a Hummer, but I wanted one, and I wanted it now! A salesperson answered the phone and I asked how much a Hummer was. He told me that he couldn’t give me a price over the phone. I asked if there was something wrong with him because I’d just called for a price, and he’d stated that he couldn’t tell me. He said it was company policy not to give prices over the phone. Wow! What a policy. This Hummer dealership has a policy in place that prevents people from purchasing anything. He then told me that the policy was there to prevent people from shopping price over the phone and going to a competitor. I hadn’t even been thinking about shopping a competitor until he planted the seed in my mind. “Hmmm. Maybe I should shop the price.—” I wondered why the Hummer dealership bothered to advertise its phone number if no one there was willing to answer questions.

This is a perfect example of a business that has implemented poor policy in an effort to prevent people from shopping competitors. Some genius in management came up with a policy that not only prevents people from buying, but also makes no sense to the buyer and probably no sense to the salesperson. This results in a complete waste of advertising dollars, creates a confrontational environment, destroys sales, and creates high employee turnover.

Processes put in place without considering the effect on the customer will inevitably be ineffective and destructive. People are always going to be more important than any processes, procedures, or policies.

People write checks; policies and processes don’t. Products are dead matter and people are alive. Products can be replaced, but people can’t. Products don’t sell themselves, but people do. Never forget, people buy products, and it’s your job to sell people on your product, not to sell your product to people.

Caring about people is senior to the products and the processes you use. Be genuinely concerned that your customer is getting the right product. Make the individual more important than the individual sale, and you’ll make more sales. Be interested in what the person is trying to accomplish and what problem he’s trying to solve, and treat people as individuals—as living, breathing individuals who are irreplaceable. Stay interested before the sale, during the sale, and after the sale—and even if you don’t get the sale. Don’t ever let the process be senior to the people!

You’re not in the real estate business, mortgage business, insurance business, investing business, newspaper business, clothing business, acting business, hotel business, seminar business, or whatever “business” your industry calls itself. Quit the business you think you’re in right now and get into the people business!