Warm Tip: Click the ↑ above on “FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting” to learn more about marketing and distributor internal management. Salespeople can only facilitate customer purchases by winning their trust. Trust largely stems from people's reverence: reverence for destiny, for superiors, and for the words of sages. In today's business world, the most trusted sources of commercial information are authorities/experts and friends/close acquaintances; the former generates trust through reverence, the latter through closeness. Both are key factors that must be skillfully used in sales work.
I. Trust Comes from Authority in the Mind and Close Relationships
1. The gentleman has three reverences: reverence for destiny, reverence for superiors, and reverence for the words of sages. In traditional Chinese culture, trust is the most basic principle of conduct, and the source of trust largely comes from people's reverence. Confucius said: "The gentleman has three reverences: reverence for destiny, reverence for superiors, and reverence for the words of sages." In today's business world, the most trusted sources of commercial information are also two: authorities/experts and friends/close acquaintances; the former generates trust through reverence, the latter through closeness. Both are key factors that must be skillfully used in sales work.
2. Become an expert to win customer trust. In commercial sales, building trust is so important (FMCG Distributor Professional Management Consulting: kxpjxszyzxgl) that we cannot always rely on friends, relatives, and other relationships for help, but we can use many methods to succeed by leveraging authority. So, how can we gain the trust of the person we are communicating with? The most concise methods can start from the following points:
(1) Become an expert yourself, or cite the work results, suggestions, and viewpoints of experts. (2) Adopt a "trust leasing" approach, i.e., borrow the introduction, recommendations, and viewpoints of people trusted by the communication target. (3) Use your current advantages, such as your workplace, status, identity, etc. (4) Be self-reliant and become a trustworthy partner. There are many specific things you can do, and the most effective is the continuous cycle of "promise and fulfill promises." (5) Use public opinion or the consensus or mainstream opinions of relevant groups. (6) Use the logic and values of the communication target. (7) Make your dress, speech, and behavior more like an expert. For example, two salespeople from a medical device company took advantage of morning exercise to sell physiotherapy instruments, but because they were casually dressed, few asked. After being prompted, they immediately changed into white coats, looking like experts, and then many asked, many tried, and they opened up the market.
3. The biggest obstacle in a sales career is not competition or resistance, but the salesperson's own shortcomings. The biggest obstacle in a sales career is not price, not competition, not customer resistance, but the salesperson's own shortcomings. For products with low brand awareness, especially high-priced products, customers often have a guarded attitude and try to confirm from every angle that their purchase is worth the money before making a purchase decision. Salespeople can only facilitate customer purchases by winning their trust. For a salesperson new to the industry, building customer trust requires breaking through six major obstacles.
(1) Knowledge obstacle. Product knowledge is the foundation of negotiation. During communication, customers will inevitably raise professional questions. If the salesperson cannot give appropriate answers, it will undoubtedly pour cold water on the customer's purchase enthusiasm. Therefore, before meeting a customer, salespeople must clear knowledge obstacles and never say "I don't know" to the customer.
(2) Psychological obstacle. Timidity and fear of rejection are common psychological obstacles for new salespeople. This is often manifested as: being afraid to visit customers, not knowing how to communicate with customers, being unwilling to call customers, and worrying about not being accepted by customers. The success of sales lies in shortening the distance with customers and eliminating their doubts by building good relationships. If you cannot proactively communicate with customers, you will inevitably lose opportunities for successful sales. This requires salespeople to enhance self-confidence, self-motivate, and overcome this psychological obstacle.
(3) Mindset obstacle. Mindset obstacle refers to incorrect perceptions of the sales profession and customer service. Some salespeople look down on the sales profession, thinking it has low status, and feel that entering this industry is helpless and aggrieved. They cannot face customers with enthusiasm, and thus cannot arouse customers' purchase enthusiasm.
(4) Skill obstacle. Skill obstacle refers to unfamiliarity with the entire sales process and lack of proficiency in applying techniques to control the customer purchase process. This is manifested as: lack of clear thinking and methods for product introduction, inability to articulate selling points; lack of correct judgment of customer psychology and purchase motives, inability to accurately capture customer purchase signals, thus often missing opportunities to close deals.
(5) Habit obstacle. Bad habits are also an important reason for failing to get customers to sign. Some salespeople are used to harsh language and attitudes, making customers feel disrespected; some salespeople do not smile or are used to judging people by appearance, categorizing customers based on intuition, and taking inappropriate words and actions (perhaps their judgment is correct, but doing so causes negative word-of-mouth and potential customer loss). Salespeople should maintain a positive attitude, respect customers, discover, summarize, and change their bad habits, making customers willing to communicate with you.
(6) Environment obstacle. There was a new salesperson who was enthusiastic when first joining the company, but later influenced by some old salespeople, became lax and failed to strictly discipline themselves. This is the influence of the environment. Therefore, salespeople should learn from colleagues' strengths and discard bad practices.
II. Try to Change Intermediaries into Your Loyal Advocates Abraham is a world-class marketing master. He has consulted for Fortune 500 companies and over 10,000 large and small enterprises. His consulting and speaking fees are among the highest in the world. He has a unique set of sales techniques that make him a distinctive marketing master, and the key points are as follows:
1. Create a "host-guest mutual benefit" relationship. Company A agrees to pass a sales message to Company B, or Company A agrees to encourage their customers to buy Company B's products or services, even praising them highly. Once you obtain this information, you can contact these businesses that can develop cooperation rather than competition, asking them to recommend your products or services to their customers, and provide them with as much information about your products or services as possible, along with high-quality testimonials. You should find companies that may have customer groups that prefer your products or services. You can cooperate with these companies, asking them to endorse your products or services, and guarantee them a share of the profits as compensation. When using the "host-guest mutual benefit" relationship, pay attention to five points:
(1) Your product or service is completely non-competitive with the company's products or services. (2) You will not take away or squeeze out the profits the company normally earns. (3) Guarantee to increase their profits. (4) They don't have to lift a finger. (5) For all accidents, you will bear the compensation responsibility, ensuring they suffer no loss or harm. Show them that there will never be any conflict of interest, no matter the system, how they do it, or who does it. This relationship will only complement each other and be more perfect. You can earn money you wouldn't have earned otherwise, and you can gain extra profits without any personnel, administrative, or sales costs. In this way, you can recover the investment you made in customers and potential customers and the efforts and costs of building company assets over the years.
2. Provide customers with "special treatment" to make them feel important and unique. Customers must feel valued. For example, through negotiation, let customers get a lower price than the market, or higher profits, benefits, or guarantees of additional value than the market. Separate this customer from other customers, making them feel special, important, and unique.
3. Act as an intermediary between customers. You can build friendly and close relationships with customers by acting as an intermediary between them, bringing both parties together. You can find as many customers as possible and say to them: "Market your products, and let companies in related industries sell your products or services for you." Then say to another customer: "I will bring you some products for you to market." In this way, you bring the two parties together. By doing this, you will quickly become a favorite of both parties and receive some commissions.
4. Establish a formal referral system. Anyone important to your customer naturally becomes important to you. Develop and use referral systems as much as possible to win business. According to this, pay attention to the active and passive customers you come into contact with; they may introduce many customers and new friends to you in their lifetime.
III. The Magic of Third-Party Proof Morris is a sales genius in Los Angeles. Every time he makes a sales visit, he never goes alone. He always brings a friendly third party (FTP) as a guarantor. During the sales process, Morris would cite his FTP's story. "If he can do it, I can do it too," the potential customer thinks. This is the magic of third-party proof. When salespeople use the "third-party proof" strategy, potential customers unconsciously (sometimes consciously) compare their business with the third-party story. The success achieved by the characters in the story is their success. The deal is thus concluded. At this point, the potential customer sells themselves, and you don't need to use difficult and complex closing methods. When you use "third-party proof," the other person you use should preferably be someone with authority or a well-known company, to increase the product's credibility. Third-party proof can take many forms. Telling stories is perhaps the most common, writing recommendation letters is another, and listing customer or client names is a third method.
1. No potential customer can remain indifferent to a pile of recommendation letters. In the early history of commerce, salespeople discovered that others' testimonials—"I tried it and loved it"—had powerful persuasive force. Initially, salespeople used verbal testimonials, quoting a user's words to promote the product. However, holding a user's recommendation letter is even more effective. Top salespeople always carry a booklet of recommendation letters. The more times you show it, the better the effect. Additionally, the more types of recommendation letters in the booklet, the better. Any recommendation letter from a person the potential customer knows or has heard of, or from a company the potential customer knows or has heard of, is very useful for closing the deal. A successful businessman found that sales letters or emails containing recommendations from satisfied users received positive responses. If the recommendation letter comes from a resident of the same city as the reader, the effect will be even better! An industrial sales manager in Chicago once had his salespeople carry loose recommendation letters. When closing, the salesperson would take out a letter, hand it to the potential customer, and let them look at it. As soon as they put it down, the salesperson would hand them another, then a third. Soon, the letters piled up on the potential customer's desk. The result proved: the more letters, the better. No potential customer can remain indifferent to a desk piled with recommendation letters from satisfied customers and not be ready to close.
2. Use a compelling customer list to close deals. A buyer list is also effective third-party proof and should be used more often by salespeople. Compiling a list of famous customers is also very beneficial for closing deals. Holland is a sales expert who carries a multi-page customer list. The names are handwritten by the customers themselves (which is much more effective). He places the list on the desk. "You know we are very proud of our customers," he says, "You know Judge Hawes of the Supreme Court, right? I guess you also know Andrew, the president of National Manufacturing Company. They have all used our products. Look, here are their names." He talks about these names with interest and then says: "With such people accepting this price, such as..." He then reads out more well-known names, "People with such talent have such judgment. I want to write your name below, alongside Judge Hawes and Mayor Prey." Without further argument, Holland closes with most potential customers. This story tells us: every potential customer has a strong imitative function; all you need to do is use the third-party proof strategy to activate this function and guide it in the right direction.
-------------------------------------- Like this article? Feel free to click the top right corner to share it to your Moments; About us: WeChat ID: FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting Management Account intro: 20 years of FMCG distributor operation and management experience, professionally targeting distributor internal affairs: Click the "Read Original" below to enter our micro-community for interactive communication and questions. Learning and exchange QQ group: 344257092 Reply 1 to enter the micro official website to view historical messages. -----------------------------------------