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In the sales process, how do you present your product and solution? Many people will surely think: I'm good at this; as a salesperson, I do this all day long. Praising your product, your service, and your company is the basic skill of sales—who can't do that?
But is that really the case?
“Talking” is easy, but talking “well” is hard. What you say isn't actually important; what matters is how you say it, and most importantly, what the customer hears.
So, when it comes to “talking,” you still need to be customer-centric, even if you're in love with your product every day, even if your product is omnipotent and the best in the world.
Two Principles You Must Know
Only the customer knows what they want
The customer knows their own problems best, not you. Experience gained from one customer is hard to fully apply to another.
This rule reminds us:
- Only problems recognized by the customer are problems; what you think isn't. Even if other customers have this issue, if the current customer doesn't, then it doesn't exist.
- Only solutions approved by the customer are solutions; only they know if it truly solves the problem. A solution without confirmation is just a pile of waste paper.
- Only value recognized by the customer is value; what your product can provide alone doesn't count. Value is the result after the customer uses the product, but you may not be clear how the customer uses it. For example, you say your server is small and doesn't take up space, but the customer says they just built a large computer room—does that feature still have value?
People value what they say and conclude themselves, not what they are told
This is easy to understand. People are like this: once they have a certain viewpoint, it's hard to change. If that viewpoint is something they researched and discovered themselves, it's even harder to persuade them. When this happens to a child, it's called stubbornness; when it happens to an adult, it's called conviction; and when it happens to a customer, it's called needs and vision.
Two Logics You Must Follow
So-called logic means the order in which you speak. For a product or solution communication, there are two things you must do:
First, understand the customer's thoughts
For example, what they personally think is important, what needs to be accomplished, fixed, or avoided, etc.
Clearly, this is a process of asking. You need to understand many things about the customer, the most important being what the customer thinks their needed product looks like, not what your product actually looks like. That is, understand the customer's perception of “what is.”
This step is the focus of sales. For complex sales, this step may take more than half of your time and energy.
Second, connect your product/service with the customer's thoughts
Connecting means: when the customer values cost, then you talk about your low price; when the customer says their staff quality is poor, then you talk about your ease of operation; when the customer says they don't have a warehouse, then you talk about your timely delivery.
The most common mistake salespeople make here is that they take their own perceived product advantages for granted as what the customer perceives, so they skip the customer and immediately start talking endlessly about the product: if he thinks white is fashionable, he praises white's taste to the customer; if he thinks the hard drive is large, then all customers need to download Blu-ray movies; if he thinks his car is fast, the customer needs to race desperately. This is completely one-sided.
The important reason for connecting with the customer's thoughts is that you can focus on the results the customer truly wants to achieve—not the results you think your product can or should provide.
By doing this, you can tailor your presentation content and emphasize more important goals. As the saying goes, it's not about how much you say, but how insightful it is.
Bring the customer into a familiar scenario
Remember the story of “quenching thirst by thinking of plums”? That's a very typical scenario application case.
In sales, a scenario refers to the actual situation of the customer's work or life. The scenario-based introduction method means combining the product introduction with their actual work scenario.
There are two reasons for doing this:
- Customers are familiar with their own scenarios. When you bring them into the scenario, they will have a deeper understanding of how your product or solution helps them work, and they will be more likely to accept it.
- The improved scenario, which we call a vision, is the driving force for purchase. A core driver for customers to buy is the longing for the vision. “When the soldiers heard this, their mouths watered, and they managed to reach the front spring”—this is the driving force of the vision in “quenching thirst by thinking of plums.” You can see how powerful vision is.
Let's take selling a car as an example to introduce in detail how this technique is applied.
The car feature we want to introduce is called ESP. Its standard definition is: when the driver operates the car beyond the limit, the computer automatically intervenes to correct the wheel trajectory, ensuring vehicle safety.
If you directly introduce the standard function of ESP to the customer, I think nine out of ten customers will be confused. When I bought my car, the salesperson introduced it according to the standard definition for 20 minutes, and I still didn't understand what ESP was for, but I knew I had to spend an extra 10,000 yuan.
According to the scenario-based introduction method, how should you introduce it?
Step 1: Preparation
Start with a specific function of your product, then describe a potential scenario where the customer might need this function, and then formulate some questions that help the salesperson determine if the customer might need or use it.
Before introducing the application scenario, you should ask the customer questions or discuss with them.
For example, based on the function of ESP, you first need to imagine in what scenario the customer would use it. The answer is when the wheels are out of control; when are they easily out of control? The answer is on rainy or snowy days.
Okay, now imagine the rainy or snowy day scenario and start formulating questions. For example: On rainy or snowy days, when you drive, do you encounter situations where the wheels slip? When this happens, how do you usually handle it? What if you handle it improperly?
After formulating, ask these questions to the customer or discuss with them, trying to bring the customer into a scenario first. After the discussion, move to step two.
Step 2: Scenario Introduction
When introducing the scenario, there are four core elements:
- Event: Under what circumstances does the customer use it? For example, what difficulty they encounter, or when they do something that requires this function.
- Measure: How the function is used to handle specific needs. Describe how the function is used in terms the customer can understand and relate to their position. This of course requires you to understand the customer's needs.
- Role: Who will take action to respond to the event. The role here doesn't refer to the customer, but to the person or system that takes measures.
- Question: Invite the potential customer to participate in the value conversation by asking, not telling. Asking can promote purchase. If the salesperson unilaterally tells, the customer feels you are “selling.”
Still using ESP as an example, your scenario introduction might be: “If on a heavy snowy day, you drive to the airport, the road is covered with snow, and your wheels often slip on the icy road (event). If at this time the car's computer system (role) activates the ESP function, it can automatically correct the wheel direction at any time, keeping the car within your control (measure). Do you think this can improve the car's safety and help you drive safely in all weather (question)?”
3 Key Points
The above sentence looks easy, but when you actually do it, you'll find it requires preparation and design in advance. There are 3 key points in this sentence:
- You must clearly know in what scenario the customer uses your product's function. This seems easy, but it's not, because it requires the salesperson to understand the customer's business, understand their own product, and be able to connect the two.
- Don't state; ask instead. The reason is in “Principle” #2.
- Think clearly about the benefits to the customer.
People might think saying such a long sentence is too wordy and awkward. Indeed, in practice, you don't need to do it step by step; just remember the logic, and you don't have to say it word for word—even a discussion is fine.
For example, you can first ask: “When you drive on snowy days and encounter slipping, how do you usually handle it? If the car automatically corrects the wheel direction for you, would that help? If it can correct 100 times per second, wouldn't you not worry about rolling over?” Similar words can be said separately.
Learning skills is like this: remember the logic, but don't get stuck on the procedure. The salesperson who introduced ESP to me was a model in this regard. Seeing that I couldn't understand his introduction, he didn't say a word, directly pulled me into his car, drove on the track, made sharp turns, and after a few spins, asked if I understood. I was about to vomit and quickly said, “I understand, I understand!” If I didn't understand, I would have died in his car.
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