TOW#563 — Lying salespeople

Dear salespeople and all those who deal with any kind of sales! Do you know that the general attitude of customers towards us is negative? That is, they feel insecure and are very distrustful of salespeople, as well as very skeptical and reserved. They think that the seller is not there to help them, but to take their money. It’s all because of the existence of a large number of unethical salespeople who don’t try to help customers in the buying process, but only think about themselves and how to sell the product and take their money.

The essence of sales is to do everything in our power to help customers to get what they need. But there are many sellers who, in order to achieve their targets, earn a bigger bonus or stand out from their colleagues, use a number of manipulative techniques and lies, just to sell their product or service. This is mostly due to ignorance and insecurity, so they have to manipulate and lie in order to hide their shortcomings. Consequently, as a result of such fake salespeople, customers have the same perception about all of us, even those who are truly hardworking and honest in their intentions.

This is important to know because the axis of the negotiation is on the side of the buyer from the very beginning. Therefore, you first need to gain their trust, and only then get to a level where you can talk with them openly and honestly. And the easiest way to gain customers’ trust is if you truly want and try to help them from the very outset.

“Help me to buy, don’t sell to me.” — Jeffrey Gitomer

This quote’s from a well-known American sales consultant who’s explained it very nicely. If you only want to sell to customers and take their money, they’ll feel it immediately. If you don’t have sincere intentions that you want to help customers solve their ‘problems’, while keeping your interests second, they’ll notice it and leave. The most interesting thing is that they may not even be aware of why they left, they simply felt that they weren’t welcome there.

Here’s some tips on how you should position yourself in order to leave a better, more positive impression on customers:

Do you like the work you do (sales)? — you must first clear this up with yourself. If you don’t like sales, you’ll never be good at it, nor will you good with customers;

Don’t be afraid of rejection — one of the biggest fears in sales is rejection. For fear of rejection, you think you have to do everything (even lying) to complete a sale;

Knowledge of your product — one of the most important conditions for being good at and having credibility in sales is to know the product you’re selling inside out;

Active listening — if you’re talking too much, it means you don’t have control over the sales process, and it also means that you don’t listen much to the interlocutor. If the customer is the one talking more, the chances of understanding what the customer needs, as well as being successful in the sale, are much higher;

Ask questions — questions are one of the most important elements in the sales process. You mustn’t start presenting your products and/or services unless you first find out what the client wants and needs;

Don’t undervalue customers — all customers are the same. Don’t selectively commit to and engage only with certain ones, but try to overcome prejudices and see all customers through the same lens;

Empathise with customers — be empathetic, start with a YOU, rather than ME perspective. It’s ‘normal’ to always start from the ‘I’ perspective, so it takes real mental effort if you want to change the perspective to YOU;

Focus on people — a big sales mistake is being more dedicated to the product than to people. Salespeople must first connect on a personal level with buyers, and then focus on how to offer them the best solution.

Be a ‘sales consultant’, not just a salesperson.

Wishing you success with the changes to come,

Petar Lazarov (Member of the team)