Does it seem harder and harder to get customers’ attention these days? Does your product or service always seem to fall short of being a priority for the customer? What if there were a way to have customers begging to be higher on your priority list, instead of you begging to be on theirs? How would it feel to be with a customer closing a sale and be interrupted by another customer calling you pleading to take their order instead? What would that mean for your business? You can become invaluable to customers and dramatically grow your business, if you change your selling paradigm.
What is the new approach and how do you use it?
The new approach is a change-centric approach. It is the philosophy that the motivation behind every purchase is the desire to make a change—a change that enables the purchaser to achieve a goal. The way you can become a change-centric salesperson is by practicing the five disciplines of change leadership.
1) FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS
Do you just want to scream every time you call a customer and they tell you the budget for your order has been pushed to next quarter, or to next year? Customers are under tremendous pressures these days. Getting onto their priority list seems nearly impossible. Instead of letting customers’ pressures block your orders, find out how to leverage those pressures to put you at the top of their priority list.
2) CHANGE RESPONSE
Customers must adapt and change in response to many forces such as economic conditions, global competition and new technologies, just to name a few. By understanding how your customers respond to these forces and the changes they are trying to make, you can help your customers achieve their goals.
3) POWER ANALYSIS
Do orders never seem to close regardless of how badly the customer seems to need your product or service? Using the power analysis discipline you can uncover the levers and triggers that will close every sale.
4) VALUE CREATION
Traditional solution-oriented and strategic selling methods focus on building business justifications and relationships. It is true that customers must justify purchases and you must have a relationship with them to get an order. But, in these times of hyper-competition and shrinking budgets, return-on-investment and relationships are not sufficient to make your product or service a high enough priority for the customer to issue an order. Practicing the value creation discipline enables you to create irresistible value for your customers, putting you at the top of their priority list.
5) CHANGE ACTUATION
Changing is not easy. People and companies get stuck in ruts and changes seem to be blocked by insurmountable obstacles. It’s like Stephen Covey’s concept of urgent vs. important tasks. People seem to work only on the urgent items and neglect the important ones. Using the change actuation discipline, you can unblock customers and help them achieve far more than they imagined possible—making you their new BFF (best friend forever).
By practicing the five disciplines of the Change Leadership Framework®, you will become invaluable to your customers—and your sales will soar.
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