Salesmanship summarized

Salesmanship at the consumer level is about three things: enthusiasm, empathy, and translation.

Enthusiasm is about standing behind what you’re selling and making sure the customer can see that. Mimicry is an innate human behaviour; if you love the product, the customer starts to love it too. If you sound bored selling a product, they’re bored too. Enthusiasm is about more than peppiness, however. You need to have knowledge as well. If you’re selling air conditioners and you don’t even know what BTUs are, it’s very difficult to feel enthused (trust me I’ve been there). Knowledge is power and confidence in the sales environment, and when you add the right attitude you have enthusiasm.

Empathy, at the minimum, means interpreting your customer’s behaviours, motions, actions, expressions, and words. A salesman who is truly empathetic takes part in the the interaction as if he is looking at himself through the customer’s eyes. The sales process is largely about answering questions and overcoming objections, or better yet, anticipating them by being empathetic. In The Tipping Point, Malcom Gladwell quoted a colleague as saying, “What separates a great salesman from an average one is the number and quality of answers they have to the objections commonly raised by potential clients.” When you can predict your customer’s actions and objections you have achieved a state of empathy. You’re thinking on their terms.

Sales also requires translation. I served a customer recently who wanted some help with an SLR camera. After telling him about some of his options, the customer expressed that he was very satisfied, though he had been to two other camera stores without finding much help. One salesperson had described the highly technical aspects of the camera which meant nothing to him (no empathy). The other simply read specs off of the display tag (no enthusiasm). Neither tried to translate. If the customer wanted a hardcore explanation he would have checked out the forums on www.dpreview.com and if he wanted specs he could get them anywhere. He came to see a salesperson so that they could put it into words he could comprehend. Note that translation doesn’t have to be technical, like it sometimes is for tech gadgets. No matter what the product, take a feature and translate it to a benefit that adds value for the customer.

Adding value to your company’s offerings is what sales is all about; this is what salespeople are paid to do. These three concepts outline the basis for accomplishing this task.

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