Me: "Ok, cool, now explain to me why would that be important to your customer or me?"
Sales Rep: Fumbles with an answer that's 50% correct or worse, has no answer at all.
Why is what you're offering necessary to anyone?
As a sales coach, one of the questions I focus on with sales teams or entrepreneurs is, "why is what you're offering important to anyone?". The clarification to that question is an area most struggle with and figuring it out; the next thing is how they now communicate this to their targeted audience.
Getting into sales is exciting. Everyone gets pumped about their product, company, etc. but not too much about "The Why" or "what problem are you solving?" which circulates itself around the customer. Furthermore, demonstrations/presentations have become so commonplace that they seldom do a good job engaging the customer and communicating value.
Many things contribute to this, but here are two components that can make a difference in their success if applied correctly within a sales team or as an entrepreneur.
Creativity:
It's interesting how overlooked this component to business/sales success is. Creativity is an important ingredient to what differentiates you from others. Yes, your product or service might seem similar to others; however, it's the creativity within the sales professional, team or entrepreneur that makes the difference.
In a weekly Sales As A Profession video series I do with my colleague Jarrod Best-Mitchell one viewer commented that "some people are not creative", which is not exactly true. Within each one of us, there are different levels of creativity. Being a designer, artist, painter, etc., is not our calling but thinking of helping a customer solve a problem is a sign of creativity.
Man's only limitation, within reason, lies in his development and use of their imagination - (Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill)
In Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, it is mentioned that your imagination is an essential component to success. In developing your business, this level of creativity is needed as it helps develop & fuel the Awareness, Interest, Desire & Action (A.I.D.A) principle to generate sales leads.
The first two principles, Awareness & Interest, require some level of creativity to capture the prospect's attention and then grow their interest in making your product or service appealing/desirable enough for them to take action and commit to doing business with you.
The biggest problem with man today is that he does not THINK - Earl Nightingale.
Critical Thinking:
One of the first mentally inspirational audiobooks I ever heard was the Strangest Secret - Earl Nightingale by Earl Nightingale. The funny thing with this is it was recorded in the 1920s/30s.
Earl was critical of the lack of thought people put into coming up with something new or, more so, solving their problems. Fast forward today, and I can say that there are some similarities between what he recorded almost over 100 years ago today.
Today I see many entrepreneurs and sales professionals not thinking hard enough about growing their business and standing out, not thinking of the space they want to play in so they play in the same sandbox with everyone else.
Constructive thought requires serious analysis of your business strategy. If you are satisfied with what you have today, that is lazy thinking. It is important to keep thinking about what you can achieve tomorrow, the next week and the week after.
We cannot solve the problems experienced today at the same level of thinking from when they were created - Albert Einstein.
Some may say that critical thinking is the party pooper of creativity, and while critical thinking can seem slower, the two can coexist within a team. If you take a look at any organisation, there is always a healthy mix between the logical (Finance Dept.) and the expressive (Marketing/Sales Dept's). Both can and should work together as it relates to growth and development.
Creativity & Critical thinking are like two personalities, one expressive the other logical. However, they are both needed to be successful in developing and growing your business.
Developing a team is also one of the best ways in expanding your level of creativity, especially for "non-creatives" and taking a serious look at the things for the "overly creative".
If you are an entrepreneur, start networking with people and openly asking for support/mentorship as it's a sure way in helping you grow as a person, salesman and businessman.
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