How Can You Make Selling the Easy Part?

Question - How can you make selling the easy part of your business?

Answer - it’s all in the pre-sell.

Back in the day, selling was all about a lengthy process that involved the seller explaining to the buyer all about their product/service and everything it could do to meet the customer’s needs.

Consider how we used to buy a car. 

You went to a dealership so you could have an in-depth sales meeting with someone who could tell you all about the spec and go through all the information you might need before you made a decision on which car you wanted. You could be there for hours!

These days there is so much more information available to customers. Think about the fancy adverts on TV for the latest cars. An ad draws attention to a particular car and then customers go off and do their own research if they like the look of the car.
They do it online in the comfort of their own home.  They pull together all the facts and figures and chew over all the variations.

By the time they talk with a sales person, at a dealership, they are nearly ready to buy anyway…they just need a little bit of reassurance that they are doing the right thing.
The emotional part.
They have probably already done all the fact checking bit to justify their initial feelings and they just want to feel good about their decision.
They want that bit of human reassurance.
Do they like the person they are dealing with. Do that they feel they can trust them. They want to know they are in safe hands.

So what can you do in your business to take advantage of this new, information-rich, approach to buying goods and services.

Well that is where pre-selling comes into it’s own.

In my world it’s all about sales. I am sure someone in marketing would disagree and say that pre-selling is really marketing!

OK, I’ll concede it’s actually a combination of the two.

It’s sales and marketing all rolled into one. It’s reaching your potential customer’s and letting them have access to all the information they really need in order to know that you and your product or service is the right fit for them. Information that’s presented in a way that makes sense to them because you have crafted your message correctly.  

We are not talking about information overload.  We are talking about information and messages that 'speak' directly to them.
They will think they have done all the research work themselves. Yes, they have, but they can only do that if you are out there with your message and your offer. If you are posting on social media, being visible and your message is clear.

If you have ensured you are talking their language in your message.
If your message conveys exactly what they are looking for and it tells them clearly the result they will get, you are nearly there.

If they have seen what you can do ( perhaps from reading testimonials or watching one of your webinars) and they have absorbed how you can help them to be where they want to be, then really you have done the heavy lifting already... it’s now the easy part.

Don't forget your call to action though. You still need to tell them what they need to do next.
A call to action (CTA) on your posts will inform your customers, when they are ready, just what they need to do to buy from you.
Your pre-selling activities have guided them to you and now you just need to get them over the finishing line.  If you don't have a call to action or some instruction as to what they need to do next, you will be leaving them hanging. Like a rubbish ending to a film - well less than satisfactory and you are definitely spoiling your chances of a sale.  

Assuming your call to action worked and you find yourself in a sales call or meeting with a potential customer, you can stop worrying.
Why?
Because this bit is now the easiest part. It’s usually just about a bit of reassurance and confidence that you are the right one for them.

As a rule of thumb 40% of your time and effort should be spent on these pre-selling/marketing activities. Yes, I will just repeat that again - 40%.
Because these activities will bring buyers to your door.   That has to be better than chasing for sales.

So optimise your pre-sell activities and when it comes to actually selling it’ll be like falling off a log!

If you need any help to get your pre-selling sorted then contact me and we can have a 'no obligation' chat.

Paula 😄

ps - I've helped hundreds of people with their sales, making it a much more pleasant and easier experience for them, so I will be able to help you too.

pps - you can join my Facebook group 'The Sales Café' or follow me on Instagram or connect on LinkedIn