Sales

My wife and I are building again. It seems to be a constant thing in our lives and to be honest we both love it. Two years ago we bought a holiday home on the south coast with a run down cottage that we have decided to demolish and replace. In addition, 8 months ago we moved into a house in Durban North that had been rented for 4 years and empty for 4 months, and we are rebuilding much of that as well.

To be honest, the actual building is not my favorite. Brick dust everywhere and contractors that seem to take great pleasure in letting you down, can be very draining. There are two parts of building or rebuilding that we both really enjoy; designing the home, and living in the finished product.

Why am I telling you this?

Well… At the moment we are in the designing stage for the new house on the south coast. We intend to make it as eco-friendly as possible with as many new advances in building techniques as seem appropriate, so we tend to go to all the home improvement exhibitions we can. On Saturday of this week we spent an interesting day at the Homemakers Fair in Durban looking at the new developments in eco-friendly building. The fair was okay but what really amazed me was the poor quality of the sales people attempting to persuade me to buy a wide range of heat pumps and solar panels, carpets and wood laminate flooring, water oxygenators and instant lawn.

Many of the sales people at the show were the type who thinks that if they talk you to death you will buy from them. I was exhausted by lunchtime with 3 hours still to go.

One sales person selling a system to oxygenate water (I think) stands out as being the worst sales person of the day. He stopped me in the isle as I walked past his stand and, without any sort of greeting, started talking. His pitch was word perfect but spoken so quickly that it became unintelligible. He had got into his rhythm when he realized that he was losing us, so he actually speeded up, presumably so that he could finish his pitch before we walked away. Finally, when I asked him for his card (perhaps I was already thinking I might include him by name in this article) he said, “We don’t have cards, these products sell themselves”.

The product may well be exceptional, I will never know, but the selling method has a lot to be desired.

If you are intending to use trade shows or exhibitions to expand your customer base then make sure you have the right sales people on your stand. Personality is important but product knowledge and selling skills are more important.

Selling at exhibitions is not difficult and not so different to any other type of selling. If you want the prospect’s attention you will need to demonstrate you know what matters to them. You know their problem and you have a solution for it.

In most cases this means asking them open questions to discover their needs before you attempt to satisfy those needs. Engaging prospects in conversation is not so much about talking, but prompting the prospect and then listening. You will be asking open questions like: “What problems have you had in the past with….?” “How do you …… at the moment?” “How many people live in your home?” Listen to the answers and then you will confirm their problem and offer your solution.

For demonstration selling at exhibitions you will often not have the chance to interact with the prospect as above. In this case you will have worked out average prospect’s needs and focus on satisfying those needs. “I am sure you have experienced …… this is the solution”. Demonstrating the problem and then solving it.

Of course you will also have to find ways to attract people to the stand, construct your stand in a way that is welcoming and set up systems to record anybody that has expressed interest, but the skills to sell must not be discarded just because you are selling at an exhibition.

On a brighter note I did come across one excellent sales person. Maryanne Folpp from Tasol Solar Energy Solutions did a find job. She asked the right questions, seemed to be interested in the answers, explained how I could best solve my problem and left me with a good feeling about their company and products. There is a huge range of competitors in that market and she was able to make sure her company stood out amongst the competition. Well done Maryanne.

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Richard Mulvey, "The International Sales Guru," has directly influenced over 150,000 business people over the last 17 years helping them improve their sales profitability. You can follow the author on·twitter·(richardmulvey) or purchase his DVDs, Books, MP3s etc at·www.richardmulvey.com. You may re-publish this article un-edited in any electronic media as long as this paragraph is at the end.