What Your Customers Don’t Know Can Hurt Your Sales
Have you heard the saying “What you don’t know can’t hurt you”? Actually, in sales what you don’t know can hurt you, and what can really hurt you is what your customers don't know.
A recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted some interesting information about what some people don’t know. According to the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, 31 percent of Americans can't name a single branch of the government. As if that’s not alarming, a survey by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni found that 10 percent of college graduates think that Judith Sheindlin (Judge Judy on television) sits on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Are you now starting to wonder what your customers don’t know? You should. You’ve got a job to do to address what your customers don’t know so you can make the sale.
What do you want customers to know?
Start thinking about the information that would make your customers become better decision makers or able to make faster decisions. Products today are complex and good sales professionals should be helping their customers to make the best buying decisions. These sales professionals provide the information that's necessary to make a decision and then translate what that information means to the customers.
If your company offers a few choices, you could share with your customers the preferred product that other customers have selected. Think about how you feel making online purchases as a customer. If you know that hundreds or thousands of others have already bought the same product you are considering, it can give you peace of mind to make the same purchase.
Keep it simple.
Some salespeople provide copious amounts of data to help them sell their products. Remember that a stream of data means nothing to a lot of people if they don’t understand how the data was determined or its meaning.
Think about the last time you saw physical test results from your doctor. The units of measurement were probably unrecognizable to you unless you have a background in science. The tests themselves also probably didn't make any sense and the results were meaningless unless there also was a range of low, normal, and high.
It's the same for your customers. Perhaps you want to discuss the superior performance of your product. Talk about performance data that will mean something to your customers. Explain how you test your product's performance and the results your product received. Then explain that most competitors’ products have performance results that are far lower (or greater if that’s worse for your competition). Then explain what the results say about the performance of your product. The impact on performance is the most important information you can provide.
It’s like a weather report. Barometric pressure is meaningless. The viewer wants to know if he needs to bring his umbrella to work.
Watch your tone.
The pitch a salesperson makes trying to educate customers can easily be perceived as a patronizing monologue. That type of conversation can quickly annoy your customers instead of engage them. One way to avoid talking down to your customers is to preface what you say by referencing other customers who wanted to know about what you are saying. You could say, “Many of my customers want to know more about X, so if you like, I will share what I know about X with you.” When people hear that other people needed more information, it makes a listener more comfortable listening because he or she isn’t being singled out for being ignorant.
It may not be critical to your sales if someone doesn't know that Judge Judy isn’t on the Supreme Court. However, what is critical is what your customers don’t know about you. And it's up to you—not your competitors—to provide the right information to educate your customers so they will buy from you.
