There’s no such thing as “product selling” these days.
I had an interesting experience yesterday. While being interviewed for an article in Office Products International, a London-based publication catering to the office products industry, the interviewer asked, “Many dealers are now offering services in addition to their products. Obviously selling service is much different than selling product – how much do you think salespeople are struggling with this change?” My first reaction was, “Selling product? People still do that nowadays?”
Of course, I know that people still sell based on the product they have, rather than the service they provide. I see it all the time. I even interview salespeople who are far more comfortable selling a product than a service. That’s because we’ve become accustomed to it; we’ve been ‘selling product’ since the first time we did show-and-tell in grade school. But there’s one big problem with selling product in today’s environment.
It’s an obsolete skill set. You see, ‘product selling’ involves holding up your product (figuratively speaking, of course – I was in good shape as a car salesman but not that good!), showing the features and benefits of it, and convincing the customer that he/she should buy.
Which is exactly what the Internet can do for your customer, with the added bonus of not having to deal with a salesperson.
It’s true – nearly every product sold by a salesperson today can also be sold without a salesperson; the customer doesn’t have to deal with you at all to buy. It wasn’t always this way. Fifteen years ago, when I was selling industrial products, my customers pretty much had to deal with a salesperson – if not me, than the inside guy at my distributorship. Sure, a few customers faxed in their orders, but they still dealt with myself or my inside salesperson if they had questions about applications, products, etc.
Now if you want to know what product fits what, what application is best suited for what needs, features and benefits, etc., you simply spend a few minutes with your computer, and presto – there are the pieces of information you want, with a little “add to cart” button next to it. A couple more minutes, and your products are on the way – at your convenience, on your budgeted time. No salesperson required.
If you’re a salesperson, where does that leave you? Well, if you’re still selling products, you’re on the outside looking in. That’s why, to succeed in today’s world, every salesperson should be a “service” or conceptual salesperson – whether you’re actually selling products or not. Here’s what I mean by that.
Every product you’re selling has a level of service attached to it. If you’re not selling that service – as opposed to merely selling the product – you’re losing out. Think of it this way: When you order something on the Internet, you have a very basic set of expectations. Your expectations look something like this:
- You won’t get personalized service.
- You should know what you need.
- When you order and pay, somebody will put your item in a box and send it to you.
- You expect reasonably prompt and accurate shipping.
- You’ll pay a low price (sometimes an extremely low price) in exchange for the lack of personalized service.
Here’s the problem for too many distributors of product: It’s neither possible, nor feasible, to match an Internet vendor’s price while still employing salespeople and dedicated customer service people. Hence, the company that employs YOU has two options. First, they can choose to stop employing you, cut costs, and attempt to match the Internet price. This usually doesn’t work because the Internet vendors have a high level of visibility (Amazon, Ebay, etc.) that is hard to compete with. Or, second, they must achieve a higher price point.
It’s your job to justify that higher price point. You do that not by selling the product, but by selling theservice that you provide that surrounds the product. Hence, to stay vital, every salesperson today is a ‘service salesperson.’ If you’re not one yet, get on the stick. Here are a few questions to get you started:
- What service do you provide to your customers over and above the Internet model above?
- How does that service positively impact their business?
- What is the monetary value to the customer of that impact?
- How well do you know your customer’s needs (based on the questions you ask), so you can communicate that value?
- Are you truly making the buying experience more pleasant/efficient/effective than tapping on a keyboard? (If the answer to this one is “no,” you’ve got some serious changes to make!)
Reality, as I explained to Office Products International, is that all effective selling today is about selling the service, rather than the product. If you’re not there yet, you have work to do.
