Excerpt from Episode 175
This book’s premise may get a ‘duh’ reaction out of you, but much in sales is dictated by how a buyer feels. Reality is, few of us have the EQ to know what we’re feeling, and our lazy brains don’t want to think too hard about a purchase. To Priemer, it’s the salesperson’s job to help the buyer work through their own thoughts & feelings.
Elements of this book reminded me of ‘Stumbling on Happiness,’ ‘Making Websites Win’ and ‘This I Know’ and none of those is a sales book.
Love this line “Sellers operate as though their buyers are out there sitting idle, just waiting for a solution like theirs to appear on their doorstep. Of course that is (sadly) not the case.”
Another nugget, “most companies think they are selling a pain killer, but their messaging sounds like they’re selling vitamins.”
One of the book’s major messages is that beliefs matter. “First, consider what your organization believes to be its key offering, the thing that differentiates it from your competition. Next craft a statement or series of statements you can use across your sales and marketing efforts, beginning with the phrase “We believe” or “At our company, we believe that” to tell the story…..And if your customers believe what you believe, they will undoubtedly lean in and say, “Tell me more!”
When you insert your own product into the ‘beliefs’ story, say how it solves the problem in a way that circumvents typical solutions (e.g. throwing a lot of money at a problem). By doing so, you’re pre-emptively handling their objections.
His scenarios on Discovery Questions and Objection Handling are excellent. I’d recommend someone who needs practice (and who’s not getting it through real world experience) to read this book.