How not to Sell

How not to sell

Every so often someone will ask how they can either put a sales program together, and/or improve their sales skills. There a hundreds of people and programs that will help them do that, you just have to find one that floats your boat. I would like to take a little different approach to this, and talk about what I feel you should do, and what not to do. For the past 8 weeks or so, we Americans have been subjected to possibly the worst sales program ever conceived by man. That would be the Government Health Care Program. This post has nothing to do with politics and which party is right or wrong, as I am a registered Independent voter, and do not have a dog in this hunt. It has to do with how inept they are in trying to convince people to buy what they are trying to sell, and how you can put together a successful Sales Program for yourself.

The first thing you should do when putting together your Sales Program, is to make sure it covers everything you want to say about your product and/or services in a very short, concise, and simple manner. Next you have to make sure that everyone involved with the program truly believes in it, and can answer any and all questions concerning how it works, as well as what it will do for the customer. They must be able to overcome any questions or objections they may receive during the presentation in a confident unflappable manner, and then give short intelligent answers in return. They also need to break out and memorize the Features and Benefits of the program, as humans almost always purchase the Benefits of something, not the Features. Finally, you must accept that fact that nothing will be sold until the perceived value of the product or service exceeds the price being asked, and you must always work toward that goal. If you fail to incorporate all of these things every single time you present your program, it will no-doubt fail.

Now let’s take the Health Bill, it does none of the above. The House bill is 1,112 pages, and the Senate Bill is 600 pages plus. Both bills are chock full of government bureaucratic super babble, which is hardly simple. As a result, very few people really seem to understand all of it. In fact, some of the people trying to sell it have stated they have not even read the entire Bill. Then it seems that every 10 minutes or so, someone comes on TV and explains or denies what one of the other salespeople has said about the program. The more they try and explain what the message really is, the worse it seems to get. On top of that, they keep backing down and/or changing their original message; the result of which is total chaos and confusion. As far as the price of the program goes, no one really has an answer for that one either. They are asking you to just trust them, oh ya! When you then add-in all of the bickering, backbiting, squabbling, denying, and disagreeing between the two parties as well as within their own parties, you have a recipe for disaster. As a result, it appears that many voters are put off, and are not buying what the Health Bill is currently selling, is it any wonder?

So when you want to come up with your own Sales Program, just look at the Health Bill, and then do everything 180 degrees differently, and you will come up with a good one.

Just my thoughts

Gene B