Diamond Performance Group™ - Investment in Sales Training

Gem #4: Selling Equals Perception

If there was one thing that we could pinpoint as being most critical in selling, it would be perception. Whether you acknowledge it or not, when you are in sales you are in the business of “perception”. It is never how good your product is, it is the customer’s perception of how good your product is. It is never how high you are priced, it is the customer’s perception of how high you are priced. Great salespeople have a way of recognizing this and focusing in on the things that they control that effect customer perception. What do salespeople control and influence? Here are a few examples:

Preparing for a customer meeting: consider a very competitive selling situation. Vendor A shows up for an initial meeting and spends time asking their standard product-specific questions that are right off of their standard needs analysis. Prior to Vendor B’s meeting with the prospect, they research the prospect thoroughly, uncovering interesting points pertaining to the prospect’s business direction and begin their meeting by demonstrating this understanding with some very salient questions. If you were the customer, what would be your perception of Vendor A and Vendor B? Which company would you like to do business with?

Two vendors are about to make a final presentation to a prospect to close the business. Vendor A loads a PowerPoint presentation deck of 62 slides and begins to walk the customer through this slide by slide. Vendor B begins their presentation by summarizing the insight they gained on the customer through extensive insight gathering prior to the final presentation. They condense their value story to 8 slides. Which company would you like to do business with?

Are you seeing a pattern here? Our level of preparation and our desire to want to focus on the customer’s business are just a few examples of effecting customer perception. There are many more:

Attire and appearance: this is not to say that the best dressed is going to win. The more important question is are you appropriately dressed. A dark suit with a starched white shirt may create the wrong perception in some situations. Do your homework and know how to dress to create the right impression.

Written communication: it is true when they say the “devil is in the details”. While a typo here or there can be forgiven, there are some customers who view poor grammar as a sign of a weak salesperson. Make sure all written communication is thoroughly proofed.

Integrity: people don’t buy from people they don’t trust. Avoid making unrealistic statements about your product/service performance that you cannot substantiate. The customer will see right through this, and while they may not call you on it, the perception you have now created is indelible.