TouchPoint Selling

Aug 12 2008 8:27AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (2) |
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By Rick Heaston

I’m noticing that sales people around the country are becoming more and more focused on “selling’ … than they are on “making a sale”. Selling is all about you … whereas making a sale involves you and your customer.

Sure … I know that you’re asking them what they’re looking for … but that’s not what I’m talking about. Today’s customers have too many choices … are too knowledgeable … and are too sales savvy to be sold like the “old days”. And the truth be known … are tired of your feature and benefit presentations.

To be successful in today’s market you need to understand how your customer shops … makes decisions and finally feels comfortable enough to move forward. And until you understand what they encounter along the way, your sales results will be questionable at best. Let’s take a look.

Customers go through three phases as they move toward a comfortable. decision. And if you customize your sales process to help them win … you’ll win too.


Phase One

Curious Thinking: This phase arises from … and is the result of something changing in your customer’s current life. And it could range from problems concerning anything from their home, community or lifestyle. The important point is that they are curious if they they might be able to put themselves in a better position than their current situation.


Phase Two

Confused Thinking: This is the most devilish phase. With so many choices customers get overwhelmed with information. And it’s no wonder. What they worry about most comes in two flavors.

First, customers are scared that they might make a wrong decision … and with so much money at stake … it causes them to doubt both you and themselves. Second, they’re scared they didn’t get the best deal they could get. And both of these cause your customer to hesitate.

To make matters worse, all of the presentations they have to listen to creates unbearable confusion. And confusion only causes a customer’s “decision risk” to skyrocket. This means if your customer perceives a decision to be a “high risk” decision they will do one of two things.

• Not make a decision
• As for discounts or incentives to reduce the risk

Lots of money and confusion don’t go together … they’re like oil and water. You sales process needs to move your customer from Confused Thinking to Clear Thinking.


Phase Three

Clear Thinking: Clear thinking is your goal in today’s market … with today’s customer. Think about it. If everything makes sense to your customer, is decision risk high or low?
And if everything makes sense, will they hesitate with their decision?

Your job is to customize your sales process in order to move your customer from “confused thinking” to “clear thinking”. Do that and you’ll move from “selling” to "making the sale”.