The sales process is where a selling professional gets the work done. It is the way we deliver value and help the customer to move to an ideal future state.
The sales process is a system designed to keep a steady flow of business coming through the door. Having an approach allows us to monitor where customers are and what needs to happen to move them to the next stage.
Like any process, we can optimize certain steps to generate more desirable outcomes.
When you think about a manufacturing process, like how they make toilet paper rolls, there are both equipment and human operators. As processes become more automated, there is less need for human involvement.
More and more these days, technology is being depended upon in the sales process. It started with CRM, now there is sales enablement and AI, that take more and more of the human side out of selling.
For decades sales training programs with scripts, hacks, and closing techniques have been used to manipulate and take advantage of people. Sales management styles that focus on numbers only as a measure of performance have only perpetuated the dehumanizing of sales.
Reenforcing the Human Element
One of the clearest realizations that have come from this COVID-19 crisis is how much we need each other in life and business. Over a decade ago, the Harvard Business Review wrote an article on the importance of empathy in salespeople. Empathy has only become more critical.
Empathy is the ability to understand what someone else is going through. It is the foundation of how we build trust and rapport. Connecting with others, and acknowledging their situation is the starting point of any selling relationship.
If empathy is the first step, then curiosity is the second. It takes curiosity and well-placed questions to help customers navigate and clarify their problems. Salespeople increase their impact by assisting clients in solving issues they may not have know they had, and solve them in a way that helps them get their job done. Both parties need to come to an agreement on the problem to be solved.
Define the Problem
No matter what line of work you are in, or what industry you sell to, there are common problems that you solve. For people to find the work you do, you need to be clear on the problems you solve and communicate them effectively.
When you are with clients, it is essential to bring the problem to an emotional level. A problem is something that is keeping them from getting what they want. To form a deeper connection, we need to acknowledge how they feel about it.
When you pick up an emotional response, it is essential to acknowledge it. Saying things like: I can see this is frustrating you or I can tell that you are afraid of losing money helps get everyone on the same page.
In B2B situations, the deeper problem you solve is helping the prospect look good in front of their boss. No matter how high in the org chart, the person will always have to justify their decision to their superiors. It is the salesperson’s job to clarify the justification.
Set Apart
When you share more of yourself, people get to know who you really are. If we are ok with being vulnerable, you will differentiate yourself. It will solidify your place and the one person who can solve a particular problem.
The sales process is how we deliver value to customers by solving their problems. Empathy and curiosity are the key components that enable us to do this more effectively. The ability to solve bigger and more complex issues makes us indispensable to our customers.
Trying to be all things to all people only slows down the sales process. Same with trying to be something you are not.
When David went out to fight Goliath, they had him try on Saul’s armor, but it didn’t fit. David dropped him on his own terms. We all try on hacks and sales tactics to try and optimize the sales process. It only leads to dehumanizing the process and, in doing so, selling our own soul.
Helping Others
We were wired to serve others. Our brains were designed to get high on connecting with others, and helping those in a bind. Making a valuable contribution to the world how we make meaning in our lives.
Salespeople walk a fine line between helping others and making a name for themselves. Hear what Jesus had to say about this:
If anyone who would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can man give in exchange for his soul?
Mathew 16:24-26
For years I went to seminars and voraciously read business under the guise of trying to help more people. It was all a façade. They were attempts to be more successful in feeling good about myself.
It was coming to know and understand that it is Christ alone that can make things right in my life that freed me from trying to save myself.
The Gospel applies to all aspects of life. It doesn’t take too much to see the connection to the components of the sales process we have discussed.
- Empathy – In Jesus, God came to earth to identify with our humanity.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.
Hebrews 4:15
- Curiosity – The Gospel helps us see everything in a new way, and even the angles are looking into it!
Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care…Even the angels long to look at these things.
Hebrews 1:10 & 12b - Problems – No, Jesus will not make all of our issues evaporate, but he has solved the problem of sins power in our lives.
Direct my footsteps according to your word;
let no sin rule over me.
Psalm 119:133
May the truth of the lengths God will go to extend his grace to you fill you with love. And with that love, may you make meaningful connections with others.
Reflection Question:
What has got you curious?
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For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16-17
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