Selling vs Hoping To Get Bought

Jim Bearden’s Sales Presentations and Sales Training Seminars

Jim Bearden, CSP, draws on his years of experience in sales, sales management and sales consulting to develop and deliver customized Sales Keynote Presentations, Sales Training Workshops and Sales Consulting Projects. Jim’s real-world anecdotes, lively sense of humor and interactive style make his sales presentations and sales training workshops relevant and memorable.  His after-the-event follow-up process helps salespeople and their sales managers translate his Sales Training into action in the arena that matters most, the marketplace.

A Process Perspective

Contrary to what most of us have seen from many of the “salespeople” who call on us, selling is a process, not an event.  While there are many significant events or phases in the selling process, none of them will prove effective as a stand-alone, not even the ever-popular—and grossly overemphasized—close.  When selling is viewed and practiced as a process, the quality of the selling experience (for salespeople and their customers) will improve dramatically.  So will the sales results.

Influence versus Illusion

Selling is a process for positively and supportively influencing the choices others (prospects and customers) make. Influence is not the same as control; one is a realistic objective, the other an illusion.  Where customers’ choices are concerned, the very best we can do is influence, and any attempts to exert control will actually reduce whatever influence we might have had. A key step toward enhancing your influence (sales success) is letting go of the illusion of control.

Value Consciousness

The notion of value is at the heart of any effective selling process, so effective salespeople work to understand their prospects’ and customers’ Definitions of Value.  In their approach to selling, inquiry precedes advocacy.  This approach to selling (we’ll call it “Ask and Listen”) will yield far better sales results than the widely practiced but ineffective alternative, “Pitch and Hope”.  It’s the classic difference between Selling and Hoping to Get Bought.