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Leo Tolstoy wrote that all happy families are alike, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. In fact, every family is unique and so is every customer. They may all share common characteristics, but they will all inevitably differ in their specifics.
This is especially important to remember when the customer is considering a purchase. Every buyer makes every decision differently—every time. Another way of saying this is that no customer situation is static. We call it “the customer journey” for a reason: they are in motion.
Helping a customer begins with an awareness of their unique situation—their context, their environment, their concept of what they want to change. Sellers who proceed with a presentation of solutions without this situational awareness can only address commonalities—not the specific circumstances that created this particular opportunity.
In addition, each person on the buyer’s side who is in a position to influence the decision is likely to have their own ideas about how to best reach the business objective. Decision teams are increasingly cross-functional and connecting to individual concepts allows the salesperson to provide a perspective precisely tailored to each member of the team.
In a recent Miller Heiman Sales Best Practices Study, 93% of the respondents who met the criteria for “World-Class Sales Performers” agreed with the statement, “We clearly understand our customer’s issues before we propose a solution.”
Understanding the customer is half the battle. The other half is everything else the salesperson must understand—the customer’s industry and market, as well as the selling organization’s own solutions, capabilities, and competitors.
Experienced sales professionals have been through many similar (not identical!) customer situations and have developed an understanding of what it takes to achieve customer goals and ambitions.
Perspective is what shines through when salespeople bring their collective expertise to the opportunity and focus it on the customer. They connect what they know and what they’ve learned to what’s important to the customer. Over the past four years, the Miller Heiman Sales Best Practices Study has consistently found that providing perspective is a key characteristic of top sales performers.
Joe Galvin, one of the sales world's most prominent thought leaders is now a Salesforce Sales Community contributor. This community is a new collaborative networking group for sales executives sharing best practices and innovations in sales leadership. We encourage all salesforce.com customers to join Galvin and other top sales thought leaders in the new Salesforce Sales Community.
Joe Galvin is Chief Research Officer and EVP at Miller Heiman.
Learn all the secrets of top sales performers by reading this free salesforce.com e-book.
