Purpose and Profit: A Balanced Sales Approach

Have you ever heard the phrase, “he has dollar signs in his eyes”? It means the buyer perceives the salesperson’s more interested in their commission to be won or lost than they are with the buyers needs. Buyers don’t want us to be self-centered; it’s what’s given sales people a “bad” name. They want us interested in their needs and them, yet our company sales goals are all about revenue. How does a salesperson and sales manager find a balanced sales approach between the buyer’s needs and company’s requirements? I’ll share my take but I would love to hear yours. Use the comments area below.

Get in touch with the purpose your product or service delivers to your preferred customer type

To use a balanced sales approach look beyond the obvious of what you’re selling and be clear about what the result is for your customer.  What does your customer receive or realize for the use of your product or service? A simple example often used is the hole that a drill bit provides. People don’t want drills and drill bits, they want holes. In addition, they want holes made fast and accurate. Everyone wants fast and accurate holes but if you drill down a bit more (no pun intended) you can find a core deliverable that differs based on customer type. A homeowner might realize the satisfaction of doing a job they never thought possible or adding to their trophy of projects (self esteem or pride). A contractor is looking to increase production time and improve quality (profit).

What do your customers realize in their world and business by using your product or service? How is their life or business different or better because they purchased what you offer?

Understand what you provide to your customers

This is not about what you do or how you do it. As above think about how your customers buying or servicing experience is better for them when working with you. You might be great at helping people make decisions, or add confidence to them by always providing proactive updates. Maybe you provide the leadership your contact needs to have their ideas heard by company decision-makers, and they end up looking like a star. Are you great at details?  What does that bring to your customers?

How is their life, company or working experience better because you’re their representative?

One of our clients has a surgery center. They have quality surgeons, a hard working staff, a beautiful facility and state of the art technology. That’s great but what do their patients realize for allowing them to conduct procedures on them? They receive an improved quality of life. From the surgeons to the receptionist, everyone is focused on “Improving the Quality of Each Patients’ Life.” The really cool thing is if you approach your job and every detail with that purpose it brings a whole lot more joy and motivation.

When you have your purpose dialed in you can now work on the work you need to do to “serve” more people. Sales is just part of the service you provide if you have a purpose that is meaningful to your customers. Selling does not have to be about talking someone into something, it can be about helping someone buy what he or she wants.

How many customers will you need to meet the company assigned goals?

Breaking down the amount of customers you will need to add this year will help your focus be on new customers rather than $dollars$. When you simply head out trying to hit a money goal, you can tend to be thinking money all the time, which leads to “dollar signs in your eyes”.

What is your average sale per customer in a year?

Understanding your average sale or revenue per customer, how many will you need to help buy your offering this year?

Decide on which activity and the right amount will get you to your commitment

How many people will you need to see, meet with, present proposals to in order to have the number of new customers purchase with you?

What will you need to do to ensure you meet those numbers? How many calls? What type of calls? How many referrals? How many networking events? You get the picture. Draw it out.

Bring the purpose and sales commitment together now

Work your plan everyday and use the purpose and what is in it for your customers to be your motivation to push you. Writing blogs is not easy for me, especially on a regular basis. But it’s part of my plan and the purpose is to help others grow their sales and grow individually. It’s our hope that anyone working with us or plugged into our support will be better at their profession and feel better about working in it. So I continue to write. I’m working my plan.

Bring balance to your sales meetings

You need to check the scoreboard and monitor individual plans but don’t forget to discuss how people are better for buying your products or working with you. Share the successes of what clients say more than how you convinced them to buy. Stay humble, and keep your eyes on your customers.

When you connect with the purpose you and your product provide, then work a well thought out plan, your sales approach will be more balanced and hitting your goals becomes a habit.