The destination or the trip?
The challenge
I am very intrigued by how professional sales people sometimes feel reluctant to talk about solutions, because they feel they do not know everything about them. When they do talk about the solutions and the customer says "No", they feel uncomfortable. When this happens several times, sales tend to abandon and say "the product sucks", "marketing sucks", "the customer does not want this" ...
Even though I put things fairly bluntly and I may slightly generalize, you do recognize the situation, don't you?
The holiday idea
Whenever you sell a service or a product, you do so in the end because you want to make your customers more happy than they are today. You want to have them experience a feeling of worry-free joy. You do, don't you? Yet I very rarely hear sales people clearly talk about that joy, about the effect, about the good feeling. Some will say it is too fluffy, some say customers know so you do not have to repeat and some just have never done it.
The destination
I like to invite sales to think of their products and services as journeys to a holiday destination. Indeed, when you plan a holiday you start with the destination and with the feeling you want to live at the destination, don't you? You want to go to the Bahama's and you imagine how you will feel on the beach, under the palm trees in the blue water, with cocktails, sea food, etc... The more you imagine the feeling and the effect, the more you feel you want to go there (or not, but let's assume you want :))
The journey
When you are really fully immerged in the "good feeling" on the destination, you start thinking of how you can get there. You look for the means to travel (products and services) and even if they include items you don't really like, or you consider expensive, or not immediately relevant, you will include them because you want to go to your destination. Imagine for a moment that you do not have a clear destination.... Would you pay 4€ for a coke on plane with narrow seats where you have to sit for 6hours? Would you be enthusiast about getting up at 4, about the expensive car park at the airport? Would you be filled with joy while queuing at the security gate? You wouldn't, would you? But the feeling triggered by the idea of the destination makes it all worthwhile.
So what about your destinations?
Do you market your journey or the feeling when at the destination? Do you sell the trip, or do you sell the feeling when at the destination? It sounds simple and it is. Yet it is not easy. I am currently applying my Holiday Metaphor at several customers including practical tips and tricks to put it at work. It fills me with joy to see many professionals applying stuff almost instantly with measurable impact on results.
I wish you a marvellous destination, and if you feel you could use some support or inspiration during the trip, feel free to get in touch.
