Is This Disease Harming Your Sales?

Do you believe in the value of what you sell? If you were asked that question I’m sure you would reply very positively. The trouble is, when we are involved with the same product or service week after week, month after month, year after year, our belief tends to become sterile. The fire and passion we once had are replaced by a merely intellectual belief.

It’s not surprising that we begin to lose some of our enthusiasm and that all-important ‘edge’ over time. But when we lose appreciation for what we sell, it tends to affect our relationships with customers. That’s why it is so critical to remind ourselves constantly of the value we offer. It helps to keep the ‘wow’ factor alive.

As sales trainers we’ve come across many examples of brand new salespeople with virtually no training who sell well. Why does this happen?
They believe in what they offer, they are passionate about it, there is an emotional intensity to what they do. If you ask them how come they are doing so well, they say: ‘I just believe in my product, it’s fantastic, if I don’t sell to someone I feel I’ve done them a huge disservice – it’s that good.’

Be careful of price-itis

There is a business damaging disease that sellers often catch affectionately known as price-itis that needs to be handled in your sales training. The symptoms are waking up one morning believing that what you sell is somewhat pricey. Be warned, price-itis is highly contagious, worse than chickenpox or flu. If you have an attack of it, most of the customers you speak to that day will catch it and you’ll lose business on the price objection.

It’s important to appreciate that, assuming the product or service is not genuinely overpriced, all sellers get priceitis from time to time – irrespective of what they sell and how it is priced.

The cure is simple: take time out to rebuild your belief. While this may sound like an opportunity to step back, it is not an excuse to take the morning off; just spend a few minutes each day reselling yourself on the value of the solutions you offer. The best way to achieve this is to remind yourself of your satisfied customers. Remind yourself of the value they received and the problems you helped solve. It will make your selling easier and more natural.

Make it a habit to reread your own customer testimonials regularly. You’ll be impressed and reinspired.

Learn more about LDL sales improvement programmes.