Sales psychology

The cost of not buying

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We are all the same…when we have to pay something expensive in front of us… we hesitate,especially when it is expensive!

Should I spend my hard-earned money on this?

Is it really worth it?

Of course, that’s totally normal… that’s because we are always longing to make rational decisions about things and when there is something unclear about the “absolute” benefit, then we may be confused and start having doubts…

It is expensive…wouldn’t it be better to keep my money?

That’s an auto defense mechanism of the human mind telling us that we have to protect the money we worked hard to acquire.

…and most of the time, it is right.

BUT… not always.

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How do I make my technical product different?

cyprien 1 Comment

Yesterday, I was watching again “The pursuit of Happiness” with Will smith and I was thinking that probably many technical sales are in a similar situation.

In the movie, Will Smith is a Salesman visiting hospitals to sell healthcare equipment. He visits a lot of hospitals but sales become scarcer and finally he run out of money, fight with his wife and is expelled from his apartment because he is unable to pay the rent.

Those machine he has to sell are very cumbersome and Will Smith has a hard time to transport them every day to visit hospitals.

The movie is about how he finds a way out by being persistent and hard-working and shows very well the difficulty to be a Salesman of technical equipment.

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You can do ANYTHING, if you know how

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Doing occasionally technical support, I have heard so many times:

“I cannot do this, I cannot do that…”

And then, most of the time comes a request that has nothing to do with technical support…

Like:

“I don’t understand why something is not working like it should…”

The problem here is not the “something”, it’s the “I don’t understand”…

That’s what I would like to answer:

“You can do anything, if you know how”

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Get everything you want by asking the right questions

cyprien 3 Comments

I still remember about this workshop with the team from a few years ago as if it was yesterday, because of the impact it had on my life.

It was a hot summer and all the people from the team were there. I remember we were together to discuss about how to be more successful and how to improve the synergy between us.

Each of us had to do some presentation and speech about his own achievements and goals for the next half of the year. That was great because it was an opportunity to learn from all the very best of the team.

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Why you NEED to study Sales to be successful

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When I started to work in technical Sales, I wasn’t convinced at all of the need to learn about Sales.

I was thinking that “Sales” is not something that could or should be learnt… because:

1- People choose to buy if they want and if they need what I have to sell.

2- If what I sell is really good, I don’t need to sell anything, people will see it and buy it.

I was blind and stupid.

face palm sales

That’s something that I can only tell after “experiencing” how much I was wrong…

(and that’s not easy to say it, but that’s the truth…)

I don’t know if you feel the same than me but sometimes I just think “I am so right” and I try to prove to everyone around how much I am… to discover few weeks (or months) after that I was in fact telling bullshits…

Here are the reasons I was wrong

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Why having a good technical product is not enough

cyprien 2 Comments

One of my major problems was to think that if I had the best product on the earth, selling it would be a mere trivial thing to do.

Maybe that’s kind of a problem that engineers have…I am not sure.

As an engineer, I have always been focused on the following facts:

  • Having enough features
  • Having the best and fastest interface
  • Having a good price

I thought that if I could have a product that have all that, anyone would jump on it and buy it…

I was imagining that if the software was not selling, that was only because people were not “aware” of it.

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Prospects Never Think it Over

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That was the perfect technical demo ever…

I think that this arrives all the time, especially when you are selling a complex and technical product or software.

You present your product in the best way you can. In fact, you practiced so well that you know it is a killer demo and that everyone will definively be convinced about the incredible performance of your product.

You showed all the best features and the prospect seemed interested and asked you very pertinent questions.

You were the expert and you knew that with this product nothing can fail and that’s the best choice for your prospect.

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Should I trust him when a prospect tells me”I will buy if you develop this feature”?

cyprien 3 Comments

I guess that’s a big problem for technically complex problems because so many factors are involved that it is most of the time very difficult to say where the problem actually lies.

Most of engineers are thinking that it is because of the product you’re trying to sell is not good enough or doesn’t have enough features…but that’s just not the reality.

Let’s face it, even if you met every day some prospects telling you that they won’t buy because you don’t have a specific feature that they want, don’t be deceived that it is the true reason.

Think about it… If you develop this feature, will this customer buy?

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