Friday 17 June 2011

To Make More Money - Stop Selling

This is basically a discussion about the old and the new ways of selling and comes from an article in Inside Retailing this week.
The old way is to sell.
The new way is to help the customer to buy.
No, we are not playing with semantics. The two ways sound the same but the subtle difference is best illustrated by looking at a list of features.

Selling The Goods- The Old                          Helping The Customer To Buy – The New
Customer Relationship Management                           Authentic Conversation
Discounts                                                                        Value
Features                                                                          Feelings
Me                                                                                   You
Products                                                                          Solutions
Talk To                                                                             Talk With

                Basically the new way is the retro way of selling – treating your customers like people, giving them good reasons why your product(s) meets their needs and not giving them the same old hard sell. We know our customers are becoming smarter, more critical and more discerning in their purchasing. It looks like the worldwide revolution against political dictatorships has a parallel on the shop floor – ignore the new customer’s needs at your peril.