Go naked. The Naked Salesperson. Sounds pretty frightening doesn’t it – a naked salesman or woman? But don’t get carried away with my latest idea I don’t mean that kind of naked. I mean without the usual sales meeting trappings.
By usual trappings I mean, product brochures, leaflets, laptop, presenter etc. The things we take along to show information to our customer and present our products.
A major IT software company did some research into their salesperson’s practices and found that those that went naked, built a better rapport and quicker with their clients. If you go naked, you will build a stronger rapport because you have no choice but to involve your client, ask questions, listen. You have to focus 100% on them and this is real rapport, not matching arm gestures and body language.
Now that sounds pretty scary doesn’t it? To face a customer with nothing, naked, empty…I wonder what else that might make us do.
Well, for a start, it would prevent us leaving brochures with the customer. Complete waste of time and trees. Modern customers won’t look though these, they gather dust on filing cabinets or recycle bins, and are used by salespeople who think they’re moving the sales process on, but they’re not. “They’re interested boss” says the salesperson, “I left them some brochures to have a look through.”
Secondly, it would make us stop talking about our products, and listen to the problems and issues of our customers. Talking about our products is so not needed. That’s not the job of salesperson anymore, customers don’t need us to tell them about our products, and nowadays they have the technology to find this out themselves. No, our job is to show them how our products and solutions can solve their problems and challenges.
Thirdly, it might stop us beaming PowerPoint presentations at our customers. This just puts people to sleep however good the presentation. Having no laptop might make you use the office whiteboard or flipchart and use this to present your solution. This will certainly show that you are at the top of your game, after all, most people can talk through a slide-show produced by marketing department. Few people can build a bespoke presentation to the clients needs using flipchart or whiteboard. The latest sales theme is Whiteboard Selling and some firms are training their entire salesforce to use the Whiteboard during sales meetings.
Three pretty good advantages to going naked next time you see your customer. Try it, I’ve been told that going naked is fun.
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