The Single Selling Principle establishes that:
‘People buy when a pressing need is met by a credible solution that offers perceived value.’
Simple. Too easy? Well, as Jim Collins states in his book Good to Great, “Freud, Darwin and Einstein had one thing in common. They took a complex world and simplified it.” And single-principle sellers do just that. They understand that selling doesn’t have to be complicated. They just make it easy for a customer to buy.
It’s one of two things they have in common. They are customer focused, not sales focused.
The other thing that single-principle salespeople have in common is that they never follow the 8 Myths of Selling. Just never.
The 8 Selling Myths were taught by well-intentioned sales managers, eager to pass on the wisdom and knowledge their sales managers had passed on to them. However, as a cult, no one had questioned whether they were true. The 8 Myths may have worked back in the day, but today they simply don’t work.
Do you remember how you felt when you found out there really wasn’t a Santa Claus? I remember it well. It was December 12, 1971, and my (alleged) best friend, Johnny Harrison, broke the news to me over a Curly Wurly. I felt like they had me. You don’t question what they tell you as a child; you just believe it’s true.
Well, that’s how I felt the day I discovered that everything I had been taught up to that point in sales was a complete lie; all myths. They were theories that had no substance in the modern world.
Walk across most sales floors and you’ll see the 8 Myths of Selling proudly displayed on the wall (probably next to the goal and ‘Inspiration’ sign):
“Attitude sets the altitude”
“People Buy People”
“Always be closing”
“Customers like to talk about themselves”
“It’s a numbers game”
“Sell the Sizzle, not the Sausage”
“Money talks”
“Fail to plan, plan to fail”
Be honest, you yourself believe at least half of the 8 myths, don’t you? You are not alone.
Most salespeople will cite them as the ‘gospel of sales’. Suggest that they are myths and they will think you have gone crazy.
On the surface, the 8 myths seem perfectly reasonable. In fact, placed within a picture frame, each one looks positively uplifting. And I’m sure they made a lot of sense at the time. But things change. And so has the sale.
Myth 1: Always be closing
If you need to use closing techniques to get a sale, you clearly haven’t proven that your product meets their needs. Instead of forcing the customer to make a decision they will regret, simply go back to the point where you lost it in the buying process and start again from there. If you apply the Single Sales Principle® you don’t need to close… the customer should be asking you to buy.
Myth 2: Attitude sets altitude
Abraham Lincoln asked the question: “How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a paw? Four. Calling a tail a paw does not make it a paw.” No amount of looking in the mirror and telling yourself “you’re a tiger” will work if he doesn’t believe in your product.
The better the value proposition, the better the attitude of a seller. Single-principle sellers make sure they have a deep and genuine belief in their value proposition.
Myth 3: People buy people
People buy when the product/service satisfies the customer’s needs in a profitable way. No amount of conversing with a customer will make up for a bad product mix.
Being personable is, of course, important in sales. But isn’t it important in all vocations? Friendly plumbers are more pleasant to deal with than hostile plumbers. Friendly bus drivers are more pleasant to deal with than hostile bus drivers. Friendly lawyers are more pleasant to deal with than hostile lawyers (unless they’re on your team, of course!) Ken Hubbard, the American writer said, “Beauty is only skin deep, but it’s a valuable asset whether you’re poor or not.” You have no common sense!”
In the good old days and bad, salespeople used their charm (‘beauty’) to cover up this lack of a credible solution (‘common sense’). Today’s professional buyer can see right through that. It’s what’s underneath that counts the most.
Myth 4: Customers like to talk about themselves
We have sat on thousands of sales calls. Some were good. Some were bad. And some were downright ugly. The bad ones were the ones where the seller didn’t ask any questions. They throw themselves at its features and benefits without regard to what the buyer may actually need.
And then there were the ugly calls. The salesperson knew that he had to do the research and get as much information about the customer as possible. So they launched into a ‘Spanish inquisition’, asking a list of meaningless questions that only bored the customer.
Yes, there is a certain amount of information that needs to be identified in a business intervention, as without it it is difficult to make a recommendation and know if the opportunity is worth fighting for. But this is all for your benefit, not theirs. Needs make sales, not customer biographies.
Myth 5: It’s a numbers game
Average salespeople get a long way by putting in long hours and rushing to contact lots of people. Then they send ‘ghost forecasts’; Overly optimistic sales projections based on a portfolio of proposals that never turn into real deals. This is because the needs identified on the sales call were not pressing needs.
Just because you have a need doesn’t mean the customer will act on it. Many of the deals in a seller’s pipeline remain unclosed because the customer keeps putting off the decision. Playing the numbers game does not help them generate more sales. It just creates more work for them and everyone around them.
The single-principle seller makes sure the needs are compelling before presenting the solution. Because? Because only then can they be sure that the client will be motivated to act.
Myth 6: Sell the Sizzle, not the Sausage
We love the concept of making performances sizzle. Our problem with the ‘selling the sizzle’ myth is how salespeople think they can fool a customer with fancy presentations that are flashy but flimsy.
At first glance, ‘selling the sizzle’ seems to make a lot of sense. Sausage sizzling on a griddle is much more likely to sell than raw sausage found in the fridge. But this is because the sizzle turned on your senses and drew attention to the fact that you are hungry. The sizzle satisfies your pressing need.
Have you ever smelled a sizzling sausage when you have food poisoning? It would probably make you feel even worse. This is because this time your need is not hunger. In fact, food is the last thing you need.
Myth 7: Money talks
Listen to buyers and you’ll think they really believe money talks. Buyers are a brutal species, delighting in making a seller sweat over price. They trick them into thinking it’s all about cost, and if the seller won’t lower the price, they’ll find a supplier that will. In fact, some buyers actually believe this hype.
But customers really want value, not the cheapest price. If people wanted cheap, we’d all be driving 10-year-old cars and shopping at charity shops. Products are only perceived as expensive if the customer does not appreciate the value. He will never lose an offer on price, only on value.
Myth 8: Fail to plan, plan to fail
Salespeople tend to fall into two camps: over-planners and barely-planners.
Those who plan too much tend to be ‘busy idiots’, that is, they go around doing too little. When we go out with these commercials on calls, they show us all the planning they have done: a tour of the client’s website; the previous story; a list of questions they are going to ask; competitor information, etc. The problem is that they don’t even mention it.
The second type are those sellers who do very little planning. In fact, most sellers fall into this category. You might be surprised to learn that single-principle sellers do, too.
“Hurrah!” I hear the cry of the sales community at large. “What? No need to plan?” Not quite!
Peter Drucker, the management guru, defined the difference between ‘effectiveness’ and ‘efficiency’ as:
“Efficiency is doing things well; Effectiveness is doing the right things.”
Single-principle salespeople are effective because they identify the right things to do. That’s why they often work fewer hours than the average worker.
Cartoonist, Doug Larson, said of time management: “For disappearing acts, it’s hard to top what happens to the eight hours that are supposedly left after eight hours of sleep and eight hours of work.” I think we can all empathize with this sentiment. Life is too short to be planning for the sake of it.
Summary of the 8 sales myths
Winston Churchill said: “Out of intense complexities arise simplicities.” Selling has become a complicated business. It does not have to be like that. Simple is good.
And that’s why great salespeople follow the Single Sales Principle®. By focusing on matching pressing needs with credible solutions that offer perceived value, you’ll be successful in sales. We guarantee it. Follow the 8 myths and you will be frustrated and disappointed with our wonderful profession.
Original article written by Mark Blackmore (Lammore MD)
For more information on the ‘Unique Selling Principle’ sales training program, contact:
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