When training I'll often ask salespeople: "Would you personally would buy your own product?" After an awkward silence, some people nod their head slowly, suggesting - "yeah...I guess I might". Others give me a quizzical look as if they've never even thought of such a question. And a few give me a shrug that says "probably not". Unfortunately no one emphatically jumps up and says "Absolutely!" And i think that's at the core of a lot of our sales problems.
The fact is...most of us wouldn't absolutely, without a doubt buy what we're selling. Or at least we'd be a bit unsure about it. And if that's the case, how on earth can we be passionate about selling it to someone else??
I wish everyone that sold a product or service would first be great customers of their own product or service. Because there is a huge difference in the level of passion and conviction we have when we tell someone about our own personal favorite product vs just reading the features and benefits of some other product.
Just try this experiment...ask someone to tell you about their favorite bar or restaurant...what they like, why they think it's so great, etc. Then compare what they say and how they say it, with that restaurant's web site or yellow pages ad. Which description is better? More lively? More real?
When we talk our personal favorite we bring it to life with different words, emotions, and our own personal story. The problem is most of us have never been customers of our products, so we have to rely on other people's passion and testimonials. Which is fine, but it's not quite the same.
If we can't buy our own product (and in many cases it's not realistic, like for instance casket sales, HA!) another thing we can do is to hypothetically buy our own product. Or at least ask the question, "would I buy it?"...and if the answer is "no" or "I'm not sure"...you better seek out your manager or some other seller right away and ask them to "sell me again on my we're the best".
GB
