Sell to solve a problem not to make money.
If you are new to sales or the sales process you undoubtedly know that there is a pretty steep hill to climb. There is so much to learn including the product, the company, a deep understanding of the target customer, and the competitive landscape. Those are the easy hurdles. The more difficult barriers to success reside within your own personality and brain. Do you know how to sell?
Sales people drive the success of the business once you have established your product/market fit. Period. No sales–no business. (The exception being marketing driven businesses but lets save that for another day.) This is the good news for you.
The bad news is that your success is measured in sales revenue and typically you will be compensated based on the amount of revenue you bring in. So it is not hard to value each potential sale based on the amount of money you will make on that opportunity.
STOP! There is a trap in this thinking that will inhibit your ability to close deals. Once you look at every opportunity primarily through the lens of what it means to you, you lose site of your ultimate task–solving your customers’ problem.
Once you fully understand your customers’ pain point(s) and how your product meets those needs, especially as compared to competitive alternatives, you place you and your company in a much better position to win the deal. The result of your comprehensive knowledge of all of these variables will be an obvious decision by your client.
Are you are bending your product to fit their problem?
Or, are you creating a problem to fit your product?