Engineers Can Make the Best
Salespeople
Appeared in DFW TechBiz, July 9, 2001
When you think of a
salesperson, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Is it an
introverted, detail oriented, thoughtful individual? Probably not. The biggest myth in sales is that
the best salespeople are the best talkers. Great
selling requires more than just talking. That's why
engineers make the best salespeople.
They're thoughtful Engineers are used to solving
problems. To solve a problem you have to think before
you act. Selling is just like problem
solving. The challenge is to figure out how your
product or service can solve a problem or improve a customer's
business. With thoughtful planning you can prepare for
a sales call. When you learn about your customer's
business before the sales call you can avoid some of the pitfalls of
selling.
Planning includes thinking about what will be the likely needs of a
prospect. This means you'll be asking specific
questions that guide your customer to an understanding that there is a
problem or need that your product or service can
address. Randomly asking any questions without
thought of their suitability to your customer's business makes it less
likely that you'll find a match. In sales you're
looking for a match between your products and services and your customers'
needs. When you think before you act, you
increase your probability of sales success. Some people
believe selling is easy and thinking is optional. They're probably not in sales.
They're great listeners The best salespeople are the best
listeners. They hear what their customers truly mean
and what they need. They pay attention to subtle nonverbal communication
which is so important in all communication. It's
especially important in selling. A salesperson who
listens well can see whether a customer is interested or not by watching
body position. It's a sign of interest when a customer
leans forward and asks the salesperson questions. A
poor listener would miss the clues.
Engineers as a group are introverts. Introverts
are better listeners. When they sell, they are
listening instead of talking. They are able to gather
more information needed to sell. Selling is learning
about a customer. Your job is to understand where there
are needs that you can fill. You learn by
listening. If you're doing most of the talking you miss
the opportunity to learn about your customer.
They understand
process Engineers work processes. They know that a
process is just a series of steps and all work is a process. They understand that sales is a process and it starts with the
customer's needs and ends with the salesperson meeting those
needs. Some salespeople misunderstand the process and
begin by focusing on their need to sell. Their results
are less successful.
Being successful in
the sales process requires going through the steps in a systematic
way. It's very unusual for a customer to want to buy
before you have discovered his needs. It's less
successful for a salesperson to present a solution and try to sell a
product before a customer understands there is a need. An engineer respects process order and is able to reliably repeat
the process. In sales, repetition is
essential.
So if engineers make
the best salespeople, why aren't there more engineers in
sales? Ask a group of engineers what they thing selling
is. They think selling is just talking with little
technical skill involved. Someone needs to tell them
that is a description of poor selling. Great selling
involves people who are technical, thoughtful and focused. Looks like engineers are perfect for the job.
Engineers Can Make
the Best Salespeople appeared in DFW TechBiz July
19, 2001.
.......................................................................................................
Maura
Schreier-Fleming is President of Best@Selling (www. BestatSelling.com).
She works with technical sales professionals and business professionals on
skills and strategies so they can sell more and be more productive at
work. Her column 'Selling Strategies' appears in The
Insurance
Record.
(c) Copyright 2004 Maura
Schreier-Fleming. All rights
reserved. |
