Antoine de Saint Exupery — (He was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist, and pioneering aviator. … He disappeared over the Mediterranean on a reconnaissance mission in July 1944, and is believed to have died at that time.) once said — “ If you want to build a ship , don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead. teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

This made me think about my selling and your selling and the fact that we should always try and see what’s happening from the client’s viewpoint — on other words what are they really buying? It’s as if we have to become professional assistant buyers with our clients.

In selling , the question is always — ‘what are we really selling?’

If you can answer this simple 5- word question you can give yourself an almost ‘unfair’ advantage in boosting your enquiry rate, outselling your competition and triggering an ongoing stream of creative selling opportunities.

Asking this simple question is the easiest way we know to get yourself and your staff to think outside the box and differentiate yourself in your marketplace.

Shameless over promising?

Not at all, as you’ll now see.

Here’s the question:

What are you really selling?

Rainmakers and we spoke about them in a previous article, always know the answer because they put themselves in the customer’s shoes and answer the question, ‘if I was the customer, how would this product benefit me?’

For example:

You are not selling grass seed. You are selling a greener lawn.

You are not selling gas heaters. You are selling warmer, cosier winter nights at a 27% fuel savings.

You are not selling tickets to the ‘test match.’ You are selling memories of sunny days that a father, mother and their children will cherish forever.

You are not selling mortgages. You are selling a solution to a dream come true. (A new house for example)

Perhaps lipstick king Charles Revson (founder of Revlon Cosmetics) said it best. “In the factory we make cosmetics. In the store we sell hope.”

You get the idea?

We need to establish — very clearly — what we are selling and what follows — why should this customer do business with our company and with me?

The answer must be a benefit to the customer.

The answer must fit the customer’s agenda, not ours. The customer will do business with you because you will make them feel good, or you will solve their problem, or both. There must be a business benefit and a personal benefit — often interlinked — for the customer.

The Rainmaker determines how the customer is benefited directly and personally.

Another example:

When a man named Ray Jacuzzi was getting nowhere trying to sell his whirlpool to physical therapists, he refused to give up.

Instead he asked, “What are we really selling?”

Another possibility arose — hot tubs for homes — and that idea catapulted him to stratospheric success.

Another example:

By the 1950s, almost every family in Australia owned a big square white refrigerator. As long as it kept the milk and didn’t ‘conk’ out completely, families were content to let it sit in the kitchen forever.

So how do we sell more refrigerators when everybody owns one?

What are we really selling?

Hey, we could start selling refrigerators as kitchen décor!

Let’s produce them in decorator colours and styles to suit every taste and fashion. This way when people remodel their kitchens, they’ll want new refrigerators to match.

That insight quickly became (and largely remains) the driving force behind new refrigerator sales

So think for a moment…

What are you really selling?

Are you sure? What else could it be? How might you repackage your product, or add to it, to trigger new demand or crack open a whole new market? Think big!

Gloria Jeans sell more than coffee. Disney World sells more than rides.

Ask ‘what are you really selling?’ often enough and we guarantee this — bold new answers will arise, and with them, major opportunities to open new markets that can explode your sales revenue.

So UP your thinking and ask yourself ‘what am I really selling?”

Good Luck and (always) Good Selling.

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