Selling is not about tricking a customer into buying a product

Think Business CEO Ochieng Oloo during the Think Business 2016 Kenya Banks Tariff Survey Results on March 16, 2016. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

By JOHN KAGECHE

In Summary

• Although I’m encouraged to know the “tricks” I shared worked, I’m discouraged that the intended purpose has not been achieved.

Today I’ll play Agony Uncle and respond to some queries and feedbacks I’ve received over time.

Your tricks work

I’m sad. I’m sad because I have been misunderstood. I’m sad because I have been excitedly told by some ardent followers that they have used “the tricks in my column and they always work.” One even equated it to dribbling a ball past the buyer when he is not watching.

I’m sad because nothing could be further from the truth. Selling is not about ‘tricking” the buyer. There are no tricks. Tricks imply sleight of hand. Yet sleight of hand is intended to fool (as a pata potea conman does).

Although I’m encouraged to know the “tricks” I shared worked, I’m discouraged that the intended purpose has not been achieved.

The intended purpose is to allay the buyer’s fears and suspicions by being genuine and honest. The goal is to be a significant part of the axis around which the buyer’s problems are resolved. The aim is to help the buyer win.

Which is the one (or best) sales book I can read?

Equally, selling is not a destination, it is a journey that will never end; you never quite arrive. You are always learning. You find faster ways of travelling, you discover more effective ways of prospecting and you even close faster. But you can never perfect any of these.
You never “finish” as you would, if you were pushing pen and paper. This is because you are not in charge of the problems you seek to solve—the buyers are. And so you are always seeking insight into buyers’ challenges, so as to find useful solutions to them. In this context, you are in reactive mode. And if you are not in the driving seat, how do you arrive when you don’t know the destination?

This is why I can’t help readers who ask me to recommend one book on sales that captures everything.

Selling is not a religion, say Christianity, for which the Bible is the sole wherewithal. So what to do?

Keep reading this column and my blog; subscribe to sales e-newsletters; invest and read books and journals on sales. But most importantly, implement; try again and again.

The profession of selling, like that of medicine, doesn’t have an expiry date. You are always learning.

I want to write for the ‘Business Daily. ‘

Good for you. First things first, though. No one will publish you when you write like this, (quoted without editing):

“Dear Kageche… I also do have the habit of writing… if I writes about a topic can you publish in the next edition. … In today’s scenario how many leaders are there who leads his team. In any organisation hope sales are the guys who act as brand ambassadors for the organisation as well as for  the brand… Now there are other sales oriented companies which is driven by finance guys. He only knows about how to maintain the organisation’s credit. Due to this organisation I had seen falling in a very short time because they lose good value added partner due to their new strategies making a hard and fast rules on sales part. I had seen into like these organisations they never value their high valued  assets (sales people).I always think in any organisation the people who generate revenue why they are not been treated fairly. I hope without sales there is no job for anybody in an organisation. Hope sales comes in the first row…”.

Write grammatically if you hope to be a columnist. If you wish to write for or any publication for that matter, write to the Editor requesting this.

It is futile going through a columnist or contributor as myself. In the meantime, you have options.

Start a blog or publish posts on LinkedIn. And if you want to write for the money, don’t; you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Mr Kageche is lead facilitator, Lend Me Your Ears; lendmeyourears@consultant.com. www.lendmeyourears.co.ke