Convincing somebody to buy something that they only have a passing interest in is no easy task. Most sales people will inundate the prospective client with features and benefits ad nauseam, hoping that one or two will be enough to persuade them. This does work, but very often. It's kind of like teaching a pig to sing. It doesn't work, and it annoys the pig.
If you happen to be in sales, and would like a quick way to boost your closing rates, then this article is for you. I'll reveal a simple but amazingly powerful technique that you can use to address your clients concerns with laser like accuracy, and get much higher closing rate.
The first step is to understand something called criterion. People's criteria are what motivates them to do things. If you are hungry, your criteria may be that the food be cheap, or fast, or Japanese, or whatever. Criteria is what people use to sort what's out there in the world, and hopefully match with what you want. If you have ever stood in front of an open fridge for any amount of time, then you know what it's like to have very vague criteria. You feel like eating something, but you're not sure what.
When you are trying to sell something to somebody, it's a great idea to elicit their criteria. Find out what's important to them with regard to the product in question. Ask them what would the perfect product be like. Keep in mind that you don't want to get too specific. The more vague their criteria is, the easier it will be to sell them a wide variety of products.
As an example, let's say you are selling cars, and they say they want a yellow van with a 450 hemi engine with a built in DVD player with six screens. Unless you have that particular car, then you are going to have a hard time. On the other hand, if they say they want a safe, comfortable family car to drive their kids around in, you've got much more to work with. This is more vague, and can be applied to many more cars.
The trick here is to focus on the particular words they say when describing their ideal product, particularly the ones they put extra stress on. For example, if they lean heavily on the word "safe," when they say it, you can spend extra time showing them how safe a particular car is. This is a very powerful way to sell things to people.
By building a strong relationship with your customer, and finding out what's important to them before you show them any products, you'll do a couple of important things. One is that they'll feel that their needs are really the focus of the conversation. Another is that you'll gain a powerful advantage that will help you sell them almost anything.