Selling = Presentation + Perspective

Think of your favorite dish (well, I would take the example of butter chicken – pardon all vegetarians), and now would you like to eat it in a big deep dish with a spoon that is big and long enough to fetch kites from the sky?

The answer, unless you are famished, would be a definite NO.

Now another thing that we encounter every day – is debates/ different points of view. Take a simple example; a 10-year-old child wants to eat a burger; Father will not allow it as it causes obesity and shouts at the kid. He will never understand that as he is looking at other kids eating it – But let’s try making him understand through a perspective which child is more aligned to – Tell him that yes, burgers are tasty but eating them can lead to being fat & then he cannot outrun his friends in a game. The chances are positively bright that he would understand it.

Therefore, what do these two examples tell us?

They tell us that even the things which we want the most need to be wrapped & presented in the best way for us to accept and we understand & accept things better when we are made to comprehend from the perspective which we want to see.

So now that brings me to the most important part – Selling my services (I mean BPO outsourcing services).

From what I see – selling needs the following steps:

• Prospect Research – So like cooking dishes, selling also needs planning – before cooking, it is necessary to get all ingredients ready and in front of the cook – similarly, before approaching a prospect, we should understand its business requirement, second read about the nature of work done by the entity, read about the decision maker with whom we will be interacting later and understand how the individual perceives business ( through his blogs, social media channel posts, recent activities) & most importantly should engage an apt third party to understand why there was a need to outsource business now – something that they were doing for so long; We find the reason and if can provide a solution (please don’t forget competitive rate structure) – We have won half of the battle.
• Customize your Look & Presentation – I like ginger in my tea, and by popular belief, it is always good to have it in tea (mostly) but then imagines giving it to someone who is ginger intolerant – well, so much for being a good host. It is the case when it comes to selling. Once we have the research telling us what the business entity wants and why – our approach should be very selective and focused rather than telling everything.

A prospect could be looking for cost-effectiveness, or some may be looking for just getting tedious, unproductive work from its shoulder and investing its resources for more revenue-driven work.

What intrigues the mind? Curiosity, anxiousness, and that lead to the urge to try. So what does it implies in selling – well, always present your case studies and highlight how you and your team turned around business for an existing client. A story where you and your team come out to be victorious by providing all that customer wanted and in the way it wanted. Make the prospect realize it is always its wish and requirement that precedes – remember, in the end, everyone wants preference.

Do not shy away from telling every little detail about your solution – so include your alliances/ partnerships, and of course, any appreciation from clients would undoubtedly help.

• Understanding the customer perspective & need – Ever been to Subway and asked not to put olives and pickles (even when these two are part of the foot-long you are eating as standard ingredients)? However, when you take the first bite and know both are in it, what are your thoughts? Now either the person was not listening, or he just put the items there thinking that particular Sub should have these two, as that is the standard. Either way, he gave no heed to your perspective or choice and end up losing your business.

It is the case of Sales, e.g. let us say we have a tier 2 telecom operator who wants to set up a contact center in a Tier 2 city in India. Our Sales rep goes with the standard pitch with all the jazz on RPA, Analytics, and Visual IVR but fails to address the prospect perspective. What prospect required is a contact center, where which will be an all-voice operation center and require a quick ramp-up. But we fail to address it.

It would be like serving a person chocolate mousse who wants Jaggery. The result is obvious.

Therefore, we should be careful, understand prospect requirements, target market, operational location, budget, and market standing, and accordingly provide a proposal.

So to summarize my note which probably also gave some dish recipes is to put focus on the fact that selling could be easy and difficult depending on how we approach it.

It all depends on how well we can understand our prospect, and its requirement and then modify our GTP (Go to Prospect) strategy accordingly and give the respective prospect what is needed, how much is needed, and in what way it is needed for its business – Nothing MORE or LESS.

Just the right quantity and see the magic happening.