TILT Selling to Today's Buyer: The Way Your Customers Buy Has Changed...Find Out How to Sell to Them

By Kevin Ryan

There’s no such thing as a level playing field... especially in sales. Find out from Kevin and Qin En how to TILT it your way!

The internet has changed the way people buy. Now, the customer can know more about the product than the salesperson. Learn how to build trust quickly, put yourself in a position of influence, apply leverage to help your customer move forward with confidence and trigger their buying decision!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781483522661

Kevin Ryan

Kevin Ryan is the author of Pocket Books popular Star Trek trilogy Errand of Vengeance, as well as Star Trek: The Next Generation—Requiem (with Michael Jan Friedman). He has also written the screenplay for the novel Eleven Hours and the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Resistance,” as well as two Roswell novels for Simon Pulse and thirteen various comic books published by DC Comics.

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CBC

TILT

Selling to Today’s Buyer

A Different Approach to Sales

Sales…Forever Changed by the Internet

In the nine years from 2004 to 2013 consumer behaviour changed more than in the previous ninety. The internet is transforming the way people buy, just as it has transformed the way we communicate, interact, bank and even the way we entertain ourselves.

In 1937, Dale Carnegie described a sales technique that, I believe, formed the basis for many superb sales models that followed over the next sixty years. It is only natural that these models form the basis of the sales strategies used by a majority of salespeople. The trouble is, these processes were developed for a seller’s market.

The End of the Seller’s Market

The old models worked well enough when the buyer was dependent on the salesperson for information – without which they could not move to the next stage of the buying cycle. The buying cycle and the selling cycle were inextricably linked.

Nowadays, they are totally disconnected. In 2007, Barry Trailer and Jim Dickie in the Harvard Business Review said, Nowadays, the buy cycle is well under way before the seller is even aware there is a cycle.

In a very short time, salespeople have lost one of their main advantages – control of information. Now consumers have:

direct access to information on products and their availability

greater choice of supplier and means of purchase

better opportunities to compare competitors

more connection with similar consumers

We are in the age of the buyer – and it’s not likely to change.

The Endangered Salesperson

In the seller’s market, good salespeople were a protected species. As long as you had a successful track record, you could sail through bad times unscathed; with your suffering being restricted to a reduction in bonuses or a clamp-down on your expense account. At worst, you’d need to switch employers – because even if your boss went broke, you could generally move straight across to their biggest competitor.

Well, times changed – accelerated by the Global Financial Crisis. The protection is gone. Salespeople are suddenly expendable…they’ve been replaced by a website, an on-line shop – even an iPhone app! This is particularly noticeable in retail sales where some staff have become full-time demonstrators for products they will never sell. Buyers visit them for the tactile experience, decide on the model they want, and then go on-line to get the best price. But, this is not the most significant difference.

Some products will, inevitably, only be sold on-line. This is already happening with low-turnover retail stock. On two occasions recently I have been told by staff when I have visited a retail store that it will be easier and faster for me if I go to their on-line facility to purchase the products I need. How sad for them. While this is obviously inevitable for the low-turn-over and low-margin products, larger sales are not exempt evidenced by the increasing number of houses and motor vehicles being sold on-line.

Once essential, the salesperson has become an option. Or, worse still, they are degraded to commodity salespeople. This is wrong. In the post-internet consumer environment, salespeople are more essential than ever. But their role has to change.

How Salespeople Need to Change

Salespeople who try to use the ‘old’ process with a buyer using the ‘new’ process are like the primitive peoples who tried to defend their land with bows and arrows against conquerors with firearms. They don’t stand a chance. In this case, they are reduced to ‘commodity’ salespeople – selling on price alone.

And it’s easy to see that these salespeople will soon no longer have a role – or, if they do, they certainly won’t command a premium income.

The ‘new’ salesperson:

Doesn’t just meet the client’s criteria, they assist the client to set or prioritise them.

Is comfortable selling to customers who have more information about their product than they do.

Adds value to the business relationship other than the product or service the client pays for.

Is seen as an industry expert – not just a product expert – who can be relied on to assist with information overload.

Understands the importance of designing a solution that is the best fit with the client’s existing systems.

Has the skills to assist the client towards a confident buying decision.

There’s No Level Playing Field…TILT it Your Way

In this market, the TILT Sell Process can be your edge over the competition. TILT was designed for this buyer’s market. It works from the perspective of the consumer in a buying-partnership model. It is based on quickly creating the right relationship and then progressing it to a facilitated buying decision so it is suited to both one-off sales interactions and long-term business relationships. It allows novice salespeople to use quite high level skills quickly and it shows experienced salespeople how to modify their relationship skills to work with the post-internet consumer.

The TILT strategies are specific and targeted, but non-manipulative. They want to move to the next step; it is natural and unforced. Rather than being perceived as a salesperson, the TILT practitioner is seen as a trusted buying adviser.

TILT is an acronym for the four key steps:

Trust – build trust quickly

Influence – put yourself in a position of influence

Leverage – apply leverage to move the client forward confidently

Trigger – identify and apply the factors that will trigger a buying decision

TRUST

All other factors being equal, you’ll go with the one you trust

Build Trust – It’s All about Impressions

Work to establish a trusting business relationship with the other person from the second you meet them – and everything else builds from there. This is not about you becoming more trustworthy – if you need help in that area, this is probably not the book for you at the moment! Let’s assume you’re trustworthy – the aim is to project this into the client’s consciousness. So, you have to create a trustworthy first impression. Before you say a word, they have made an assessment as to whether you look trustworthy. These are the skills that will help you build that trust.

How the Internet Changed First Impressions

Pre-2000, first impressions for a company came from its premises; first impressions for an individual came mostly from their appearance (if face-to-face) or voice (over the phone). Today, for most people, both of these come off the internet. For a company, it’s the website; for individuals, it’s their social networking profile.

If you have an appointment to see a potential client, assume that they have checked out your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles – as you should have checked out theirs. Here’s what they’ll be looking at:

Your number of connections/friends. Of course, the more you have, the more likely it is that you’ll have connections/friends in common.

Your background and interests

Your recommendations (for example, on LinkedIn)

This means that when you first make personal contact with them, that impression must be congruent with your ‘virtual’ first impression.

If having to set-up and maintain a virtual presence seems unfair- another computer-driven intrusion and another task that you just don’t need… well, you’re right. But there’s no use fighting it.

Whether that means you want