Sell What You Know; Or, at Least Know What You Sell — The Closing Power of Expertise

No one wants to buy something from a salesperson.

Who wakes up on a Saturday morning and says, “Man, I’d love to go to the car lot and banter with a used car salesman!”

Yeah, there are a few of you out there. But, you’re sickos 🤨

Buyers try to dodge this inevitable showdown with sales.

Digital marketing is exploding as folks use the web to get the information they need yet avoid sales. It’s also why many leads go unresponsive the moment the sales rep pounces with a flurry of sales calls.

Let’s skip over all this engineered sales anxiety.

Instead, let’s have buyers come to you with the eagerness of meeting a celebrity. We’ll also lower your anxieties in the process — the struggle to get leads and worrying about quotas.

Let’s make you an expert.

Too many salespeople sell with very little knowledge of their product.

Sometimes this is the result of a lack of training. But, often, it’s the mythical belief that slick language and psychological tricks bring closings.

The force of personality will only get you so far.

Start your sales conversations like a doctor diagnosing a patient, leading with questions that help you to determine the need. What is the situation driving that need?

Then match that against your knowledge of your product or service.

Considering your product design and analysis of your potential customers, who will have the most success, and in what situation(s)? Equally important, who is your solution not suited for?

If we have a fit, then begin to dig into how it works and all the features and benefits.

If it’s not a fit, be ready with a recommendation or referral to someone that can help them.

Have a problem-solvers mindset — “I’m going to help, even if there isn’t a sale in it for me.” This attitude builds your credibility and grows a grateful network of referral partners.

How do you get better than the sales reps you compete against?

Dig into your competitors’ websites — analyze the home page, every landing page, and their blog posts.

Follow them on social media. Subscribe to their newsletters. Secret shop them.

Analyze your competitors’ content through the lens of your prospects. This information is the baseline that they bring to your sales call.

Craft your pitch to play against these competitors without even mentioning their names. I call this “setting trap doors” for the competitor.

Highlight examples where your product or service is more effective than competitors. Point out situations where other solutions will fail, and your solution ensures success.

This tactic makes your competitors’ sales process more challenging. This approach will lead your prospect to recognize the pitfalls of the alternatives and ask more complex questions.

There is one other scenario that you might run into.

As you do competitive research and become an expert on their solutions, sometimes this question comes up:

Should you be working for them?

This is a legitimate question. Why waste your sales talent. Either sell the best product or work to push your product to the front.

This mental exercise will take you beyond your solution. It will reveal other adjacent activities and benefits to the business. As you talk more strategically about their business, you sound like a partner, not a vendor.

Here is why niching is so powerful.

Niching down gives you the repetitions necessary to see patterns and opportunities. These insights get turned into repeatable systems, processes, and playbooks—expertise and consistent execution become valuable and sought after.

Become a strategic business consultant — an expert.

Learn the insider language. Discover the little annoying nuances of their business, even if they’re irrelevant to your solution. Teach them little tricks you’ve learned in serving others in their industry.

If you enjoyed this, you’d love Selling Attention. Each week I share a ready-to-try 90-second sales and marketing tactic.

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https://billrice.substack.com