Even when you’re selling the most useful product in the
world, if no one has heard of it, chances are you will need to convince some
skeptical buyers. Some of the best
salesmen sometimes struggle with marketing their products with little to no
name recognition. People buy things that
make them comfortable, and usually they stay loyal to a few companies for a few
different products or services. A prime
example of this is at the drug store.
Studies have shown that over-the-counter drugs such as Tylenol still
sell better than the proprietary brands offered by Walgreens or Rite Aid. Even though these proprietary brands have the
same ingredients and cost much less than their name-brand counterparts, they
are still outsold by Tylenol and others.
Persuading customers to take a chance on a new product or
service, even when it will benefit them, is like asking a customer to take a
leap of faith. They don’t know your
product, and they may not know you. To
them, taking a risk on a new product creates risks. As a salesman, it’s up to you to convince
them that it’s not a risk, it’s an improvement.
The job is, of course, much easier when the product you are offering
actually will improve their life by making something less complicated or by
providing something they didn’t have but definitely need.
Brian Sax of ACN built a career out of acquiring customers,
people who he knew (called warm market), to switch to ACN or to one of ACN’s
partners for their utility and telecom service, and more importantly, building
a Team and helping those on that Team acquire their own warm market
customers.
