The serpent and sales

Some years ago I found an article (I cannot remember who wrote it) about the serpent (Genesis in the Bible) and his sales techniques. I liked the concept so much that I adapted it to a class I was teaching at the time. It goes something like this:

1. Start by analyzing your target market: The serpent only had two targets to draw from and, after analyzing his strategies and opportunities, chose Eve.

2. Apply your questioning skills: The serpent didn't start by listing a bunch of features that come from eating apples, he started by asking Eve about all the trees in the garden. A good strategy evolves here...perhaps if, as salespeople, we asked more questions and really listened to the answers our odds would improve. Now we could adjust our presentation to align with the answers we just received.

3. Resolve one objection at a time: The serpent jumps on one fact that Eve states (touching forbidden fruit will kill her) and then by focusing her on this one issue he gets her to let her guard down. If you can get your customer to share concerns one at a time, you can address them in a logical fashion and eliminate them.

4. Show how beautiful (demonstration phase) the benefits can be: The serpent convinces Eve that she can be "like" God...if she eats from the tree. Powerful stuff. You need to be specific about benefits (cost savings, sales increase, labor savings, etc) and paint a pretty picture. I copied a friends terminology of "dollarizing" the benefits here. Drive it to the bottom line!

5. Just try one: The serpent made it easy for Eve by convincing her to take a bite and try it. Can you offer a "try me" program as well? Everyone likes to minimize risk when trying something new.

6. Feedback and follow-up: The serpent hasn't stopped yet...still following up by tempting all of Eve's descendents. Make sure all of the future opportunities are quickly taken advantage of, use your connections/sales successes to build more sales and long-term relationships are what we are aiming at.

Whatever the steps in a sales process that work best for you....be consistent. Good sales people have a "system" in place so that they don't overlook details and opportunities.