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You Know What Happens When You Assume
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As
a consumer, have you ever felt that the pitch you were being presented was
the same pitch that salesperson gives every other prospect? It doesn’t
feel very good, does it? We want to know that our investment is the
perfect fit for our needs, not the pat answer that every other prospect
gets.
How can you reassure your prospects that what they are purchasing is the
right service or product for them? Find out what they want, what they need
it to do, who they have to answer to, and give them a product or service
that fills those voids.
For example, if you are selling or leasing a terminal, of course the
prospect wants it to be able to process transactions quickly, that’s a
given. . . or is it?
You may know what prospects in
general want:
small footprint, fast transactions, quiet printer, easy paper loading,
easy close outs, etc., but, you need to find out what this particular
prospect wants.
You can’t assume that this prospect will have the same priorities as
your other customers. You can’t even assume that since this merchant is
a high-end clothing store it will be like your other high end clothing
store merchants and put fast transactions and a quiet printer at the top
of their list. Maybe this merchant doesn’t really care how quiet the
printer is but is more concerned with the frequency of paper roll or ink
cartridge changes. Or, maybe this merchant wants keys and a display that
are easy to read and puts that concern above a small footprint.
Once you avoid the landmine of assuming that every merchant is alike, you
still need to use care and avoid assuming that this merchant will agree
with you about the “killer app” of your product.
For example, you personally may feel that the best feature of your
product is the flexibility. That’s great, but in your prospect’s mind,
that may not be the neatest trick your
terminal can do. It’s what in your prospect’s mind and how he
makes up that mind, that’s important
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