Yes the title seems counterintuitive. How can you sell something that you know little about? Well in a sense, you still have a point. It pays to be familiar with your industry, your niche, your market etc. However, is such knowledge really adequate to get people interested and start asking questions about your product?
If you’ve ever had experience selling something with just that knowledge and a prospect is simply left scratching his or her head, then guess what? It’s obviously not enough.
The problem lies in you being too preoccupied in overloading that prospect from the get-go and not show them more personal consideration.
Take B2B software for example. You can sing and dance all day to your prospect about the features and benefits your Business Intelligence software can bring to organizing their company and still wind up with a rejection. You know why? Well for starters, you’re not even the first to go that route.
The truth is, you and your people will need more than just the technical know-how on how to snag the curiosity of potential prospects. You need to be dynamic, go beyond the technical, and actually engage your target decision makers like the real people that they are. This means (and this sincerely does not mean to offend) you might have to rely less on your computer skills and more on your people skills.
Of course this might provoke this sort of reaction: “But that’s all we can do! Computer stuff is all we know! We can’t afford to go beyond because our budget’s all gone to making this software the best!”
Well we can always stay in our comfort zones forever. Besides, you don’t even need to go as far as to sound like a Billy Mays ripoff. All you need to do is be more considerate, learn more about your prospects, and find out if you can deal with their specific problems.
As for the budget, you don’t have to worry about that either. Outsourcing to reputable lead generation services is always a good idea if you’re looking to conduct effective business lead generation without breaking the company bank.
And hey, this even takes off the load of going beyond your specialty with regards to knowing your software. However, keep in mind that getting enough info on your prospect beforehand can still improve your success when making the sale.
Even something as basic as knowing the name of your target decision maker can go a long way. Sometimes a prospect might not even be willing at first but is open to engage in future follow-ups. This means you might actually have to build a bit of a good business relationship. For this, you really need to establish a means of communication that is bit more personal and active.
There are various ways to engage prospects in this manner. Usually the most common ones are either through exchanging emails or even telemarketing. As a matter of fact, there are actually lead generation companies who make use of both! Companies like this are actually on the rise but you’re not going to find them either unless you’re willing to learn a thing or two outside the technical know-how and give them a call yourself!
