Let us start by saying that Sharon Grant is awesome. I have met many coaches in the past three months but the way she teaches things, selflessly and with full attention, I have seldom come across. I love going to her meetups. She is a sales guru (she likes calling herself a mentor, but I would say more of a guru), with more than 10 years of sales experience and importantly over 10,000 hours of sales mentoring and training experience. Do you know that people learn a lot when they teach others? She always asks us to go out and teach people what we learn as that is when we are going to learn more. She has helped a lot of entrepreneurs but it is not about that, it is about the difference that she has made to me and my way of thinking. She has made me fall in love with the concept of selling. A few things that she always says at her meetups and keeps on repeating

1. Sales is awesome
2. Sales is applicable to everything
3. Sales is noble

While people always tend to think about sales in the context of business and products, it is seldom people think of sales in their day to day lives, in their work, in their relationships, everything. One is always selling something or the other. For example, I have written a document or I have prepared a presentation and I want people to like it. Or, I have cooked amazing food according to me and my family or my partner should like it and I want to sell that idea, that concept, that dish, anything. Hence, it is important to understand the concepts of selling in broader terms. That is what, I learned today, from her meetup “How to make a compelling offer“.

As usual, her intention is always to ensure that people get an outcome from her events. More sales lead to more money leads to more clients leads to be more awesome is what she says. One of the things she said, if you get value from today, share your learning and hence this blog.

It is very important to believe that everyone has the capability of being a salesperson.  It is very important to take a moment and let that line sink in. There was once a very senior guy in my first job (I was a management trainee), who told me that I could never be a salesperson and guess what, I am one of the best sales guys that anyone can get today. The point is that a lot of people live with a lot of assumptions and one needs to come out of the assumptions and start understanding the concept of selling. One important thing that we discussed today was the difference between feature and benefit and how it is associated with the brain.

Feature and Benefit

Let me break down what I understood. A lot of times salespeople tend to focus more on the features of the product and when they meet, they start listing all the features but ideally, they should focus more on the benefits that the product can offer to their customers. How many features should one focus on? On an average no more than three. Which three? Not the best ones but the ones which are suitable for the client you are selling. Makes sense, isn’t it? But, how does this relate to the brain? Well, as most of you would know, there is a left brain and a right brain. The left brain is more about logic and reasoning and analysis and data and facts, while the right brain is more about emotions, imagination, creativity, intuition and hence while the left brain can relate to the features, it is the right brain which thinks about the benefits that the product or service is going to offer. A lot of people, no matter, which profiles (will talk about this in a while) they belong to, have an emotional component attached to their decision-making. Hence, try to sell the benefits of the product and not the features. While the feature is true and precise, the benefit is disputable and not the same for everyone. One needs to understand the persona that their product is sold to, in order to come up with the right sales pitch. This does not apply only to only your one on one sales meeting but also to your marketing, advertising, everything related to sales. Makes sense to me, does it to you?

Then, she spoke about eDISC and how profiling of eDISC in making one a better salesperson. What is eDISC? Well, in short, it is a tool to identify behavioral traits of people. You can apply it to yourself and learn about you, so that you know your traits and can use it to your advantage while selling. More importantly, it helps you in profiling others. If you would like to know more about the concept, you can google it but if you would definitely like to know more about it and be ready to apply it to your own sales process, attend Sharon’s workshop – Be more awesome sales mastery.

The way she has broken down the concept and made it too simple with some beautiful examples is just awesome. I am going to say no more or might end up spilling the beans so go for it.

The last part of today’s event ended on a very good discussion around the importance of having decision makers in the sales process and how one can politely ask for the presence of the decision makers or consciously make a business decision of not falling into the trap of showing that they are desperate and where one is trying to get anything and not been able to go after the right clients. It is very important to spend time behind the right target audience. Understanding the profile of the person you are selling to, helps you in relating your product with the right audience and making the most of your sales call or interaction.

For more such amazing insights and discussions around sales, feel free to join Sharon’s awesome meetup – Sydney Sales meetup.

You can find out more about her business at www.bemoreawesome.com.au.

Lastly, if you need help in selling yourself to employers, that is if you are working towards finding a job, do check out my meetup, which is about “Finding a job in Australia” and RSVP for the next event if you are in Sydney.

You can also connect with me on Linkedin. Until next time!