y experience, once a customer has outlined their problem, the implications and costs of the problem remaining unsolved (and ladies and gentlemen, the problem could be anything from I need a bigger house to I want to by an Enterprise class business solution for my company) and how great their world would be with the problem solved, how motivated are they to commit to buy your offering once you’ve helped them to see that your solution *exactly* matches their problem.

“Yeah this is great bu

Authentic Selling sounds like an oxymoron, a bit like military intelligence, after all who would ever expect a sales person to be authentic? That would be like expecting them to tell the truth! The secret is that in telling the truth and paying very close attention to the customer’s needs and expectations, an Authentic Sales person can help his or her client and close the deal at the same time. A true Win-Win model.

Like any profession there are a few individual sales people that are ruining the reputation of their colleagues. You see over the past few years some have realised that “closing the deal” at all costs probably isn’t the best long term, and in many cases short term, strategy. Their rebellion has been a quiet one, taking place in meeting rooms across the globe. And each time an Authentic Sales person meets a customer and interesting thing happens…the customer sees that the authentic sales person can either help them or not. If the solution fits the customer buys – it’s really that simple.

How do I know this? Well you see I am an Authentic Sales person, in fact I started a company to train and coach others to do the same. In the rest of this article I’ll be sharing with you my best strategies for maintaining authenticity and to create a safe, trust based environment in which your potential customer can buy with confidence.

The clue to the secret behind Authentic Selling is in the last paragraph. You see as an Authentic Sales Person I do not need to sell anything! Gone are the days of pressure, stress and hassle. I have learnt to qualify my potential customers into two key categories: those that have a problem I can solve and those that have a different problem. In each case, it’s great news.

You see, my definition of a great sale is made up of two parts. First, a great sale is actually the result of a problem being solved. Secondly a great sale is where the customer comes back for more but the product or service doesn’t! In my experience, once a customer has outlined their problem, the implications and costs of the problem remaining unsolved (and ladies and gentlemen, the problem could be anything from I need a bigger house to I want to by an Enterprise class business solution for my company) and how great their world would be with the problem solved, how motivated are they to commit to buy your offering once you’ve helped them to see that your solution *exactly* matches their problem.

“Yeah this is great bu

ning the reputation of their colleagues. You see over the past few years some have realised that “closing the deal” at all costs probably isn’t the best long term, and in many cases short term, strategy. Their rebellion has been a quiet one, taking place in meeting rooms across the globe. And each time an Authentic Sales person meets a customer and interesting thing happens…the customer sees that the authentic sales person can either help them or not. If the solution fits the customer buys – it’s really that simple.

How do I know this? Well you see I am an Authentic Sales person, in fact I started a company to train and coach others to do the same. In the rest of this article I’ll be sharing with you my best strategies for maintaining authenticity and to create a safe, trust based environment in which your potential customer can buy with confidence.

The clue to the secret behind Authentic Selling is in the last paragraph. You see as an Authentic Sales Person I do not need to sell anything! Gone are the days of pressure, stress and hassle. I have learnt to qualify my potential customers into two key categories: those that have a problem I can solve and those that have a different problem. In each case, it’s great news.

You see, my definition of a great sale is made up of two parts. First, a great sale is actually the result of a problem being solved. Secondly a great sale is where the customer comes back for more but the product or service doesn’t! In my experience, once a customer has outlined their problem, the implications and costs of the problem remaining unsolved (and ladies and gentlemen, the problem could be anything from I need a bigger house to I want to by an Enterprise class business solution for my company) and how great their world would be with the problem solved, how motivated are they to commit to buy your offering once you’ve helped them to see that your solution *exactly* matches their problem.

“Yeah this is great bu

t’s really that simple.

How do I know this? Well you see I am an Authentic Sales person, in fact I started a company to train and coach others to do the same. In the rest of this article I’ll be sharing with you my best strategies for maintaining authenticity and to create a safe, trust based environment in which your potential customer can buy with confidence.

The clue to the secret behind Authentic Selling is in the last paragraph. You see as an Authentic Sales Person I do not need to sell anything! Gone are the days of pressure, stress and hassle. I have learnt to qualify my potential customers into two key categories: those that have a problem I can solve and those that have a different problem. In each case, it’s great news.

You see, my definition of a great sale is made up of two parts. First, a great sale is actually the result of a problem being solved. Secondly a great sale is where the customer comes back for more but the product or service doesn’t! In my experience, once a customer has outlined their problem, the implications and costs of the problem remaining unsolved (and ladies and gentlemen, the problem could be anything from I need a bigger house to I want to by an Enterprise class business solution for my company) and how great their world would be with the problem solved, how motivated are they to commit to buy your offering once you’ve helped them to see that your solution *exactly* matches their problem.

“Yeah this is great bu

ed to sell anything! Gone are the days of pressure, stress and hassle. I have learnt to qualify my potential customers into two key categories: those that have a problem I can solve and those that have a different problem. In each case, it’s great news.

You see, my definition of a great sale is made up of two parts. First, a great sale is actually the result of a problem being solved. Secondly a great sale is where the customer comes back for more but the product or service doesn’t! In my experience, once a customer has outlined their problem, the implications and costs of the problem remaining unsolved (and ladies and gentlemen, the problem could be anything from I need a bigger house to I want to by an Enterprise class business solution for my company) and how great their world would be with the problem solved, how motivated are they to commit to buy your offering once you’ve helped them to see that your solution *exactly* matches their problem.

“Yeah this is great bu

y experience, once a customer has outlined their problem, the implications and costs of the problem remaining unsolved (and ladies and gentlemen, the problem could be anything from I need a bigger house to I want to by an Enterprise class business solution for my company) and how great their world would be with the problem solved, how motivated are they to commit to buy your offering once you’ve helped them to see that your solution *exactly* matches their problem.

“Yeah this is great but what if it doesn’t match…” I hear you cry. Of course if your potential customer has a problem that you cannot solve it is still great news. The next step given this situation is to help your customer solve their problem by referring them on to another company, consultant or sales person – one whom you know can solve their problem.

In essence the key strategy here is to remember that customer buying habits and decisions have little to do with you, what script you think you are using, what suit your wearing, what car you turn up to the sales meeting in and everything to do with the overall fit of your solution to their problem. It’s all about the customer!

Encouraging, with a few skilled questions designed to elicit the desired information, your potential customer to explain in detail both the problem and the emotional, financial and/or corporate pain suffered by the problem continuing without a solution will give you all the information you need to complete the sale.

Your customer will tell you how much the problem costs and thereby allowing you to set a reasonable price for the solution. Your customer will tell you, if asked, who else is effected by the problem, thereby informing you of all the interested parties that you may need to meet to complete the sale. The list goes on, the common factor here is to ask the customer. I really cannot stress this enough. The better your understanding of your customers problem the easier it will be for you to show the customer that buying your solution will elevate their problem. If you are fan of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) then paying close attention to the words used by your customer will even tell you the diction, or language, you should use to describe your solution to their problem.

I hope you can see that, even in this short article, Authentic Selling is the stress free way to solving your sales problems while addressing and meeting the needs of your customers. If a prospect see