IF YOU DO NOT READ THIS POST, I WILL OPEN AN "ONLY FANS" ACCOUNT!!!
(And no one wants that.)
Let’s talk about selling smarter. How can the history of selling help you sell smarter today?
A.I.D.A. is an acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. The AIDA model was created more than a century ago, in 1898, by E. St. Elmo Lewis and still stands as the basis of modern selling and marketing used in the sales world today. When you break it down, it is easy to see why.
Attention.
You can't sell anything unless you have a person's attention, thus the headline of this post. If you are cold calling, this can be a high hurdle, so rely on your training to open the right doors. If you have a prospect with some interest, gauge the level and build rapport. Make no assumptions about where your client might be in the buying process.
Interest
Avoid the word help when beginning a selling conversation; instead, try something like "What brings you in today?" or "How familiar are you with this product?" follow that statement up with "So what else have you been looking at?" "What have you liked so far?" Ease into open-ended, no-presser questions to understand where they are in their shopping plan. Smoking out your prospect's shopping plan in a non-confrontational way can give you the information you need to sell directly to the client's target interests. Clients often have a secret shopping plan, so asking the right questions is critical to the next sale phase.
Desire
How badly they want or need what you are selling is essential, as is having a good idea of their buying window, allowing you to pull it to today. Desire will help the power dynamic, and many clients want to keep their shopping plans private because they know it may weaken their position.
Action
Once you have cleared the smokescreen, you can start working from the client's story, fit your product in the picture, and move them toward taking action and closing a sale.
Some clients put up a better smokescreen than others. When a client's smoke is so thick you can barely see them, don't give up. Often, buyers can be liars, so stick with it and start drilling down with buying questions about the sale's whens, whys, and hows. Try converting them into a theoretical buyer; it works like this. "Mr. Jones, theoretically, if you could buy XYZ from me right now for half price, would you buy it right now? See if that can spark a non-theoretical dialogue about what it will take to sell him something. Be creative and make it happen.
When you combine A.I.D.A. with proper questioning, you will sell smarter and better. If you know the what, why, when, and where of the clients' shopping plan, you will be the one who makes the sale instead of buying the prospect's smoke.
Bruce P. Hood
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