Sales Tip: Assume your customers know nothing

April 22, 2020
When selling technical products it's best to start off slowly and clearly explain every feature, advantage, and benefit.

In the selling world of a mobile jobber, your customers are young, old, and everywhere in between. Some are highly educated, some are barely educated, and all are educated in the school of hard knocks. If your customer is young you may automatically assume they are technically adept, and if they are older you may assume they don’t know the difference between a megabyte and a TPMS. You may be correct in some cases, but the issue is you don’t know what they do or do not know. This leads to misunderstanding, miscommunication, misrepresentation, and most often a missed sale.

Your best bet to improve your success rate in selling technical products is to assume your prospect knows nothing, understands less, and needs to be spoon-fed your product information. I am not implying in any way that vehicle technicians are as dumb as a lug wrench; the exact opposite is true. But when selling a technical product, you will do better starting off slowly and clearly explaining every feature, advantage, and benefit as you go through your demonstration. As you do your trial closes, you will begin to get an idea of how much your prospect understands and just how technically advanced they are or are not.

About the Author

Alan Sipe | President, Toolbox Sales and Consulting

Alan W. Sipe has spent the last 42 years in the basic hand tool industry including positions as President of KNIPEX Tools North America, Sr. VP Sales and Marketing at Klein Tools, Manager Special Markets at Stanley Tools and sales management at toolbox manufacturer Waterloo Industries. Currently Sipe is the owner of Toolbox Sales and Consulting specializing in sales strategy, structure, development and training. Sipe can be reached at [email protected] or 847-910-1063. Connect with Sipe on LinkedIn.

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