Explaining What You Sell

The products you sell or the company you represent may not be familiar to a prospective client. Consider these tips on how to get your message across

by Michelle Nichols

When you mention the company you represent or the products you sell to prospective customers, do they ever look at you funny and say they don't know what you're talking about? Take heart. This is a common challenge for many sales pros.

Selling to customers who are unfamiliar with your company or product isn't a new problem. In 1958, McGraw-Hill (MHP) (the parent company of BusinessWeek) first ran its famous "Man in the Chair" ad. It had a crabby-looking man sitting in a chair, saying, "I don't know who you are. I don't know your company. I don't know your company's product. I don't know what your company stands for. I don't know your company's customers. I don't know your company's record. I don't know your company's reputation. Now—what was it you wanted to sell me?"

By the way, this ad still runs. The photo has been updated several times in the past 39 years, and the copy has been translated into French, German, Italian, Russian, and Chinese. However, the words have stayed the same because the selling challenge hasn't changed. Its message is universal and timeless.

So what's a salesperson to do if prospective customers don't understand what he's selling? Here are some tips:

1. Analogies work. If your company is not well known, you can say it is like company X but with quality Y with corresponding benefit Z. The idea is to springboard off the well-known supplier while carving out your niche and identifying your unique benefits.

Let's pretend the dominant vendor in your industry is a company we'll call Piston Products. Let's imagine Piston is known for being tough to do business with. So you can say your company is like Piston Products but with a heart for customers, so everyone feels good throughout the sales process. Or if Piston's headquarters is on the other side of the country, you can say your company is like a local version of Piston Products, with quicker service.

If your offering is new or unique, you can say it is like product Z but with attribute A and corresponding benefit B. For example, if you sold Squiggle services, you might say a Squiggle is like a high-tech assisted-living center where the residents receive 24/7 Web-cam support so they can keep in touch with loved ones who live far away.

2. Clarity matters. Make sure your analogies are clear; don't be cute or clever. Your customers won't take the time or energy to figure out what you're selling. For example, I recently got all excited about writing a speech I called "Sell Like a Superhero." I could just see myself on stage, wearing a red cape, talking about identifying the sales problem with X-ray vision, and leaping over objections in a single bound. However, when I tested the draft speech on others, they told me superheroes don't sell, which is a polite way of saying they didn't know what I was talking about. It was back to the drawing board for me.

3. Having to start your pitch from scratch can work in your favor. There are several advantages to selling to a prospect who has never heard of your company or product. I remember my first selling job out of college for a 100-year-old Fortune 500 company. When I was making cold calls, prospective customers would sometimes tell me that they'd had a sales rep from my company who did them wrong many years ago, so they didn't want to hear my pitch. When representing a new company, you start fresh—few bridges have been burned before you got there.

Another advantage is the cachet factor. With almost every group of customers, there are going to be a few who want to buy something simply because it's new or unique. They want to be the first on their block to own what you sell. Look for customers who like to display their new watch, vehicle, or computer gadget. If they like cutting-edge products in one area, they probably like them in another.

Selling products that few have heard of, or representing companies that are not well known, makes the sales job tough—but that's what separates sales professionals from mere order-takers. Use what your customers already know to clearly explain exactly what you sell, and you'll close more deals. Happy selling!

Michelle Nichols, the founder and president of sales consulting firm Savvy Selling International, leads a weekly podcast and writes her Savvy Selling column every other week.