The beauty of the soft sell

A few years into my working career a joined a large 3PL logistics company. Our strategy was to be asset light meaning we did not own much infrastructure. Most of our our physical machinery and buildings were leased or rented and not directly owned. The true value we added was not in ownership of the assets, but our ability to use other people’s assets to deliver highly efficient logistics capabilities for many local and multinational blue chip clients. Without shiny “toys” to show our clients the true value we offered was in the technological and human expertise we brought to the table. You can imagine how challenging this was as a sales proposition, convincing a would-be client to trust you with their logistics when you bot knew full well that you didn’t own a single vehicle! As a result our best sales approach was in person selling which often involved cold calling. For those of you not aware of what a cold call is, it is essentially when you contact someone to sell them something and you have no prior relationship or contact with them.

Securing the appointment was the easy part. Once a potential client agreed to meet with you this is where it got very interesting. We typically had an hour or less to convince them that should talk to us about our logistics capability and consider moving their business to us. The scary thing was that if we failed to generate new business and bring new clients on board, then the business just would not grow. Selling skills became critical skills for the long term sustainability of the company and a lot of emphasis was put on regular and thorough sales skills training. A dedicated sales trainer was employed and every client facing member of staff received some sales training every Friday. The selling competence became formalised as an internal qualification and sales staff were not allowed to see clients unless they had passed this assessment. Each sales member of staff was expected to generate at least 4 times their monthly cost to company every month in new business revenue. As a result, most people who worked in this sales organisation became extremely good at selling. We understood the sales process intimately and covered off such detail such as how to secure an appointment in the first place, to how to handle price objections and the all important how to close a deal. We were hard sellers, had stretching targets and were very good at what we did.

Now that I have explained the hard selling approach I was brought up in, let me contrast this by some soft selling I have been recently exposed to. The process has been so good that I didnt even know I was being sold something. I was invited to an information evening by a very premium and elite educational institution. The setting was at someone’s private residence and hosted by the parents of one of the children currently attending this institution. The setting was very informal with finger snack catering available and a small group of waiters serving drinks. It made it very easy to have some light conversation and network with other people. Once people had arrived the headmaster of the school stood up in front of the group and gave a very brief introduction on the ethos of the school and then handed over to two current pupils of the school. The students spoke confidently about their experiences and answered any questions to the best of their ability. Once the formalities were done some of the parents mingled with the crowd and told us all great stories about how much they had appreciated the experience that their children had been through.

Very impressed by the whole thing I got home and told my wife what I had experienced and very quickly contacted a friend of mine to tell him too. I couldn’t wait to tell them! Once I had calmed down and taken some time to process what had happened that evening it really dawned on me that I had been sold to the entire time. The institution invited me to come to them. They kept it completely optional and at no stage did they encourage me. At no point during the evening did they mention any other school’s or highlight explicitly their differentiators. At no point did they ask me to fill in a form, commit to anything or try and get my details. At no point did they pressure me to do anything, yet I got home extremely excited about the institution and what they were doing. Rather than convince me that their product was superior they let me experience it through the children that attended there. Rather than convince me that it was a good decision for my children, they let me interact with other parents with kids in the institution. A completely experiential, low impact, soft sell that was more effective than if they had sat in front of me and tried to convince me via a hard selling approach.

Classic sales material always highlights how in order to sell one needs to listen more and speak less. I feel that this is the power of the soft selling approach. The client is the one volunteering their information, they are the one seeking clarity, they are the ones asking questions. They are the ones drawn to you. Most importantly you have to be confident that whatever you are selling is of defendable quality. If I had $1 million to spend on a supercar, I dont think I would be swung the simply visiting a manufacturer’s website and doing product comparison the same way I maybe do for socks from my local retailer. However, if that person were to deliver a car for me to try and let me experience it there would be a much higher chance of me buying it. This strategy, therefore, wont work with a cheap, bland, unreliable or featureless budget run around car! Another example I have is when I was head-hunted to work for a particular company. I was invited to their offices for an informal chat and had made up my mind that I did not actually want to work there. Fortunately for me, I developed very quick rapport with one of the recruiting directors and we chatted for a full extra hour beyond our interview time. By the time I walked out I knew I wanted to work for him and he knew he wanted me to work for him. At no point in the discussion did I feel he was trying to convince me.

We are bombarded by desperate, target driven hard selling salespeople these day. Very excited just to meet you or talk to you they use logic, fact, features and benefits and try and cut to the chase. Maybe sometimes we as sales staff need an approach where there is less pressure on the client to do anything. We just let them experience what life is like on our side. They may surprise us and come to us rather than us chasing them.