Campaign Selling vs Needs Based Selling

Is there a conflict between a company saying on one hand they want to sell in a very service focused, needs based way, and on the other hand running a campaign that promotes special products and/or pricing? The answer is, “It depends”.

It depends on how the campaign is rolled out to the team. If they are loaded up with marketing pieces, special pricing and told to hit special campaign targets, without specific training on how to approach clients most will forget about needs based selling and just start pitching the flavor of the month. Your clients get used to your sales pitches just like you get used to the telemarketers pitch. How many of us actually listen to what the telemarketer has to offer? We tune them out. Why do you think your clients would be any different when you “pitch” them on your special offers?

The key behind a successful campaign – one that aligns the special product and pricing with needs based selling - is to have a team that knows how to go about starting conversations and getting agreement from their clients that they have the need for the product before they start pitching them. Teach them to have a quick conversation with the client before telling them all about the new product. For example, during RRSP season, don’t just ask clients if they’ve contributed to their retirement plan yet. That’s a surefire way to get a no. You’ll feel better that you asked, but will it really accomplish anything? The only clients that will respond to that are the ones that were ready to buy anyway.

Get them talking about themselves

Get them talking about the potential problem that the campaign product you want to sell solves. For example, if you are running an RRSP campaign get them talking about:
- how their retirement investment portfolio is performing
- the last time they had their investments reviewed
- if they feel they will have enough money to retire when they want
- what they’ll do with their income tax refund
- whether or not they feel they are paying too much in taxes this year

For example, after the client asks how you are you could respond,

- It’s going well, we have lots of clients taking advantage of our investment specials right now, especially for their retirement savings – how is your retirement plan performing for you by the way?
- We’re getting busier, lots of clients coming in to have their investment portfolios reviewed, when is the last time you had yours reviewed?
- It’s going great, we’re really spending extra time right now talking to our clients making sure they are going to have enough money to retire when they want. How are you feeling about the amount you’ve saved up for retirement?
- We’re busy trying to help clients get some money back at tax time so they can pay off their Christmas presents! How’s your refund cheque going to look this year?

Play with the concept of developing a reason to get your clients talking about the end goal of the product you are promoting. Remind them that clients don’t buy the product; they buy what the product will do for them. We need to be good at getting them talking about what they are doing first and leave the sales pitches to the telemarketers!

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." -Henry Ford

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