People typically view making sales and being a good salesperson as being pushy, building a good argument on why they should by from you, or even being somewhat manipulative or deceiving. Jarvis, on the other hand, explains that if your product does not fit someone’s needs you need to let them know. A company’s sales increase when you first evaluate what they need and then teach them the value of what you are selling (p. 137). According to Harvard Business Review, sales success is highly correlated with three things. They are as follows.
- “Spending enough time with customers and prospects
- Having a large and healthy network in your own organization
- Spending time with and getting attention from your manager and other senior people in your own organization”
(Fuller, 2014).
“To stand out and build an audience as a company of one, you have to out-teach and outshare the competition, no outscale them”(Jarvis, 2020, 138). Jarvis explains that the act of teaching your customers allows them to view you as the domain expert on the subject matter. It also provides the company with the opportunity to show the audience the benefits of what is being sold and it helps develop long-term customers (as they will know how to bets use your product or service through you showing them how to get the most out of it (p. 138). Teaching your customers, also more commonly referred to as ‘customer education’ in research drives lead generation, reduced customer support-related costs, improves product adoption sales, offers high quality customer service, and increases customer engagement and satisfaction (Cleverism, 2021)
Jarvis concludes this chapter with the following thought-provoking messages. The following has been retrieved directly from his book.
BEGIN TO THINK ABOUT
- What you could begin to share with or teach your customers or audience
- How you could focus more on executing ideas than on protecting them
- What investments you could make in consumer education as a marketing channel
- What you could share that would position you or your company as an authority in a niche (p. 146).
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