{"id":1819,"date":"2019-07-01T15:59:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T15:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=1819"},"modified":"2023-10-18T17:35:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T17:35:38","slug":"sell-difficult-product-or-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/ca\/blog\/sell-difficult-product-or-service\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Sell A Difficult Product Or Service"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When life hands you lemons, the old saying goes, the best thing to do is make lemonade. Hopefully most of the products sales reps are asked to pitch aren\u2019t quite as challenging as that, but the same principle applies. <\/p>\n

A true \u201clemon,\u201d from a product or service perspective, would be something so badly designed it causes customers nothing but problems. That\u2019s really something that can only be addressed at the manufacturing or service and support stages though. In most cases, sales teams are presented with a different challenge. They were given products and services to sell that are boring but necessary. Sometimes they are called \u201cgrudge purchases\u201d because customers only invest in them when they feel they have no other choice. <\/p>\n

No matter how you look at it, these are difficult things to sell by even the most talented reps. Depending on what they are, however, such products and services might represent a higher profit margin, or open the door to other potential cross-sell and upsell opportunities once the rep has successfully gotten them through the door. <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t despair if you\u2019re trying to win deals based on something no one would ever call \u201ccool.\u201d Try these approaches instead: <\/p>\n

Learn from a content marketer\u2019s best practices<\/h2>\n

You might have plenty of collateral about the product or service already, but even detailed brochures and similar material might not be enough to inspire customer interest. That\u2019s okay, because traditional marketing may not be the best way to pitch in this case. <\/p>\n

Content marketers have realized that what often works better, even with less difficult products and services, is to focus more on the stories taking place within their customer\u2019s lives. These can drive much higher engagement than ones that merely go over the features and functionality of what they\u2019re marketing or selling. <\/p>\n

Does your product or service save people time? Focus your pitch on the higher-value tasks or goals investing in it could help your customers accomplish. Does it make them somehow safer or more secure? Tell a story about how being eased of safety and security concerns can improve their ability to focus, and to make better decisions in other areas of their work and life. Do the kinds of buyers you\u2019re targeting have any other common characteristics or aspirations? Talk about some of the most successful role models or peers they might know and show that investing in your product or service was part of their journey. If nothing else, this will show you\u2019re actively listening to your customer community<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Make a connection with the \u2018cool\u2019 stuff<\/h2>\n

If your company offers something more inherently desirable or compelling than what you have to see, see if there is a way to make it obvious that it somehow complements the more difficult product or service. <\/p>\n

You don’t have to create an actual bundle or suggest the two offerings do similar things. It\u2019s about aligning the value they both offer. Maybe the difficult product will provide benefits that will make it easier to afford to buy the \u201ccool\u201d one, for instance. Or maybe by investing in the difficult product first, it will be easier to add the other one in a way that requires less time or effort, given they\u2019ll already be familiar with your company\u2019s wares. This is an area where you might need to \u201cshow\u201d as well as \u201ctell,\u201d possibly through videos that show how your products and services inter-relate<\/a>. <\/p>\n

If all else fails, use the awareness and popularity of the cool product to reposition your difficult product or service as the \u201cbest-kept secret\u201d only your smartest customers know about. Hopefully new customers will want to join their ranks. <\/p>\n

Use data to dial back the difficulties<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re using a CRM like Sales Cloud<\/a>, you\u2019ll know a lot about your customers and prospects that could make pitching a difficult product or service a lot more straightforward.<\/p>\n

Dig into the data, for instance, and you might discover there\u2019s an ideal time, from a budget perspective, when a customer might be more willing to invest in a grudge purchase like the one you\u2019re suggesting. Or you might see that within the larger buying team there is a decision-maker \u2014 like your contact\u2019s boss \u2014 who will be more interested in the product you\u2019re pitching than they are. Use that to articulate how purchasing it can help them stand out in their organization. <\/p>\n

Most of all, use CRM \u2014 as well as information culled from social media <\/a>and other sources \u2014 to ensure you\u2019ve done all the homework necessary to deeply understand your customer or prospect\u2019s biggest objectives or pain points. The more personalized and relevant your pitch, the more likely they\u2019ll pay attention. <\/p>\n

Find the higher purpose behind the product or service<\/h2>\n

Most organizations, for example, are trying to do some really significant things in the world that involve a lot of different elements. The product you\u2019re selling might sound boring, but not if you can think of it as a natural evolution from the company\u2019s origin story or reason for being.<\/p>\n

This is not only important for your customers to hear. It\u2019s something reps need to think about and believe as well. That way, when you\u2019re making the pitch it will come from a genuine place \u2014 and what originally seemed like a difficult product or service to sell starts to become just that little bit easier.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When life hands you lemons, the old saying goes, the best thing to do is make lemonade. Hopefully most of the products sales reps are asked to pitch aren\u2019t quite as challenging as that, but the same principle applies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sf_justforyou_enable_alt":true,"optimizely_content_id":"","post_meta_title":"","ai_synopsis":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"sf_topic":[4],"sf_content_type":[],"coauthors":[2],"class_list":["post-1819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","sf_topic-sales"],"yoast_head":"\nHow To Sell A Difficult Product Or Service - Salesforce<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When life hands you lemons, the old saying goes, the best thing to do is make lemonade. 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