Before David Ogilvy became one of the biggest names in advertising, he was a door-to-door salesman for AGA ovens. He created a sales manual to help other salesmen achieve the great results that he did. As you’d expect from a man who later went on to dominate the advertising industry, it contains some incredible tips for salesmen.
Ogilvy was a keen believer in the power of research, a fact that later came to define his advertising agency. In his sales manual, he states:
“Find out all you can about your prospects before you call on them: their general living conditions, wealth, profession, hobbies, friends and so on. Every hour spent in this kind of research will help you impress your prospect.”
For Ogilvy, there was no such thing as irrelevant information. While we can’t be sure what he’d have to say about the overabundance of information available online today, he knew that knowledge is incredibly powerful. It’s a vital tool in a salesperson’s arsenal because it can be used to impress and to build rapport speedily. Those who are involved in business-to-business sales should endeavor to find out as much about their prospect’s business as possible.. If you can convince your prospect that you are incredibly knowledgeable about his or her business, then your consultative conversations will be seen as wise counsel rather than as a sales pitch.
It’s also important to find out how familiar your prospect is with your business. As Ogilvy says:
“Find out as soon as possible in the conversation how much she already knows about [the product]; it will give you the correct angle of approach.”
Determining what your prospect knows about you, or any preconceptions that he or she may have, is perhaps the most important knowledge you can possess.
When Ogilvy refers to the “correct angle of approach,” he means that you should use your prospect’s knowledge in the conversation. If your prospect has learned about some feature of your product or service, then it is the perfect opportunity to convey the advantage that it can bring to their business. Information that they have previously learned independently will be much more powerful than facts you have just explained to them, and you should use it if you can. Before you call prospects, check your database to find out whether they’ve interacted with your brand before, and how. If they’ve read an article you published or engaged with you on Twitter, bring it up in your conversation. It shows you’re listening and paying attention to them.
Ogilvy reminds us to “Never talk down or show superior knowledge,” and this is a golden rule. However it’s just as vital to never assume your prospect knows something that he or she doesn’t. Sometimes all it takes to close a deal is a deft disarming of a misconception. The key is to use skilful questioning to determine precisely what they know, and to use it.
Ogilvy was one of the 20th century’s great masters of persuasion, and his AGA cooker sales manual should be required reading for any salesperson. Even though it was written in a different era, for almost certainly a vastly different product from the one that you sell, it contains many universal human truths that are still widely applicable today.
