Sales:  One of THE Best Sales Tools Around

One of THE best sales tools to use is analogies.  Why?  Let me explain.

Many times people have difficulty grasping what you are selling.  This is especially true if you are selling something complex or something “invisible,” abstract, or something that is not “tangible.”  So what you need to do is relate what you are selling to something someone else already understands with an illustration or an analogy.

And many times what you are selling is a feeling, a concept, an idea, or money at a discount.  Here’s an example.

Say you sell mutual funds and you are trying to explain diversification as a means of stability to your clients.
A simple illustration or example can be an elevator.  Do you want your elevator to have one cable supporting it, or do you want multiple cables.  Do you get the idea?

The brain already understands certain concepts, so it makes the most sense to use these concepts to sell your services.  Or perhaps you are selling someone on insurance (something nobody wants or likes to buy).  A great illustration is a spare tire.  Would you really drive across the country multiple times in all types of bad weather without having a spare tire, a cell phone, or road side assistance?  You can give some version of this for the situation.  The fact is life IS like driving across the country in many different conditions.

These analogies can be very powerful and can convey an important concept very quickly that is a lot easier for people to understand than what traditional salesman ship can do.  This is not to say you throw the other techniques out the window, but this is a great way to educate your prospect and target market as to why they should do business with you versus other people.  And this is a great way for them to understand what makes you different.