There’s a great and telling anecdote on Shotgun Marketing Blog relating to selling to customers.  In the story, the author talks about a sales person refusing to give them the purchase contract on a product they wanted to purchase until they had seen his Powerpoint presentation.  Think about that for a moment.  The customer was willing to buy, but the sales person wouldn’t let them until they had scene all of his sales pitch.   Does that make any kind of sense whatsoever?

This is another example of the someone putting themselves as the salesperson ahead of the needs and wants of the customer, like we discussed here.   The sale had been made.  The customer was ready to buy, but the sales person was not satisfied because he hadn’t had a chance to show off his Powerpoint.  As the author notes, “people like to hear themselves talk.

This goes back to the central precept in marketing, the customer is the most important part of the sale.   You cannot become so in love with your sales pitch, your product or yourself that you forget the most important element of all:  the customer.    A salesperson should have one goal, to give the customer what he or she needs.   A salesperson’s job is to solve problems.

So next time you find yourself plunging into your sales pitch without considering the customer first.  Step back and remember, the most important thing is not the sales pitch or the sales person, but the sale itself.