First level selling, or getting the customer to buy your product, used to be the process of showing the customer the features and benefits of your product or service and then asking the customer to buy. There were many techniques developed to handle the customer’s objections and the process was termed closing the sale and it typically left the customer feeling used, bruised and abused.
Second level selling, or getting the customer to buy your solution to his/her problem, which we currently practice is a process where we focus on the customer’s need/pain and show how our product or service would satisfy the need or alleviate the pain. This is more to the benefit of the customer but still does not solve the one very troubling problem that always remains for the customer – how to prove to him/herself or to others that the investment that was just made was a worthwhile one.
This brings us to third level selling, or teaching the customer how to sell. A colleague of mine Alan Zell, defines selling as a four step process: that involves Buying, Marketing, Presenting and Selling. In order to get the customer to buy we actually need to show the customer how to sell him/herself or others that the investment that was just made during the buying process was a sound one.