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What Is 'Education-Based Selling'?

Education-Based Selling is the process of making your prospects better and more informed customers.

By investing time and energy in making your customers smarter, you simultaneously build Trust and make them more interested in your offer.

Remember that to do this properly, you have to know more than your customers. Otherwise, you'll scare them away.

Josh Kaufman Explains 'Education-Based Selling'

Before moving to Colorado, my wife, Kelsey, was the sales manager of the Mark Ingram Bridal Atelier in New York City, the most prestigious bridal salon in the world. Her job was to help brides from around the world find "The One"-the perfect dress for their dream wedding.

Mark Ingram is the Martha Stewart of the bridal industry-his sense of style is legendary. Gowns by Oscar de la Renta, Monique Lhuillier, Lela Rose, and Vera Wang populate his collection. Mark's consultants are so skilled that one of the first three gowns they present is almost always the gown the bride chooses for her wedding. In addition, the shopping experience and customer service are superb - Mark doesn't discount, but brides would rather work with him than purchase their gown from a competitor, even though it'd be expensive.

Compared to most bridal salons, the Mark Ingram Bridal Atelier sells very high-end gowns. The average sale price of a gown at Mark's atelier is $6,000: four times the national average. To make the sale, Mark's consultants must help the bride (and her parents, who often pay the bill) understand why the gown is worth the price.

It's certainly possible to purchase a less expensive gown from another salon, but cheaper gowns cut corners: they use lower-quality fabrics, skimp on construction, and use machined lace or beading. Also, alterations are necessary to ensure that the gown fits the bride perfectly. Mark's team of bridal seamstresses is the best in the world, and you can only work with them if you purchase a gown from Mark's atelier.

If you care about these things-and most fashion-conscious brides certainly do-it's easy to see why it's worth it to purchase a gown from Mark if you can afford to.

Education-Based Selling is the process of making your prospects better, more informed customers. As a sales consultant, Kelsey worked to do two things: (1) make the bride feel comfortable and relaxed, then (2) help the bride become more knowledgeable about gowns in terms of how they are made, and what to look for when buying one.

Instead of pressuring the bride to "close the sale," Kelsey always took the time to explain the ins-and-outs of fabric, lace, beading, construction, and alterations to the bride and her family. She invested time in making her brides more knowledgeable, and this made them more likely to purchase the more expensive dress from her, both because they had learned to fully appreciate the quality of what she was selling, and because she had earned their Trust.

Education-Based Selling requires an up-front investment in your prospects, but it's worth it. By investing energy in making your prospects smarter, you simultaneously build trust in your expertise and make them better customers. Be forewarned, however, that effective education requires your offer to be superior in some way from your competitors-otherwise, you'll be sending customers away. All the more reason to ensure you have an offer worth selling.

Questions About 'Education-Based Selling'

• What are you doing to make your prospects smarter, more informed customers?
• How can you make them more knowledgeable in a way that helps them understand the benefits of your offer?

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"Upgrade your user, not your product. ‘Value' is less about the stuff and more about the stuff the stuff enables. Don't build better cameras—build better photographers."

Kathy Sierra, author and co-creator of the Head First series of books

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