Have you heard the quote from Theodore Roosevelt, “No one cares how much
you know, until they know how much you care”? Guess what, no one is
going to do business with you, or at least not the kind of business that
you want just to make you successful, until they know, like and trust you.
Slow down, stop selling and turn off your radar. By
radar I mean that bad habit of only listening for the buying signals.
How can you do this? I remember a sales training course I took almost 30
years ago in which they taught us to work every time we meet someone to
ask questions until we can find things we like about them. Talk less
about work and more about what they do when they are not working, who is
important in their lives and what their goals and dreams are. How do
you feel when someone takes the time to get to know you like this?
This plays into two other conversations I have often with coaching
clients. First the belief that price is the most important buying
decision for their clients. Getting to know people on a deeper level
like this is one way to overcome this. If you stop and reflect in all of
your own purchases you will probably find several examples in which you
yourself will pay more or accept less because of your relationship with
the provider. The second area is the whole teaching around “closing the
deal”. Oh man, when I was in automotive sales I heard every horrible
sneaky twisted way you could imagine of how to close the deal. Many
salespeople have earned their bad reputation. I have learned that when
you really get to know the person you are talking with the sales process
becomes more of a conversation. This can move you into a position of
simply being a form of a partner with them and things like price become
less important and the need to push them is drastically reduced.
Make it a habit. How can you do that? One way might be
to write out your sales process and creates steps like first just
connecting with them, second getting to know them, third meet at their
place and then on the fourth of fifth contact finally allowing yourself
to talk to them about what you do. Even easier, make yourself a cheat
sheet of 5 questions that have nothing to do with business that you are
going to ask each new person you meet.
If you have other ways that work for you, please share them with me.