I think too many times we get caught up in the latest jedi sales techniques. Don’t get me wrong there is time and place for that stuff but they never replace GIVING and GENUINELY caring about your prospects. Remember people don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.
When it comes to sales there are three factors that I think makes up 95% of the success. This is assuming you have the right product and offer in front of them. (You can’t sell a Hyundai for a $100K no matter what you do, I’m sorry ;)
Without further ado, here they are
Enthusiasm: If you’re in the business of sale and yes you are in the business of sale my friends then you need to have good energy and enthusiasm. A sales person without enthusiasm is just a cashier. To have enthusiasm you need to believe what you’re selling. It’s hard to get enthusiastic when you’re selling junk. Make sure you’re using what you’re selling. In my case I have one of my personal trainers train me everyday in the gym.
Rapport: Make sure you establish great rapport with the prospect. PLEASE don’t be robotic and memorize some generic sales DVD that promises you close 90% of your clients. Sure you can get some ideas but add your own twist and flavor to it. One thing I try to do with prospects is to quickly establish common ground. Your prospects relate to you much better when they have something in common with you. For example you like the same football team or your kids go to the same school.
Time: Take your time with your prospect, spend as much time as you need. Please don’t rush them even if you know they are not going to buy. Treat everyone like they are going to be your BEST clients. Treat people relationally and not transactionally. You never know they might have family or friends that are interested or they might just come back on day when they are ready.
Excellent post Sam. By following your principles above, the hard selling and closing clients taught by other gurus is irrelevant.
Very true. Focusing on some robotic process can hurt you more because you’re worried about scripts. Prospects catch on to that and they think you are shady.
I’ve just focused on improving my product, raising my own enthusiasm (I do the same workouts my clients do), and just delivering a better experience, to the point I reframe it and people want to BUY instead of me selling anything. It’s way easier that way. You do less work, have more peace of mind, and get better results.
When you reframe it as you having something the customer wants, it’s not even a sale anymore. Some people might say that you need to focus on sales, but at the end of the day, the numbers are what matter. You can have two business owners. One sells his ass off, hustles, is pushy, and gets his numbers up. The other is well positioned, just focuses on being good at he or she does, delivers an awesome experience, and then just simply says “yes” when customers line up to get their products.
Do you think celebrity trainers go out prospecting and try and get clients through hard selling? No. They focus on positioning themselves, creating better brand awareness, building their brand, making people RESPECT them (we buy from people we respect), and then people just BUY from them without them selling anything.
The best scenario to create is to make it so people want to buy from you, not you having to sell anything. I took this from Frank Rambauskas who has a great book (best seller) with bigger picture ideas than just stupid scripts or mind reframing bullshit that info marketers and pickup artists (who are just equally frauds like info marketers) use.
Well positioned business owners don’t sell anything; people already want to buy and are sold from the beginning.