Getting To Yes!

Getting To Yes!
Have you often noticed that when you go on a sales call you get back to the office completely drained? Then you will go out for dinner with a friend or cohort, talk for 2 hours and feel energized. What is the difference?

The first is what I call a “Pitch” the second a “Conversation”.

What would happen if you stopped pitching and started having conversations with everyone?
What would happen if you started thinking about what the “clients” needs, I mean actually listening to what they say, rather than assuming they need your product.

The day you stop selling and start having consultative conversations is the day your energy and business will change. That?s the day that you step back and put your clients needs always ahead of your own need to make a commission.

In brief Jay Abraham calls this the “Strategy of Preeminence”. Jay can discuss this strategy for days. We’ll discuss a little wee snippet here.

It has always amazed me to see what a salesperson will do to make a one time sale rather than sitting down and listening to the “clients” desired outcome and understanding it thoroughly.
Having the courage to tell the “client” they need less than they have initially asked you for is still considered a novel approach in many sales circles. It may mean you have a smaller initial sale. Where do you think that customer will come to when he needs more product or to whom will he refer his friends. Plus quite frankly you will have made yourself a new friend. You stand out. You will be remembered.

This is Powerful! Simple! Elegant!
Learn to Listen! Learn to Consult instead of Tell! Begin to position yourself as a Trusted Advisor with your “client”!

My second point today

Why do you think I kept bracketing “client” above? .. Mr. Websters SaysCustomer : A person who purchases a commodity or service.
Patient: A person receiving medical attention

Client: A person who is under the protection of another.

For my money I want to be your client not your customer or patient. Client has powerful implications. When you change how you think about people from Customer to Client we shift everything. When you start to think in terms of serving clients a much deeper shift starts resonating through you. Believe it or not you start to change at a cellular level. You start to move to genuine concern. Language makes your world. Use it to empower you and generate great success in your financial and personal dealings.

When you swear you downgrade yourself. When you speak well of others you lift yourself. Start tuning in to what your body does and feels when you use certain words, language, phrases.. test, test, test. Don’t believe what I say. Then start shifting all of your language and thinking to that of service in business and gradually your world will change. You can stop selling. I gave it up years ago and the customers keep on calling. Doesn’t matter what those around you are saying or doing. shift your own headspace and you will gradually become a raving sales success.

Add Value to every task you undertake. Be a problem solver not a problem bringer. Focus on giving value and advice. Stop manipulating and maneuvering. People will want to take advantage of the valuable service that you are offering and refer their friends.
Third Point today. Let’s get back to conversations. It has become an epidemic today for people to focus only on themselves and their needs.. to cut off others mid conversation for so called time management purposes.

The past two weeks I was shopping for a new broker. There were two who actually listened. The others were too busy trying to get what they wanted their way without listening carefully. A couple of associates cut me off in conversation as well. Clearly calculating in their head the exact monetary value or lack of it in speaking to me at that moment. Where do you think I will turn when sending a referral or a client of mine. Not to any of these folks I can assure you.

Start listening, start conversing genuinely. Trust levels will soar, sales and referrals follow. In the end people are human and what resonates with the heart and soul will drive results, at least that’s been my experience over the last 30 years of Consulting

Have a great week. Aeriol – and responses can be posted at the blog.