“People hate being sold to…”
Some of you may have heard this quote before and can complete the sentence. Let’s come back to that.
Can you think of the last time someone tried to sell you something. Maybe it was a time share. Maybe it was a lawn service. Maybe it was Aflac or Amway.
What was the feeling you got? Pretty icky right.
People don’t just dislike being sold to, they hate it.
Buyers have what I call an “invisible wall of distrust” that was built from the mortar of false promises and with the bricks of cunning sleasters.
As sales professionals, we need to live on the other side of the spectrum. So consider using a very simple four step process that we can rely on to incorporate principles of trust into our prospecting calls.
1. Introduction Statement – Identifies yourself right off the bat.
2. Connection Statement – Presents yourself not as a stranger by taking 3 minutes to see who they are and how you might be able to connect.
3. Value Statement – Delivers the "What's In It For Me" factor to them, which is not the “what” or the “how” of what we do but the “why," giving it to them straight without any jargon or non-descript words.
4. Ask – Shares your success story and leads to setting a mutually convenient time to meet.
We've said before that we only have 15 seconds to get to the point or we lose the prospect. If we are clear, direct, and demonstrate the value of our offering, we will get to the next step more often.
So to finish the quote from Jeffrey Gitomer: “People hate to be sold to… but they love to buy!”
Let's use this four step model to help facilitate the buying process.
Mark Slatin is a VP of Sales at entreQuest who is outsourced to a wide variety of companies to coach their teams, improve their client experiences, and raise their revenues.
