What Your Prospects Really Want
“People buy from people they know, like, and trust.” -Bob Burg
This business adage holds true, but it can also be misleading. While it underscores some of the foundational building blocks of good relationships, it doesn’t provide much context for what being known, likable, and trustworthy means in a business situation.
Too often, salespeople (particularly those who buy into stale but familiar stereotypes) believe that if you can be nice enough, their prospects will be compelled to buy from them. Perhaps if they’re always bearing gifts, they’ll be recognized as thoughtful and generous. The law of reciprocity will kick in and the prospects will say to themselves, “Hey, we’re going to give this business to someone. Why not the one who’s always around giving us stuff?”
Does that sound as ridiculous to you as it does to me? Come on. This approach boils down the selling process into a shell game of margins and cost centers. You and I both know that professional selling is about much more than that. Your prospects have problems. Your value lies in your solutions and the approaches in which you deliver them. Resist the urge to make it about anything else.
I’m not here to disagree with someone who’s sold over a million books, particularly when I also believe the sentiment is true. What I would like to do is and add some beneficial context to the statement so that you can maximize your effectiveness.
Your prospects are not looking for new friends
Pause for a second. Now go back and read that line again (I’ll wait). Are we clear?
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen salespeople make, which falls right in line with all of the superstitions you’ve been believing for years, is that all you need to do is make friends and you can grow a business. This misconception is furthered along by all of the adages out there about “sales being all about relationships.”
If you’re trying to start a friendship as a means to do business with someone, then you’re being disingenuous about the relationship. Be honest with yourself; that’s not a real friendship.
By the way, have you thought about how uncomfortable it is to work with your friends? It sounds like a picnic until one of you has to be on the short end of a tough decision. I’ve been on both sides of those decisions, and the friendship doesn’t always survive. Is that the kind of position you’re looking to be in more often?
Of course selling is about relationships, and I’ve made many friends along the way as a result of my working with clients, but almost none of them started that way. They started because I was recognized as someone who could provide a lot of value to them and their business. When you work closely with people during important times in their lives, and create transformational results together, it’s hard to not develop an affinity for each other. I still trade Christmas cards with some of my best prior customers and clients, even though we haven’t seen or spoken to each other in several years. You don’t earn that kind of respect just because you’re friendly.
Note well: this is a side effect, not a goal. Time is too valuable for people to commit it to someone they don’t know just because there’s a gift attached. Your prospects don’t want you to take them to lunch just so you can “learn a little bit more about them.” They want value in exchange for their time investment, and the people you’re calling on can probably afford their own ham sandwich on rye…
If you cannot differentiate, you cannot sell
You need to earn their time, and even more so, their attention. That means you need to stand out among the dozens of other requests for that same time and attention.There are a lot of ways to do this. You can try pattern-interrupting behaviors that catch people off-guard and get “the lean.” You can professionally persist longer than your competitors, and differentiate yourself by the way you sell.
You should understand the biggest differentiators between what you offer and what your competitors offer, as well as the outcomes that you can create that they can’t. When you speak in terms of outcomes and results instead of solutions and offerings, you make concepts more tangible to your prospect. That’s a differentiator in itself--your competitors probably aren’t selling that way.
There’s something else at work here, too. Start your outreach by talking about why you’re different, and you’re likely to start a conversation. Try to convince them that you’re better, and you’re more likely to start an argument.
Leave no room for question
Make no mistake. You need to prove to your prospect that you’re someone worth talking to with something worth talking about. This is not an easy concept to achieve, and dangling a round of golf or a nice meal in front of them is less and less likely to get you where you want to be.
Think less in terms of trying to get in front of someone, and more in terms of earning the right to speak with them. There’s a complete mindset shift there. Have you proven beyond a (small) shadow of a doubt that time spent with you will not be wasted? Is what you’re offering to them in that next meeting, no matter how small, something that someone like them would be willing to pay for?
Whether or not your prospect mentally monetizes their time, it’s definitely worth something, and if what you’re offering isn’t worth more than the way they were already planning to spend it, you’re not likely going to get much of it.
Your bar has to be higher. Cut through the noise of all the other bland pitches and free offers out there and speak in terms of the real value you provide to your prospects. Build business relationships first.
Be known as a value provider. Be liked for the way you carry yourself professionally. Be trusted for always delivering on your promises (and occasionally a little more).
My free, 30-minute live training Wednesday afternoon will help you increase your relevance to improve your response rate. I hope to see you there.
You’re also welcome to join our conversations about sales prospecting in the Rethink The Way You Sell Community.
Jeff Bajorek
Real. Authentic. Experience.
There’s a big difference between knowing how to sell and being able to. Jeff Bajorek spent over a decade in the field as a top performer. He’s been in your shoes. He knows what it will take. He can help you succeed.
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