Sell it to me!

Is selling something one person ‘does’ to another?

Nothing could be further from the truth. Selling is not a one-way process and without clarity, about what it really is it’s impossible to become very good at it.

I believe selling is a conversation between two or more people at the end of which somebody makes a decision.

Ultimately customers buy from us when they come to a point in their decision process that gives them the confidence to act. That decision journey, if you like, starts firstly with clarity about the need for the item/service based on many factors that have nothing to do with you or your competitors. That intrinsic first level decision is the basis for how urgently they will search for the ultimate item, how much they will pay for it and when they will act.

If all of that occurs privately before they engage with potential suppliers than the salesperson has very little influence over the decision processes and they become nothing more than a talking brochure and price is the only issue left to resolve.

True selling is being part of the fuller journey of bringing that need up from a subconscious idea or unplanned issue to a conscious detailed process. The earlier in that process you are talking with your prospect about all aspects of their actual or possible need the better you can position your offering when it’s time for them to act.

In the Emotions in Selling course, I teach how to conduct these conversations from the earliest stages and how to prospect so you can engage your prospects long before they are actively ‘shopping’. Equally importantly you will learn how, through conversation, you can manage their fear to effectively build trust so that they can confidently complete the transaction and not withdraw or becoming swayed by competitors.

Call 0407 005 290 or email maya@salesinventoryprofile.com to find out more.

Greatness is a team act

“We are, each of us, angels with only one wing, and we can only fly embracing each other.”  – Luciano Decrescenzo

Like me Luciano must have believed it is too hard to achieve greatness alone. The focus on the individual  genius in business, the push for a ‘personal brand’ takes us further from the reason humans have become the dominant species on the plant: our strength is in our ability to co-operate.

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Co-operation is our greatest strength. Whether that be physical co-operation (circling the wagons) for our safety or intellectual co-operation, sharing medical research, we get better outcomes when we work together. When we are isolated we do less work which means we achieve little, as we preserve our energy to survive till help arrives.

Humans have very complex social structures underlying our survival and quest for greatness. Co-operation not competition brings out our best. The smallest workable unit is the couple, then a family of three, to villages and then tribes. Where do you belong?

About Lucian o Decrescenzo

Luciano Decrescenzo, the Italian writer, filmmaker, and intellectual, has published 28 books on subjects ranging from Greek philosophy to his own childhood in Naples. He was born in 1928 and worked as an engineer for IBM for several years before turning to philosophy and writing. He has also directed, written, and starred in a number of Italian language films and received honorary Athenian citizenship in 1994.

 

 

Einstein’s Theory of Selling

I love this quote from Einstein:

Everything is Energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not Philosophy. This is Physics.

Long before he and many other Physics Scientists proved this to be the truth and said so in public, we have known this to be intrinsically true because…well  it is true. It has become part of our consciousness long before anybody was able to articulate it quite so elegantly.

We know it as affinity or being able to relate to each other and being on each other’s wavelength. If you’re on somebody’s wavelength, you’re intuitively able to connect with them and understand them. There are lots of great phrases from the past such as “Walk a mile in my shoes” that tell us it’s important to be in sync with somebody.

How does this relate to selling?

Certainly, there is a very special definitive level of energy required for people to make purchases and sales buying decisions. A Sales person needs to be able to bring a prospect to that level of energy first before they start to close or for the prospect to be confident to buy. If a customer is confident and clear about what they’re doing then they will proceed with the sale and make a decision without having second thoughts and withdrawing later.

But if your prospect is confused, fearful and anxious or just nervous, they will resist making any decisions.  If you, the sales person is able to force a decision in that moment, maybe because of some extraordinary technique or external circumstances are forcing them to act faster than their abilities to confidently choose, that decision will be unstable. That customer will withdraw from the sale as soon as the circumstance, or the sales person, has changed. This is why many legal contracts now have a seven day ‘cooling off’ period.

In order to bring a customer to a level of confidence and clarity, there are lots of great sales processes to be followed. But any salesperson who attempts to close a prospect where that particular clarity or energy level isn’t present will in fact be creating more grief than it’s worth for themselves.

Using Einstein’s Theory of Energy, selling then becomes a process of ‘energy matching’ starting with recognition of the prospect’s level of certainty or uncertainty at the start of the sales conversation and effectively leading the client to the confident energy state required for buying.  As Einstein said, when you help your client “match the frequency of the reality (confidence) you want and you cannot help but get that reality (sale).”

Considering a career in sales?

You must read this article and check out what Eliza, our sales team member has to say about changing from being a Business Analyst to a Business Development Manager