The Desert of Arizona
Clear 63 Degrees 5:12 a.m.
If most stereotypical salespeople let their prospects read their thoughts, the entire event at hand would seem extremely ludicrous. The poor prospect would probably run away about 6 seconds into it when it became immediately clear what the situation was really about.
The prospect would be sitting there and the salesperson would be thinking:
“I have this thing and I’m going to get you to buy it now. Frankly, I want you to buy it when I want you to buy it. So I’m going to do my best to make that happen. So let’s do this!”
What prospect in their right mind would sit around for a scenario like that when it is clearly about one thing: the salesperson getting what he wants?
Call me crazy but this is backwards and emotionally immature. And in this day and age, it’s not a smart strategy either.
Ultimately, if you don’t give the prospect what she wants first, then why would any self respecting individual give you the time of day?
So what does a prospect want? She wants a solution that fits her problem. She wants to trust that solution. She wants to believe that the provider of the solution is serving her at an almost fiduciary level of responsibility and accountability. She wants to know that she is not just a number, not just a “closing statistic.” She wants to know that you have the skill, focus and experience required to lead her to the place she can’t get on her own.
The crazy part is all of this is not about reality. It is about the prospect’s perception of reality. Perception is what rules. It’s like a fragile glass sculpture. It’s beautiful to see, just don’t break it.
How do you do all of this? How do you give a prospect all of these things?
Well, you don’t do it by cornering everyone you meet and asking them to buy.
Instead, you craft the system that gets them to ask YOU to buy.
I’ve chosen the media platform to do that. It’s certainly not the only way. But I think it’s the most effective way if you’re an “expert” type of business.
That’s why there’s a podcast craze right now. All the people who used to spend their time blasting people with requests to “buy” are slowly waking up to the fact that people MIGHT not enjoy that type of treatment. Do you enjoy someone like that in your life?
So they’re trying something else. Watch as they drop one by one. “The ROI just isn’t there…” “This isn’t returning the sales I expected…” “This doesn’t produce results fast enough…”
You notice what’s missing from those statements? Any mention of the reason that businesses exist: to help other people.