By – Bestwill Johnny
Days ago, while I browsed the internet in search of certain information, I came across the quote above, by Robert Louis Stevenson. The quote struck my chords and plunged me deep in thoughts. I had to even put off the search for information I came online for.
You see, selling happens daily. Everyone is trying to sell something. Products and services are not the only things being sold. The executive at the board meeting is trying hard to sell an idea to the board that she thinks will ‘sell’. Little Kelvin is trying to sell mummy, the idea of buying him a new set of toys, as they shop. Husband is trying to sell wife, the idea that getting a new set of furniture is not an unnecessary luxury.
Anytime there is an attempt to convince someone or to get someone to agree with an idea or to get someone to take an action, selling is going on. It even gets really funny in business. Anytime there is a meeting between a marketer and a prospect, a sale is initiated. Yes! A sale is made.
Either the marketer sells the product or service to the prospect, or the prospect sells, the reason why he cannot make a purchase, to the marketer. Once the marketer buys that, the deal is closed. There has been a sale.
In the next few lines, I will highlight how you can sell more as a marketer pushing your business and be sold to less. (Based on the illustration in the last paragraph). Grab a pack of popcorn.
Do not sell what you do not believe in.
On this point, a profound quote by Zig Ziglar will help: “If the salesman can make the prospect feel about the product the same way he feels about the product, the prospect is going to buy the product, if there is any way in the world he can come up with the money”. I think you may have to read the quote again, and again maybe. I know I looked at it a couple of times when I first encountered it.
Selling is basically a transference of feeling. You are making an attempt to get the prospect to feel as enthusiastic about the product as you are. That is the high point of selling. If the prospect can get excited about what you are selling, he will buy. If you can transfer the same excitement you feel about the product to him in the same proportion, he will sign for an order, because that is what you would do if you were in his shoes.
But how about if you do not have the feeling you are trying to transfer? In order to transfer a feeling, you must have the feeling. The entrepreneur is a believer! As a matter of fact, it is the ferociousness of his belief in the product that draws the prospect in. This ferociousness is expressed in words and passionate gestures. (Assuming it were a live presentation). Change products, if you do not believe in what you currently sell. Sell a product that you can believe, anyone who does not buy, is the greater loser!
Do not confuse your situation with your prospect’s.
Always look at your goods and/or services through your prospect’s eyes. Practice empathy. This will help you to be able to mark out your target audience with all the streamlined demographics. Then you must not confuse your excitement or reservations towards the product for his. You must think through and see the products with the eyes of your prospect.
For instance, I love noodles very much. But I cannot begin a business of selling noodles simply because I love it that much. A lot of people I will meet, pushed by my excitement, do not share my excitement. And I will play the fool.
As a smart entrepreneur, you will, therefore, separate yourself from the people you are going to meet. Make a checklist of their likes, vain desires, interests, and wants. Then see how you can either create a product or service that meets them or weave your current product or service to meet them. Then let your description of how your product meets their wants, vain desires, likes, and interests, dominate the phrases you use in your marketing.
In summary, give the people what they want!
Hear what the prospect is saying, not just what he says.
A hair seller starts an online chat with a prospect who seems interested in buying hair. After giving full details, the prospect suddenly says she is not interested in buying because she has bought several similar products in the past that ended up not being durable as the sellers had promised. She makes one or two snide remarks. If the hair seller is not very skilled in selling, she will end the conversation right there. Maybe you reading this would do same too. Let me give you a breakdown. For a prospect to suddenly emotionally blurt out reasons why she cannot buy, means that she has actually deeply considered buying. But when she made the consideration, a sudden fear fueled by previous bad deals seeks to stop her. She is crying to you for assurance. She wants you to give reasons why yours will not end up like the previous ones. She wants you to assure her and give her a good deal. This is what she is saying. Ignore what she said. If you fall for what prospects say, you will lose many sales, trust, and great relationships that would have been.
Summarily, most rejections prospects give, are simply calls for assurance and clarity. As a smart entrepreneur, you should very well detect that.
That will be all for now.
Take action on these and watch your marketing yield 7× more results.
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