Important Sales Lessons Gleaned from My 3 Week Vacation

Feb 02 2010

Important Sales Lessons Gleaned from My 3 Week Vacation

Posted by: Cheryl Clausen in sales coaching, tags: getting clients, increase sales, sales coaching

For the past 3 weeks I’ve been having the time of my life. While I was off frolicking on the beaches on both coasts of Florida and cruising a few Caribbean Islands my business continued like clock work and my bank account grew. Just like I planned…

What I hadn’t planned on were the valuable sales lessons I was reminded of along the way. I’d like to share a few of those lessons with you this month because they are priceless.

When I was a corporate big shot I spent far too much time on air planes. Consequently, I grew to absolutely hate flying. Then the terrorists came along and made things even worse. Finally, the airlines themselves completely forgot the concept of customer service treating their passengers like enemy combatants. So I will go to great lengths to avoid flying. In fact, if I never had to get on a plane again it would suit me just fine.

If the Airlines go Bankrupt They Have Themselves to Blame

So rather than flying my husband and I drove and cruised. The first lesson I want to share with you came about because we drove. We took interstates to get to Savannah, Georgia from Iowa. We were going to Savannah simply because I wanted to eat at Paula Dean’s restaurant The Lady and Sons in downtown Savannah. Then we took the interstate down to Florida.

At that point we got off the interstate because you can’t truly experience this great nation from the interstates. Interstates are specifically designed to get you to your destination quickly. You get on make as few stops as possible until you get to your destination then you get off. However, you know almost nothing about the areas or the people in those areas you drive through.

You have to get off the interstate to really experience this great nation. There is so much beauty, so many wonderful places, and so many great people to meet in this country we forget just how much there is to see right here in the U.S. Once you get off the interstate you begin to realize everything can change in as little as 80 miles. The people, the scenery, and the business environment.

We often overlook or forget this when we approach acquiring clients. We try to gain clients from the interstate, so to speak. That just doesn’t work.

You try to gain clients from the interstate when you rudely interrupt the person you want to work with, you spew a bunch of information about you all over them, and then you ask them to help you by buying from you right now. If you are acting like this you are coming off like a spoiled brat that needs their butt warmed. The person you want to work with is wondering just who the heck you think you are.

It so easy to get locked into this fast moving, gotta get it done now mindset, and completely forget about what it feels like to be the other person. It’s so easy to forget that no one is going to hire you until they have at least some form of a relationship with you first. Ideally, you want to make a friend first and then earn a client.

Try This…

I want you to try a little experiment. I want you to go to a local sit down restaurant you haven’t visited before. From the moment you enter the restaurant I want you to make eye contact with the hostess and your waiter. I want you to pay close attention to what they say. I want you to smile at them and use their name. I want you to say, “Thank you” when they bring your drink and your meal. I want you to engage them by asking them something about them or about the area.

I’ve always done this without even thinking. I didn’t start thinking about it until I began to notice how other people were treating their servers. If you don’t already treat these people with the same respect and consideration you would treat any important person you’re meeting for the first time you might be a little surprised to find out just how well you get treated. You might be surprised just how much these people begin to care about your experience. You become important to them because you’ve demonstrated they are important to you.

Now translate this concept to the people you want to hire you. What if you placed this much attention on them, what they need, on learning about them from the first moment of contact? They should feel good about having an experience with you.

They should feel open to the idea of having other experiences with you because you made their first experience so pleasant. They should feel they are important to you because they are. They should feel they can talk to you because you’ve demonstrated you really listen to what they say.

This little experiment is so important because it will help you see how important it is to focus on others, to really connect with others, and to actually hear what they say.

Stop trying to cram your services down others throats practicing interstate selling techniques. Start creating positive experiences, making beneficial connections, opening the door to making new friends. The clients will follow. When you change the way you approach earning clients you can make the process of getting a client shorter than it is when you approach getting clients like a typical sales people.

Coach Cheryl

photo credit: dougtone

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under sales coaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.