We get so stuck inside our own heads we often overlook critical things that make or break our sales success.

When we get our message wrong it’s because we communicate what we want, what we think is important when our potential clients want our message to be about what they want, what they think is important.

When we think about what we are selling we take it literally and think about the particular product or service we offer.  However, you can’t sell that product or service by itself.  The product or service you sell comes with something very important, something you often don’t pay enough attention to, something that has a major impact on the sale.

Every sale comes with…

YOU

Whenever you are selling a costly product, and especially when you are selling a service, that sale comes with you.  Your soon to be clients know that.  They know they aren’t just buying a product or service they are buying a relationship with YOU.

So if you know your product or service meets or surpasses the needs of a potential buyer, the potential buyer tells you they see the value, yet they still won’t commit perhaps YOU and the idea of a relationship with YOU is what is holding you back.

Act Like a Sales Person & YOU Lose

This is exactly why you can’t come off like an ordinary sales person.  Most people do not think well of sales people, and they don’t want to start a relationship with someone they don’t like being around.  Your potential buyer will be weighing the perceived value of starting a relationship with you as part of the investment required to purchase.

They must perceive a relationship with you as mutually beneficial.  They must see you as a value added part of the purchase decision.  They shouldn’t feel like they lose and you win if they buy.

Whether you realize it or not your relationship with your potential buyer started at the first point of connection.  That point of connection may have been a phone call, a handshake at a networking event, an ad, etc.  However they first became aware of your existence at that moment the relationship started.

At this point, the point of the sales conversation, the potential buyer is weighing whether they want to continue a relationship with you as part of the bargain.  Common sense tells you that you want to maintain relationships with people who:

• are pleasant to be around
• are willing to help
• put your needs ahead of their own
• are committed to your success
• treat you with kindness, respect, and integrity

I’m sure you’ll have no trouble adding to this list.

Now think about how you demonstrate those things in each connection and encounter.  Think about how you can increase your value to your new potential client, and then how you’ll keep the value going after the sale.

Coach Cheryl