Have you ever bought something that turned out to be a BIG mistake?  I sure have.  I’ve made purchasing mistakes from inconsequential junk to costly products and services.

When you buy some doo-dad that’s supposed to do something, and it turns out the doo-dad is worthless you throw it away without thinking much about it.  You might feel upset about it, but you didn’t risk much so you aren’t all that worried about the risk when you make the purchase decision.

If you’ve ever made a mistake like that, a mistake that wasn’t a big deal, and you’ve also made a costly mistake you already understand there’s a big difference in how that decision impacts you.  What you may NOT realize is the reason the impact is so very different.  The reason the impact is so different is not limited to the amount of money involved.  Understanding this reasoning will help you understand how to overcome this challenge with your potential buyers.

When it comes to larger investments the money required to invest is a concern; however, it is NOT the BIG concern that holds people back and keeps them from making a purchase decision.  What holds you back and keeps you from saying “yes” is a fear of…

PUBLIC HUMILIATION

Yes, it’s the fear of public humiliation that prevents you from saying “yes” to the buying decision.  A buyer can easily choose to make a $50,000 purchase, yet squirm over a $5,000 purchase and here’s why.  Quit often the buyer has sole decision making authority for the $50,000 purchase.  If the buyer is disappointed with their purchase decision later no one but the buyer ever has to know.  In contrast the $5,000 purchase may involve other people.  I don’t necessarily mean other people will be involved in the purchase decision I mean people who will be involved in the outcome of the investment.

Those people will use the product or service.  Those users will formulate an opinion about whether the purchase was a good decision.  Therefore, this purchase decision is more public and a bad decision is more visible.

The big reason prospects often have trouble with a buying decision is because they fear making a public mistake.  They don’t want to have to answer for a poor decision and face public humiliation.

Countering the Fear

Before your buyer can make a “yes” decision you have to counter their fears.  The only way to counter their fears is to provide them with a logical argument for why this is a good buying decision.  They need you to help them formulate their argument because this is how they will explain their decision.  They don’t want any holes in their story.

They want to know if things don’t turn out like they planned that any reasonable person would have made the same decision.  They literally want you to finish the statement, “Any reasonable person would have decided to make this purchase and here’s why…”

So before you presume money is the reason a prospect isn’t buying face the reality the real reason may be fear of making a publicly visible mistake.  Then help your prospect develop a logical argument for why any reasonable person would make this decision.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

If you wanted to invite a friend to share a soft drink odds are you might say, “Hey, let’s go grab a Coke”.

If your nose were running you might ask, “Could you hand me a Kleenex”?

Even though you may prefer brands other than Coke and Kleenex most of us talk about a general group of products like soft drinks and facial tissues in terms of one specific product within that group.

Why?

You may wonder why we do that.  The reason is because those particular manufacturers own that category in the minds of their target market.  That’s called positioning.

Positioning = Major Moolah

This concept of positioning is defined by authors Al Ries and Jack Trout as “what you do to the mind of the prospect” as revealed in their book…

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, 20th Anniversary Edition

Positioning is a very big deal, and it has a very big influence on the success you will or will not enjoy in your business.  It’s not the size of your business that matters it’s the slice of the world your business owns for a particular group of people that matters.

Uncovering the position you want to own is challenging for most business owners.  What you are looking for is a gap in the market place that solves a problem.  Plus the people who have that problem must already be looking to buy a solution for that problem.  Those two criteria are so important I want to restate them.  Keys to finding your position:

• An unsolved problem
• People are already looking to invest money to solve this particular problem

Two of the reasons this is so important is because…

• It isolates ready buyers
• It makes you findable by other ready buyers

Obviously, that means you get clients right now plus potential clients seek you out on an on-going basis.

KISS

As Mary Kay Ash would say, “Keep it Simple Sweety”.  You need to boil your position down into a single easily understood and repeatable sentence.  Hint: kind of like what you read in the top right hand corner of the sidebar of this blog;-)

Your position must be based on a reality in your prospect’s mind.  Meaning it matches their prior knowledge and experience.  Most service professionals have had at least one negative experience with a sales person.  They already know they don’t want to act like a sales person.  Yet they need to get clients, or they can’t do what they get paid to do (experience match).  So they are already looking for ways to get those clients without acting like a sales person.  They already believe there must be a way to do that because other professionals like themselves get clients without acting like sales people (knowledge match).

There are lots of sales coaches.  Most sales coaches work with sales managers and sales reps.  Most sales coaches work with people who sell products.  However, the Increase Sales Coach is the coach you think of when you sell a service and need to get more clients.

Start thinking about how you can adapt a similar thought process for your business following this example.

What problem exists that people with that problem can’t easily find a solution for?

How would people with that problem immediately know you were the person with that solution?

What do they know and already believe about that problem?

What has their experience been with that problem or the solution to that problem?

Before you proceed validate:

• A perceived need to solve this problem among your potential clients
• A perceived value in solving the problem
• People are already searching for a solution to that problem

When I wrote “How to Get More New Clients in 9 Days” I carefully constructed a process to help you get clients now that also helps you develop your position in the process.

I strongly recommend you do some searching to validate you’re on the right track.  Then work on the way you communicate your position.  You don’t want big words.  You don’t need to be creative or catchy.  The key to developing your message about your position is…

• It’s easily understood
• It’s repeatable
• It’s based on the language someone looking for that would already use

Never try to convince someone to your way of thinking.  Instead adapt to their way of thinking in terms of their experience, knowledge, and beliefs.

Using your Strategic Sales Master Plan template from yesterday, complete the Unique Market Position section.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

photo credit: Ikhlasul Amal

In just a couple days you can mark off the first half of the year.  Are you where you want to be at this point in the year?
Whether you are or you aren’t now is the time to prepare for the second half of the year so you ensure the results you want for the year and increase your sales .

There are 5 key questions you should be asking and answering to prepare for your success.

What have I accomplished so far this year?  In terms of where you want to be:

• financially

• in business growth

• with your customer relationships

• in your ability to effectively manage your business?

What do you want to accomplish in the remainder of the year?  In terms of:

• revenue and profits

• market share

• client retention, repeat business, and referrals

• your ability to run your business without your business running your life

What has to change?  As you look at what you’ve accomplished so far this year and what you want to accomplish in the remainder of the year can you do that doing exactly what you’re doing now?  If you can’t you will have to do some things differently than you are now?  If you can, do you have an opportunity to stretch and grow and accomplish more than you have before?  What behaviors and actions will you have to take to accomplish what you want?

How will you make those changes?  Changes to produce different results require different behaviors and actions than you’re using now.  If you were to get what you want how would you behave?  What actions would you take?

When will you take the first action?  Most people trip themselves up because they focus entirely on the completion date.  Time will pass no matter what, right now the most important thing is taking the first action.  The longer you put off that first action the longer it is before you get what you want.  Identify the first action you must take to get what you want and then set a firm date to start taking that aciton.

The only way to get the future you want is to create it.  You’ll find those who excel in sales plan the future they want and implement their plans while others wait for things to happen.  Jonathan Farrington put together a nice list of things the top 5% do.

Have you ever taken an assessment to find out where your professional services sales strengths and weaknesses are?  If you haven’t you’re probably making things much harder for yourself than they need to be.  You are really two people in one.

You are the person you think you are, and then you’re the person you really are.  That may sound confusing to you, but let me explain.  Have you ever said or did something and had someone react in a way that was completely surprising to you?

Of course you have.  We all have.  There are two reasons this happens.  First, you think everyone thinks, or should think like you do.  And second, you have blind spots when it comes to your own behaviors.

Assessments can scientifically tell you two very important things about yourself.   One type of assessment deals with your behaviors and how you react to people, work pace, problems, and procedures.  Another type of assessment deals with motivation.

To gain a full understanding of why you’re getting the sales results you’re getting you need to take both types of assessments.  As a result you’ll understand how you behave in different situations, plus you’ll understand what drives you to take action.  Based on this information you can adapt how you approach sales and selling to better fit who you are and what you’re naturally good at.

The more you focus on doing what you do well the better you become.  The better you become the easier it is for you to sell.  And the more you sell the more confident you become, and the more comfortable you are doing what you’re doing.

You’ll also discover what’s really keeping you from having the sales success you deserve.  In some cases there are ways to work around these weaknesses so they become unimportant.  In other cases if you don’t overcome these weaknesses you’ll continue to struggle in sales.

In less than 30 minutes you can stop guessing and beating yourself up, and know exactly what’s working and what isn’t working.   And that gives you a starting point for closing the gap between where you are now and where you want to be.  It just doesn’t make sense to overlook such useful and potentially profitable tools.