Gain Your Potential Customer's Interest with A Compliment

Start off with a sincere compliment!

My dad’s next-door neighbor, his friend shared a story with me.

I would listen to Harvey Stace because he was a nice person and very successful in business.

He owned or co-owned a dairy, multiple farms, many properties, ?homes, and a farm auction business.

Over a cup of coffee Harvey shared with me,

“Jim, there are many good farm auction businesses in our area I compete with but I never acted salesey with people. When I met a potential customer, I would give a sincere compliment to him or her right off the bat. I would find something admirable about their property, buildings, flowers, livestock, or themselves and compliment them on it. I wouldn’t call myself a super salesperson, but I am a good listener and love of people and their stories. You know, Jim everyone has their own story and they love to share them with someone who is genuinely interested in hearing it. When a farmer calls me to look at his or her farm, they are scoping me out to see if I will give him the best deal on selling their farm, the livestock, and the equipment. This is that person’s whole life wrapped up in one bundle. Can you imagine the emotion going through them about the history, hard work, fond memories, raising their family, and now bringing this all to an end with the sale of this farm? I would ask them questions about how it all started, and what they were hoping for in being a farmer. Jim, they would pour their heart out in telling this story, and as a farmer, I would show them empathy knowing how hard a business it is. If I am successful, it is because I somehow connect to these people, and they know I realize what they have experienced in farming and now in selling. I could count on one hand the farms I didn’t get from those visits, and it wasn’t because I am a great salesperson, it was because I cared about them.”

Harvey Stace connected through,

• ???Empathy,
• ??Being sincere,
• ?Caring about the customer and showing it
• ?Understanding the context of what the potential customer was going through.

You don’t have to be a farmer, a plumber, an airline pilot, or a teacher to understand what your ideal customer is experiencing in their life or business.

Yet you do need to be a Harvey Stace to pre-determine what narrative is going on in your potential customers’ heads so you can blend your conversation into the one they are already having.

And start off with a sincere compliment for them.

Thank you, Harvey Stace, for your great advice.

Believe in Yourself

?Jim McEntire, I help solopreneurs and business owners to believe in themselves and form a business plan to succeed.