Problem 7: Trust Has Died

Although diamonds are created under pressure, human beings are not.

We have never liked being pressurized.

"When sales people are doing well, we put pressure on them to begin doing better, for FEAR of them doing worse." wrote catch-22 author Joseph Heller in Something happened.

While some become diamonds under pressure, most of us crumble and end up with a fear of sales, or makes us sound completely desperate for a sale.

And you know what...

Your prospects know it too.

They can hear it in your voice.

Tonality plays such a vital role in communication as does your body language.

Some experts predict that we communicate 85% non-verbally.

So what do you think happens to Todd the sales man, the one who's been doing well.

Getting the larger commission each month.

His wife is starting to get use to the extra money coming in each month.

He starts to upgrade his life style, things start to cost more.

Start's going out to celebrate his wins more often and his wife starts to get annoyed.

She's on his case now!

He's 2 weeks into the month, your business relays on his performance each month, and he's off the mark.

Guess what's starting to pile on Todd's shoulders?

You got it.....

PRESSURE!

And guess what?

It starts to affect his performance.

Where he was relaxed, present and detached from the outcome of the sales meeting, he's become expectant.

His prospects are noticing the shift in his tonality.

What do you think they are thinking:

"Oh he's pitching me"

He finds himself no longer helping his prospect uncover their problems.

Instead he's starting to trigger sales resistance.

Prospects have choice, always have and always will, just google accountants, and tell me there's only one choice available.

All things equal we buy from people we like, know and TRUST.

We only do business with people we trust.

That trust is build through your questioning ability that causes the prospect to view you as the trusted expert.

Times, have changed in case you've not noticed, gone are the days of knowledge about a product or service only being introduced by a salesperson.

People now consult the Oracle (google).

And within seconds, they know everything about your company, what you offer, your competitors along with your price points.

Consumers have all been lied to.

By some salesman who was taught get a sale at any cost.

Modern people have herd it all before.

Far too many prospects assume salespeople will be biased and focused only on,

"The sale," before the conversation even begins.

Trust is paramount.

And even harder to get these days.

Add in the mix a short attention span- thanks to shorts, if we instantly don't like something or feel we're being sold too, we're off.

Just look at how much trust and faith people have in government & institutions!

Trust has been eroded by many factors, but the bottom line is, people especially don't trust sales people.

Sadly some people don't even trust their own family.

Seems morals and values have taken a hit.

Anyway this trust crisis seeps into everything we do.

Gone are the days of selling features and benefits, talk down your competitors, give a pitch in hopes of creating credibility with your product or service.

But no need to hide in a safe space either.

If you want to sell in the modern world, you can start by doing these three things:

1) Lower sales resistance.

2) Focus on the customer.

3) Get the customer to think for themselves and question their current way of thinking.

Accomplishing this trio of modern day sales success will require you to unlearn the majority of traditional selling techniques that you've learnt.

If you'd like to learn how to get your prospects to sell themselves rather than you chasing them down to try to convince them, you must step outside your comfort zone and say goodbye to the "traditional sales approach."

Thanks for reading friend,

-Lee ??

P.s If you resonate with this and would like a no pitch chat to learn more then feel free to book a call with me?? Let's chat!

P.ss I'm here to actually network and get to know my audience....(aka you)