Sales is service, not sucking up.

Sales is service, not sucking up.

By Douglas Vermeeren, Influence Selling?

Sales tactics come in all shapes and sizes. Some work better than others. But even the ones that don’t work often show up again and again. Maybe it’s because some people just don’t know any better. Maybe in their minds they think it’s the right way. Maybe they are doing what they saw someone else do and it appeared not he surface to be getting results.

Habits, Attitudes and ideas are picked up by who we surround ourselves with and who we look to as teachers. Some of the stuff they teach us works great and some of it is just plain crap.

On this audio I want to have a conversation about one element of sales that I think is really understood in the world today. Often times people confuse these two things and label them as one and the same. The truth of the matter is that they couldn’t be more distant from each other.

What I am talking about is the difference between being of service and simply sucking up. I want to begin by sharing a few thoughts so you know what I mean by each of these and then share some major differences between the two philosophies and the outcomes they are going to create. These outcomes are important to understand, especially when talking about sucking up. A lot of people think this can help them speed the process to the sale. If there’s one thing that gets exposed again and again in sales, life, success and almost any other path you want to consider it's that short cuts don’t work.

Sucking up is a short cut. And although you may think it won’t immediately show up or hurt you in the long run I’m going to show you in a few moments what will happen sooner or later. Short cuts don’t work. And sucking up doesn’t work either.

I’ll start by saying that my goal for you is to have a professional, prosperous career as a sales person. I suspect by now that you have decided to sell something that you believe in and throwing shoddy tactics behind something you see value in is just going to undermine your efforts to success. If you re going to do it, let’s get committed to doing it right.

Just a few thought form my experiences to underline why I believe you need to start right. One of the things that I am known for is a series of interviews I conducted with more than 400 of the worlds top achievers. Much like Napoleon Hill I interviewed and researched more than 400 top achievers in the world today. it didn’t take me long to start to recognize common attributes of the people who were creating lasting success in the their lives. One of the major things that became immediately apparent was no short cuts. So if you are genuinely interested in doing a good job and creating a foundation of prosperity then you’ll find the lessons we are about to talk about extremely valuable.

I want to begin by talking about sucking up first. Let’s get the negative out of the way. Let’s talk first about what you don’t want to be and then we can head straight on to the attributes, skills and strategies that will make you a winner.

Another way that you have heard people talking about sucking up is to use the phrase brown nosing, ass kissing or sometimes people even talk about being the teachers pet when you were in school. This was the kid who used to rat on his friends to get the teachers favour, or the kid that be the goodie two shoes to win the teachers favour. You may be thinking wait a minute what’s wrong with goodie two shoes? Are you saying I have to be the bad ass to make it in sales? Nope.

I am saying sales is all about relationships. Ask yourself for a minute about that kid who sided with the teacher. How did everyone feel about him or her? How will your clients feel about you if they think you are your bosses pet? If you are in this business to suck up someone is going to feel that energy and be repelled by it.

Whether you are sucking up to the boss, your co-workers or even the customer themselves there are a lot of hidden problems that are about to come to light.

When you suck up to a customer you may think that you are demonstrating loyalty but they sense that your friendship will shift to whoever has the power. Immediately you are creating distrust.

Before we talk about the results let’s share a few of the attributes of sucking up or brown nosing with your customer or others so if you are stumbling a bit in this area you’ll be able to recognize it:

Obviously a salesperson who is sucking up will be insincere, non-authentic, greedy and out for their own best interest. They are ego driven and even though they may take on the “servant” appearance and place themselves secondary to those who they are sucking up to they are inwardly doing it for selfish motives. They are engaged to get rather than give. The simple activity of sucking takes away energy and eventually leaves either one or both people in the situation unsatisfied.

Those that suck up to their customers also often have a hard time exposing the truth. Sometimes to maintain favor they will hide or pass over things that the customer might object to or have concerns with. Their desire to be liked overpowers their need for clarity.

By now if this is you I hope you’re recognizing that this won’t work in the long term. If it’s not you no doubt you’ve seen a sales person like this before. Maybe they are in your own office. Maybe you can help them by getting them this CD for christmas. By the way if you got this CD for Christmas. Don’t be mad. Be thankful somebody cared enough about you to help you become a better sales person. remember what I was saying a few minutes ago about ego. Ego gets easily offended. Don’t be that way. Remember you can be rich or you can be right. Chose to learn how to be better and be rich.

Those that suck up will often talk around issues. They have a hard time confronting difficult things. They often spend more time talking than listening because they are coming from a place of insecurity.

Results:

Eventually sucking up creates feelings of resentment. The end result of a sucking up relationship is that one or both of the people will eventually feel that they are not getting a fair

deal and will feel resentment to the other person. When the sale doesn’t happen the sales person feels betrayed. If the customer doesn’t buy hey feel upset when the “love and attention” they felt moves on elsewhere. Sucking up doesn’t work.

Celebrities experience this with their fans all the time. I call this experience fan to frustration. I have seen it first hand and even experienced a few times myself. I won’t mention any names but a fan and as I mentioned I have done it before too, puts the celebrity on a pedestal. The fan watches the celebrities movies, listens to their records and thence day meets them. As a fan you subordinate yourself to them and suck up to them, try and tell them how wonderful they are and then you experience that they are not the same person that you imagined them to be. Now you are no longer a fan, you are frustrated and upset. This is the end result that these kinds of relationships create. That's why you can’t afford to suck up.You don’t need the bad press.

Sucking up also destroys you own worth. As i mentioned before putting yourself in an inferior position to others devalues you. Don’t do it. It is not necessary. Besides those you are serving and working with in the sale are expecting you to be the confident expert.

Sucking up requires the same amount of energy and work. So rather than trying to put all the effort into being liked let’s talk now about how to do it right.

The opposite end of the spectrum is service. If sucking up is on one end, then service is clearly on the other.

Let me explain what I mean by service.

I recently had a customer define service simply this way, ‘Service is shocking. Service is shocking.” When I asked her what she meant she simply said that service was shocking because when it is so rare when true service appears in todays marketplace.

That’s an interesting lesson in and of itself. If you want to stand out from your competition and be remembered by your customers learn how to be a better servant.

To me service means someone who is committed to long term relationships. Not only with the customer, but also the product he is selling. He or she trusts that brand enough that they will learn what they need to know to be of service and they are personally committed to being involved in each interaction and transaction long term.

Service really starts in preparation. Sucking up is generally done flying by the seat of your pants. Preparation requires a long term vision.

I want to clarify that service and servant are not the same as slave. Slave is actually closer to sucking up. A servant serves because they choose to, they love to, they also get value out of the relationship. A slave has no choice, feels no connection to those they are involved with and has no loyalty.

How can you tell if you re a servant? One of the first things that I notice with those who are genuinely there to serve is that they are excited to be there. They love what they do. Others around them can sense that they love what they do. Because they love what they do they come prepare and don’t need to be told what to do. They treat all of their relationships customers,

boss, coworkers with dignity and respect. You can genuinely feel these people care and they are always helpful.

Servants are solution oriented. Where as those brown losers that are suck ups are always complaining. Have you ever had one of those guys privately? Toxic.

Servants are mission based seeking those that resonate with the mission. And if you don’t resonate with the mission that’s okay they will move to others who are more qualified. They won’t twist people into being or buying something they are not or do not need.

They seek a fair exchange of value with those that are a good fit. Because of the care they take in this regard they also see a lot more referrals come through their door.

These servant based people are aware that they need to maintain and manage expectations. So when they are meeting with clients they share the way things really are. they don’t embellish to make a sale and give guarantees that another department can worry about. They prepare the customer for the entire journey so that the experience will be just as good at the end as at the beginning.

I want to be clear that the servant is liked. In fact, often they become far more liked than the one who is sucking up. The reason is simple their relationship is based on value not flashy substitutes.

As I said in the beginning. Sales tactics come in all shapes and sizes.

You are going to see service and you are going to see people sucking up.

Maybe int he past you’ve done a little bit of both. But there is some great news. Tomorrow is a new day You get to choose which one you will be. If you choose service let me give you a few suggestions of some things you can do to be effective.

1. 1) Recognize your value. What you bring to the sales relationship is important. You are a valuable asset to the people you are meeting. You are a valuable asset to the company you work with. The next step increases your value...that is to increase your value by constantly learning about your products and upgrading your skills.
2. 2) GROW YOUR VALUE -As you upgrade yourself through product knowledge and levelling up your life and skills you can’t help but grow in value. A few years ago I had a chance to interview a young man who for three years in a row had won his car dealerships award as the most distinguished and successful sales person. He told me the interesting story of how he grew into that position and it was quite simple. He spent time everyday adding significantly to his skills and product knowledge. Every time someone walked onto the lot to buy a car and there was a question the customers were sent to him. He was splitting nearly every commission that came through the door because the other guys just weren’t prepared enough to answer the questions. Naturally those people who interacted with him had a great experience and sent their friends too. So basically he was getting all his own customers, plus a half commission on almost all of the other deals coming through and then the referrals on top of that. There’s high value in become the smartest guy in the room.
3. 3) Give your expertise without expectation - This one is important. Too often those who suck up expect that if they kiss your rear end you owe them something. The customer senses it. And if you’re doing it to the boss, trust me he knows why you’re doing it. And if you think it’s working out - trust me the end of the story may surprise you. either he or you will eventually be frustrated. There’s an old saying that he who kisses ass eventually gets chapped lips. Needless to say those who serve without expectation are never disappointed. In fact, they are often surprised. I have personally experienced times when I have been helpful to someone who I assumed was not ready to buy and then they returned and became one of my best repeat customers. Your helpfulness creates a loyalty that reappears when you least expect it. I am also a firm believer that karma finds its way back to everyone. And givers get. Help others with their needs and your needs get met. I also find that helping those in your own office succeed eventually comes back to you as well. I was speaking with a financial planner not too long ago who was doing really well in his office. It seemed like promotion after promotion came his way, not to mention all the contest he won. When I asked him the secret to his success he told me I just stop and help everyone I can. His supervisors saw how helpful he was to others and promotion after promotion started showing up. He was able to take others higher and grow his own business. I am sure that if was doing that to be seen and recognized he would have been passed over.
4. 4) Get prepared and stay prepared. I am not just speaking about skills and product knowledge that I mentioned above I am know talking about how you show up. On time, prepared and ready to go. Certainly first impressions are important, but so is consistency. Your customers want to be able to trust you and when they see that your meetings with them are important they will respond.
5. 5) Stay present. Often times I will invite sales people to the house because I like to watch their presentations for my own learning. A few years ago my wife and I invited an air filter salesman into our house and he was unprepared. The presentation was a disaster as he kept returning to his car to retrieve gear he had forgotten. we talked a moment ago about being prepared. He missed that one. But this moment is really about being present. Here he missed it entirely. This guys phone would buzz and he paused the presentation to reply to several of these texts and even took a phone call while he made us wait. I just joking said, “You wife must be on her way to the hospital to have a baby.” He laughed and said no just so friends wanting to hook up tonight. It was a mess. Needless to say stay present. True servants stay present with those they are with.
6. 6) Maybe this final one is the most important and if you do this I believe all the other stuff will come together. Here we go: simply be genuine. When you are real people feel it. Be interested, be sincere, provide value, when you complement make it legit. Real people get real results.

Service beats sucking up every time. Don’t sell yourself short. Get committed right now to offering the highest level of service you can and becoming a true value to those you serve. They will thank you for it and so will your future self. Life is too short to create substitutes and short cuts that you will later regret or have to repair. Do it right the first time.

 Douglas Vermeeren - Influence Selling?

Are you ready to level up your sales? Then you’ve come to the right place. Douglas Vermeeren can show you how. 

At the age of 19 he ran into the book Think and Grow Rich and decided to do what Napoleon Hill had done to write the book. Douglas Vermeeren decided the best way to really learn this information was to do what Napoleon Hill had done. So he went out and personally met with and interviewed more than 400 of the worlds top achievers.

Under the mentorship of these 400 top millionaires and billionaires Douglas Vermeeren was able to learn some of the most powerful lessons in business and entrepreneurship. The most important lesson he learned was the importance of sales.

Since then he has developed a powerful results driven sales tool - Influence selling?. 

Influence Selling? is the combined study of persuasion, brain science, how people make decisions and the art of sales.

Today he is the featured expert on FOX, CNN, FOX Business, ABC, NBC and others. Appearing on both television, radio and print to regularly share the powerful wealth strategies the most wealthy use. He has been featured in the New York times, Money magazine, Inc, Fortune, Forbes and the Huffington post.

For his powerful insights into success the media now refers to him as the modern day Napoleon Hill.

He is the author of several best selling books on wealth including Guerrilla Millionaire, Millionaire Wisdom, Personal Power Mastery, Don’t suck at Sales, Influence Selling? and several other highly powerful results generating books and programs.