Selling Through the Deficiency of Hope

I am like countless others across the nation right now: heartbroken, anxious, and afraid. In some moments, it feels as if humanity, itself, is under attack. There is just too much going on and I haven’t figured out how to reconcile it all. I don’t know if that is even possible.  

If someone asks me to buy something, right now, I don’t think I can. Even if I completely understand the need and the value, even if I already had decided I needed to buy it.  I am just so completely overstimulated and overwhelmed that I wouldn’t trust my ability to make a decision or carry out a decision that I have already made. 

I am simply not buying anything that I don’t absolutely have to, I don’t have the capacity to think about more than the basics. I have always maintained that emotions determine decisions and logic finds a way to justify. When emotions are raw and all over the place, it seems foolish to think any buying decision can be made effectively, much less a good one.  I know I am not alone in this maelstrom of emotion.

Although most people don’t readily share their fears and anxieties openly, I can assure you the majority of people in America, today, have plenty of fears and anxieties. This includes your buyers, but they aren’t going to call and announce it to you. Actually, they may not even be able to admit it to themselves.  You just have to KNOW this to be true.  

As sales professionals, we have to be sensitive to the context in which our buyers are making their decision. It’s not so hard to understand their business context. Their personal and emotional context, however, is much more difficult to understand. Let me help you on that. Right now, everyone is, to some degree, dealing with fear, anxiety, sadness, and/or uncertainty.

Today, being a “seller” will not serve you well. You will be irrelevant, at best. More than likely, you will be alienated, altogether.  

Don’t get so acutely focused on making the sale that you lose sight of the buyer’s emotional and personal context. Learn the context so you can serve them in a creative, unique way that will matter to them and, thus, differentiate you.  A customer for life is much more valuable to you than the single transaction you push through.

Right now, everyone is, to some degree, dealing with fear, anxiety, sadness, and/or uncertainty.

People are starved for hope. Hope means something different for different people. Once you understand what hope means for your buyers, you can become the purveyor of hope they so desperately need. Of course, it has to be in the context of that buyer’s business objective. You can help them see the light at the end of their tunnel. Remember, do not get too personal – that’s creepy, and creepy never gets invited back.  Say and do only what you have earned the right to, based on what they have permitted you to know about them and their plight

When buyers suffer from a hope deficiency in their personal lives, they will be more appreciative of the hope they find in their professional lives.  How can your product or solution create hope for the buyer? What about working with you would give them a sense of safety? In what ways can you or your solution help them pull through this chaos?   

For the next several weeks, if you are consistent in your communication and steadily providing value, you will create a sense of safety in terms of the buyer’s interactions with you. You will show them that, amidst all the chaos and uncertainty in our world, there is something they can be certain of: they can trust that you care enough to be helpful and to do what you said you would.

As I hunt for silver linings, I find that you have a golden opportunity to show your humanity in this confounding moment in history.  Show your buyers who you are, how you can guide them or support them, and, most importantly, let buyers see how much helping them matters to you.  

Show your buyers who you are, how you can guide them or support them, and, most importantly, let buyers see how much helping them matters to you.  

When humanity at large is being trampled, we have to choose to let our humanity, as individuals, rise and shine for all to see.  As buyers begin to recognize your humanity, perceive you to be a purveyor of hope, and recognize that you sincerely want to help and support them, you will become invaluable to them and they will become your customers for life.