What's the best way to act when starting a High Ticket sales convo?
I get asked this all the time...
“Sean, what’s a sales professional supposed to feel like when they start a new sales call?”
My answer: humbled and curious
Counter-intuitive, right?
Most consultants, coaches, advisors, other sales professionals and sales trainers would tell me I’m crazy for saying that.
They would tell you,
“You go in with your best foot forward and make a strong impression. Dominate the conversation.”
While this style of approach can sometimes be effective, it NEVER brings the type of consistent results business owners and sales pros truly want.
Whether it’s on the phone, or on a video conference (zoom call) the steadfast approach of humble and curious never fails.
I’ve coached 1000s of sales professionals and they all tell me the same thing...
“Sean, when I walk into a call I’m usually nervous as hell, sweating under my shirt, worried about not getting the correct outcome, and feeling immense pressure about closing the deal... But I shrug it off and act like a dominant tough guy.”
KNOW THIS: you're not alone!
And also know...
This is probably causing you to lose sales.
See, while it’s ok to feel the nerves, here’s the problem with this approach.
Your prospect can sense the combo of your nervous energy and the false dominant "front" you're putting on.
It causes your prospects "spidey sense" alarm to go off and dramatically affects the bond and connection phase of the sales process.
Result of this approach: The prospect's walls stay up and you will either lose deals, or it will take you A LOT longer to close them.
Traditional sales people focus on thinking things like,
- “I hope they like me.”
- “I hope I say the right thing.”
- “I hope I don’t mess up my presentation.”
And the source of this nervousness comes from the lack of understanding on where your focus should be.
Q: "OK, I'm with you Sean, but where should I focus?"
A: On the prospect.
2 things to remember
- It's not about you, it's about them.
- Your job is to guide them through the transformation they want.
Knowing your company, the products/services, and your presentation is only a small fraction of the equation, and most of the time not as important as you may think.
Sure, it’s necessary to have a good understanding of what you sell and how you do it, but the focus shouldn’t be on you.
The focus should be on the prospect.
Our clients who get the best results have mastered understanding the shift in focus from them and their company to understanding if their prospects have the problems their company can solve with their product/service.
So what's the solution?
A: Go into EVERY sales call acting like a "dummy".
Here's a simple story to illustrate why this works so well:
Lil' Timmy came out of High School and needed to make some money to afford going out on dates with Mary.
So he asked his dad for help to get a job.
His dad called Bob, owner of the local hardware store and got Lil' Timmy a sales gig.
On the first day of work, Bob says to Lil' Timmy,
"Timmy - I'm only giving you this job because of my relationship with your father. I don't have any expectations around what you can or can't do so I'm gonna stick you in the back of the store selling personal heaters."
So Lil' Timmy goes to the back of the store to the heater section and since he doesn't know what to do, he sits down on a bucket waits for the first prospect who wants a heater.
Next thing you know, a little old lady hobbles up to Lil' Timmy and says, "Son, I need a heater."
Lil' Timmy stands up and replies, "OK, what do you need a heater for?"
Lady: "Well, my husband passed away last winter and I need a heater to keep me warm during the winter. I can't light the fire place because I don't know how so I need something to replace that."
Lil' Timmy: "Hmmm. OK. How big is the area you need to heat? "
Lady: "Well, it's an average sized room."
Lil' Timmy: "Got it. Let's go look at some heaters and see what we come up with, OK?"
They wander over to the personal heater section and Lil' Timmy starts going through different units and trying to find one he believes matches what the Lady wants.
During this process, the Lady continues sharing all her stories with Lil' Timmy and she ends up getting so emotionally wound up in what she was saying that when Lil' Timmy turns and says, "I'm pretty sure this will fit what you're looking for."
She replies: "Wonderful! I'll take it."
Needless to say that Lil' Timmy had no idea whether or not it was the right size heater or not.
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So this process continues over and over until Bob sees the first monthly sales report.
There was a record number of heater sales this month!
Bob runs down to the heater section and finds Lil' Timmy sitting on the bucket and asks, "Timmy, how in the hell did you sell so many heaters?"
Lil' Timmy doesn't know so he just shrugs and says, "I just talked to the people."
Bob is over the moon excited and says, "That's it, I'm sending you to Heater school".
And off Timmy goes to heater school.
2 weeks later, Lil' Timmy is back.
He's now become a MASTER of the heater systems.
He marches back into the corner of the store and paces back and forth waiting for the first potential victim to arrive.
A young couple approach and ask, "Hey young man, we're looking for a heater. Can you help?"
Lil' Timmy replies, "YES I can... Grab a seat right here while I cue up the video on our latest heating system. I believe this is the perfect model for you because it's designed to heat 4 bedrooms at 10,000 BTUs and has a gas stovetop cooking option."
Within 15 seconds, the couple (not wanting to watch a video about a heating system) get up, and kindly say, "oh never mind, we're just looking".
This continues to happen for a few weeks and Lil' Timmy can't figure out what changed.
The next sales report shows up and Bob is pissed.
He runs back to the heater section and lays into Lil' Timmy.
"Tim! What the hell is this. I spend all this money training you to become an expert, and now I've had the worst sales month of all times with my heaters! How were you able to sell all those heaters when you were a dummy, and now you're a professional and can't sell a bean?"
MORAL OF THE STORY...
ACT LIKE A DUMMY ON PURPOSE!
Although you may be a product expert, or a expert at your service...
You will gain more trust, close more deals, and impact more people with positive transformation when you act like a dummy on purpose.
And remember, don't worry if you don't know everything about your prospect.
That's ok.
Don't worry if you don't know everything about your product or service.
You don't know if that prospect is the right fit for your business, and it's your job to find out... Kind of like Sherlock Holmes, right?
Stay humble.
Stay curious.
Ask lots of questions, and you'll win more often in high ticket selling.
Ciao for now,
-sean ??
Ps... If you wanna join our FREE Sales Ascenders Community where I tackle a ton of other really awesome sales topics ranging from prospecting, to conversion, through retention and resell, then head over and join the Ascenders family. Click here.
