Selling Is A Journey…Not A Process

Selling is a journey and not a process or something to be done to or even for people. Selling must be done with people after a connection of trust and confidence is made. When selling is practiced as a process people resist or are reluctant to participate. The connection needed to help, serve and do what’s best for the buyer is lost or never made at all when you are trying to take them through your sales process.

Become The Buyers Guide

To be a successful salesperson you’ll need to sell with people, because selling is a journey…The buyer’s journey or their process. So, the first step in selling is being invited to be the buyer’s guide. To do this you’ll have to connect with them so they feel confident enough to invite you and that requires you to be a likable, trustworthy, expert.

Most people admit that when they go shopping for anything that cost more than a few hundred dollars they’ve already decide to buy…They just want help confirming their decision and a better understanding of what to expect after they buy it.

The Question…Why would the buyer invite you to be their guide on their journey or buying process?

The Answer…Trust and aligned intentions, and they can be achieved by taking the next 7 steps.

1) Be mindful that they choose you to be their guide. It’s not up to you but their decision will be based on your attitude, actions and skills…’your behavior’. Most importantly, all of these are driven by your intentions. Once they do choose you, you’ll have to keep earning their trust and confidence by being a ‘good guide’ that puts their issues before yours. If your intention is to sell them, they won’t trust you enough to allow you to guide them. If your intention is to guide them to what’s best for them…they’ll allow you the privilege of being their guide.

2) How do you know you are the guide…Trust your instincts…Are they following your instructions, advice and direction? Listen, watch and feel for any sign they aren’t moving with you and…

3) When they aren’t moving with you, you have to reconnect…You reconnect by asking what’s wrong or where you got off course to uncover why you lost them and get back on their journey…Why are we not moving in the same direction? Remember it’s about serving people not trying to please them…It’s about their issues and next step, not yours. It’s about their reasons they are buying, not yours.

4) Remember, sometimes you aren’t the right guide for them but that should never be more than 15% to 20% of the time…80% to 85% of the people you have an opportunity to do business with can and will choose you as their guide if you make their ‘why’ they’ll buy, more important than yours (making a sale). Then you can find out if what you’re selling is best for them…the destination where they want to end their journey.

5) It’s imperative to understand you’ll only know their ‘why they’ll buy’ and be able to guide them if you stay connected, so they feel comfortable communicating openly and honestly with you and this happens when you align your intention with theirs…They won’t open up and share if they don’t trust your intentions.

6) Like any guide…it’s your job to safely guide them to the final destination they want. When it isn’t going that way, engage them as to why you aren’t in the same place but remember it’s not your job to choose the destination just guide them to theirs. Remind them you’re there to help them but it’s got to be more than words, it has to be your real intention to help, serve and do what’s best for them or they will feel your insincerity and disconnect.

7) Keep moving in the same direction, stay at the same destination with them until they are ready to move. Buying isn’t always a smooth journey, as we all know, but if you keep coming back to their destination each time it feels like you aren’t connected, then you can help them reach their final destination more often. Make them a customer, not just a sale, and making customers will increase your sales.

By Mike Moore

SaveSave

Measuring Sales Success

You need to be different to be successful. You have to stand out from the crowd to be seen and heard. You will only get noticed when you think different enough to act different and it often starts with what you measure as success. Changing what you measure will change your results. So, it’s time to stop measuring sales success in numbers and start measuring it in people…How many ‘customers’ do you make?

Customers grow your business and insure your sustained success. Understand this, just because someone buys from you once, doesn’t make them a customer.

At it’s best, selling isn’t about the buying experience, it’s about the ownership experience. Stop trying to ‘Wow’ buyers with a great buying experience and focus on ‘Wowing’ them with a great ownership experience…Make sure they enjoy owning your product or service. Then you’ll make customers, sales will increase and your business will grow exponentially.

Making a customer takes caring enough to only do what’s best for the buyer, and never compromising this to make a sale. Then and only then will you reach your full potential as a salesperson and a business.

By Mike Moore

Connecting & Communicating With Today’s Buyers

When you are a buyer how do you want to be treated? What matters to you? What do you believe salespeople care about when they meet you or greet you? Can you tell when they are trying to sell you something? Does what they say, the way they say it or the words they use matter much if you know they are trying to sell you something?

For years, salespeople have been taught what to say and how to say it as sales skills and sales techniques to increase sales. In sales seminars salespeople most often want to know what to say to handle objections and how to ask for an order that will increase their sales. Salespeople want to learn the steps and how to deliver or control the conversation so they can make a sale, then they want to repeat it over and over and hope it works on everyone.

Look at the results teaching and selling this way have created. Buyers don’t trust salespeople and salespeople don’t believe buyers. Teaching sales this way also increased salespeople’s intentions to make a sale stronger and their ability to engage and therefore serve people weaker.  All this has been while knowing sales needs to be a dialogue and salespeople need to build relationships to help people buy. Just think about the way this has been done…now keep reading.

Now, think about how people really communicate.  Most studies have found that as much as 93% of communication is non-verbal. Communication happens through all our senses and not just our hearing. In fact, most people’s weakest communication skill is listening. We can listen and take in input so much faster than people talk that most people are thinking and their thoughts are wondering while they should be listening.  So the words we use are one of our weakest communication tools. Or is it?

People are poor listeners and aren’t interested because they don’t believe the person talking cares about what they care about or don’t like and trust the person talking. So it is our misaligned intentions, our desire to convince them with what we say that weakens listening skills and makes people more interested in talking than listening.

Non-verbal communication is more than body language. It is energy, conviction, confidence and many other emotions that deliver the real message behind the words. It is generated from your intentions, what you want to have happen or receive from the engagement or conversation. Making a real connection and creating a conversation where a relationship forms always starts from a connection made from non-verbal communication coming from our intentions.

When two people engage each other they make many decisions about each other before a word is spoken. In fact, the studies have also found people decide if they like and trust someone within the first 8 to 40 seconds of meeting. This decision is made mostly through visual and sensory input that speaks to the brain stem and sends a gut feeling or intuitive sense and creates pre-conscious thoughts that allow or stifle open communication. When a positive connection is made between two people an open conversation can happen based on the preconscious decision to like and trust. This communication can lead to a positive fruitful relationship. If the preconscious thoughts are to not like or trust then a negative connection is made and a conversation may take place but it will not be open, honest or end in a fruitful relationship.

These realities about how people communicate are the reason salespeople need to be less interested in the words they use or how to talk to someone in a sales conversation and more concerned about the pre-conscious communication coming from their intentions.

If you are a salesperson, what are your intentions when you meet or greet someone in a business situation? What non-verbal communication are you sending? Should someone like you and trust you? Even if you are intent on uncovering their true needs and satisfying them, what is your real intention for doing that? If your intention is to sell someone, do you really expect them to like and trust you? If they don’t make that connection, are they likely to open up, share freely and allow you to find out what they really need or want? People only share their ‘why’ they want to buy with someone they believe intends to help them.

Most of the sales skills taught and learned by salespeople over the years are valid and can help them serve people but they won’t be effective if the person they are selling doesn’t decide they like them and trust them enough to open up and communicate freely. If selling is a dialogue and not a monologue then salespeople’s intentions have to change so a positive pre-conscious  connection occurs and allows a dialogue or exchange of information to happen.

The intention change needed to be liked and trusted enough to connect and communicate are the foundation of Making Customers™.

The steps of a sale become destinations on the buyers journey and happen naturally when a salesperson’s intentions align with the buyers. Salespeople become servants on a mission to help people and customers are made, sales increase, business grows and selling becomes the noble profession of helping and serving people it was intended to be.

To learn more about the intentions that make this happen and how to implement them, email me at mmoore@makingcustomers.com or call me at 858-354-2802.

By Mike Moore