Archive for July, 2010

Pressure vs Permission  (part 2)
Aggressive Selling That Prospects Like

How do you pursue a potential customer? As promised in the last newsletter, we will delve into it more today. It is important to deal properly with people, showing them genuine respect. It is crucial to care about people and their business needs. People are sensitive and can quickly pick up when they are just a “number” or are being used as a way to help you get to the top of the success ladder.

Even when you do have their best interest in mind, it is still difficult to know how to nurture a warm lead into a buyer. A basis for good sales work is to be active, not passive. We must assume responsibility and take action.

Roy gives an example of a good salesman at the home show,

“A salesman representing a water conditioning company seated himself close to the aisle and offered every passerby a catchy, full color, droplet-shaped magnet. These people had three easy options:

1.    Ignore him, which was convenient to do because he was seated.
2.    Take the magnet and walk on.
3.    Take the magnet and start a dialogue about how this company could help them.

“The real value in this approach is in breaking the ice with the free magnet. By noticing the person’s response (words, tone of voice, body language) to his question, ‘Would you like a free magnet?’ the salesman quickly determined whether or not the person was interested in more dialogue. Sometimes people will be interested in the product but don’t want to be sold something. They may avoid the salesperson. This approach breaks through that issue and allows a salesperson to quickly put the prospects’ minds at ease by demonstrating care for them and interest in their problems.”

Imagine you are the water conditioning salesperson. You have a person interested in your product. Now what? Fear is often the main source of passivity in business. The result is many lost leads. Roy offers help in conquering this fear,

“Many suffer from something known as call reluctance. Salespeople who have not overcome this fear sell a lot less than those who have learned to follow up on leads without a mini emotional battle every time they pick up the phone.”

Roy continues, “A huge help for me in overcoming this fear was in understanding the permission concept. When I ask for the customer’s permission to follow up, it sets the stage for me to contact them. In fact, I feel responsible to do so. I actually feel bad if I don’t have a timely follow-up, because I know they are counting on me to move the ball forward. Sometimes, though, this fear comes back when I need to follow up on a high profile contact.

“My temptation is to sit beside the phone and attempt to think through the whole conversation before dialing the number. Preparation is important. But that isn’t preparation—it is procrastination. When I find myself going down that avenue, here is what I do: I stop myself; force my hand to pick up the receiver; dial the number; and before I know it, I am enjoying a comfortable conversation with another nice person.”

Courage is grace under pressure. Sometimes there is a lot of pressure in business, especially in sales work. The pressure often comes from fear and lack of knowing when you have permission to take action. But, remember, if there were no fear—there would be no courage. If your product and service can truly help the person, and they have shown genuine interest, there is no shame in making the next move. You have all the permission in the world to overcome your fears and pursue.