After my post about how to get more success with less
effort from a software development project, http://massa.techndu.com/2007/11/05/TheNDAJoint.aspx,
I had a comment posted and 3 emails asking how I
qualify prospects or close the deal when the customer is wanting me to be
specific while they remain vague. http://massa.techndu.com/CommentView,guid,c4aed57e-7468-4fb0-aeb9-a87d482721a6.aspx#commentstart
I don’t
really understand what I’m doing with my blog that gets people emailing me privately
instead of posting on the blog so a lot more people could benefit but I’m just glad
to be getting the chance to help. HOWEVER, you might as well post because I’ll
probably just talk about you anyway and if you post, you get a Guru link, and everybody knows
those are the best kind of links you can get :)
Anyway, it made me stop and think about what I’m doing here,
(I hate when that happens!), and who my readers are and I realized that a lot more
of them are real, in-the-trenches-everyday, working SEO’s than are newbies
wanting to know how to get to the top of Google by diddeling their meta tags.
I also realize that most of you reading are probably much
better than I as a code jockey, designer dude and/or dudette, researcher, copywriter,
link acquisition specialist, (or master baiter as I like to call them),and about a thousand other skill sets that are
valuable to the SEO process, (whatever that is?). BUT, I do have extreme confidence
in my ability to give benefit of my experience in two primary areas.
#1. The management of an online promotional services
business. I can help you avoid hundreds of mistakes and ways of doing it wrong.
#2. Sales.
Do you know why I love sales? Because once, and just as soon as, you can
overcome some popular misconceptions about sales and salespeople and accept a
few basic concepts, you cannot fail, you can only miss your numbers. If you can
accept that missing those numbers was directly related to something you did, adjust
your strategy and try it again, you WILL hit your numbers unless you give up.
So, today I want to try to help those who are responsible for
making the sale and you know what, that is each and every one of you. The things
that I can tell you that apply to looking someone in the face
are applicable to saying those same things on a website. Whether you work for an
SEO firm or whether you run 300 affiliate sites from your bedroom, you don’t
make money talking to clients or building sites. Those things are an expense
and they COST money. You MAKE money when you get your commission check and that
means making sales.
The Worst Sales Advice on the Planet
Today I want to do what I believe will be the most help I could
offer in a single blog post. I want to kill, destroy, cause to cease to exist
in your mind, the single worst piece of sales advice on the planet.
We’ve all seen it time and time again, over and over. Every
time I see it I have to fight the urge to upchuck, (my apologies to everyone named
chuck. Thank goodness a form of “bob” never became accepted into the American
vernacular as a synonym for a rather unpleasant body function).
The advice I’m referring to are things like:
Feel Their
Pain
"Another way to get emotional with your prospects is
to feel their pain. Like the things they like. Hate the things they hate."
"So take this advice to heart: Fill
your prospects with warm and soft emotions, and you'll be filling your pockets
with cold hard cash."
“Make your prospect like you by
finding out what he likes and then telling him you like the same thing.”
The most common example I see used is fishing for some strange
reason. You’re told that if your prospect likes fishing then tell him you do
too.
{I don‘t want to provide links to these quotes not because I want to deny
them the guru link love but because my intent is not to ridicule}
CONDESCENDING LOSER
Of course we are all free to believe what and who we want,
but I can assure you that if you don’t fish, (and he does), yet you
enthusiastically tell him how much you love fishing and he asks you what the
biggest walleye you ever caught was and you tell him it was an extra large, not
only do you look like an idiot, you also look like the biggest condescending
loser the guy has met today.
Think about it for just a second, what would you think of
someone you had just met and they made some comment about a topic you knew
something about to try to get you to like them, and you also knew the comment
illustrated their lack of knowledge of that topic, would you be impressed? Would
knowing this other person was a liar make you like them and feel like you and
they were relating to each other?
You see, you don’t have to try to get the prospect to think
you and he are two peas in a pod. You don’t have to lie to find something to
relate to each other about. You had something to relate to each other about
the moment they decided to contact you. They didn’t call you because they were
looking for a fishing buddy. They didn’t call you because they were lonely,
(unless of course you are in the lonely business). They called you because
something gave them the perception that you had something to trade that they needed or wanted.
Be honest, answer their questions and look for qualifying statements
and closing questions. Do you know why you look for qualifying statements? So you
can overcome objections and identify those closing questions.
Don't waste your time and theirs while running the risk of looking like a liar and a loser by trying to make them think you are something you are not. There is no need.
In another post I’ll
show you some of the top qualifying statements you should look for and how to
identify those closing questions but for today let me leave you with just two
things that will do a LOT to help you serve your clients better.
#1. Learn that sales is not about talking it is about
listening
#2. Anytime you see anyone giving any advice that suggests
you do anything even the slightest less than honest, you can be sure
the advice was not written by anyone who is actually involved in making direct
sales.
Peace Y’all
G
You kids go outside and play. You’re driving me crazy bein
underfoot all the time. And DON’T SLAM
THAT SCREEN DOOR!
PS
Don’t forget to post your comment instead of emailing me
directly and get you some of that groovy guru link love. The Guru is already
averaging over 750 uniques a day. Say something even remotely smart, (or at
least something that sounds smart), and
it could float to the top of the blog clog like a fart in a bathtub.