(By Loyd Ford) We all know those sales managers who want more, more, more. It’s always push, push, push, but how much does your personal psychology play in helping you sell more?
- Help first. We talk about this all the time, but it really is more difficult to practice than people imagine – Think of yourself as someone who assists, helps, serves advertisers. Stop thinking of yourself as a seller. This change in psychology can change the outcome of much of your business and over the long-term it can explode your earnings because you will actually become more valuable to our clients and the business community.
- Perception of tighter inventory creates demand. Why is inflation is on everyone’s mind? It’s a part of a cycle of “Will I be able to get what I want?” If your clients believe that buying now is critical, they are most likely to take control of the process and execute now. By the way, what your clients really want to purchase is more customers and there is a tight inventory on those, too. This is a part of reframing sales so the client experiences more urgency.
- Emotion can be powerful. This is about understanding the emotions of your client. Make an effective appeal to their emotion and you will find clients open up. This can be done with stories, laughing together, bonding with the client or potential client as a human (outside of just selling) and can draw you in to them and their path. Not yours.
- Jealousy works. Human behavior doesn’t change much across time and you can bet that no matter how you feel about this, jealousy is a real thing. This is especially true in a competitive environment, and it can be used effectively to grow your sales. The only thing I will add about this is that you should always have the best interest of the client in mind with what you do to close business using jealousy.
- People don’t always believe the truth, but they almost always believe what they see. This can be done effectively by showing social photos and posts that are proof of the customers your client most wants to attract. But you can also provide listener testimonials about their category. A little work on this can provide significant proof your client or potential client will feel at the first meeting.
Most battles are won before the first shot is fired. You can go to sales meetings. You can try to use every trick, but in the end, those who learn the most about their clients, prepare the most in advance of each interaction and focus on how to be the most helpful they can be to those clients win.
They win.
Maybe you and I don’t know each other yet, but I want you to make more money this year. Start with the 5 things in this article, but don’t stop there. Learn every advantage and apply what you learn to helping your clients and building your image as a true servant that can power up not just your revenue….but their revenue.
Loyd Ford is president and chief strategic officer at Rainmaker Pathway Consulting Works (RPC). Reach Loyd at 864.448.4169 or [email protected].
