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Forget
Selling!
Instant Influence for Powerful Persuasion
Throw
away your old sales books
and marked up manuals and face the facts.
Most smooth and slick sales strategies no longer work in
today’s savvy marketplace.
"If
you always do what you’ve always done, you will only
get what you have always gotten," and
that simply may not be enough – unless you like skinny
kids! To be effective in today’s competitive marketplace
let me suggest a few of the 12 Power Principles
in my forthcoming book to increase sales and avoid professional
burnout.
The Power
of the Common Denominator
People prefer to say yes to
individuals they know, like and find attractive.
Is it not more difficult to say “no” to a friend
or someone with whom you have a close relationship? In fact,
physical attractiveness creates
a halo effect where people project other
favorable impressions up you including intelligence, kindness
and talents.
They also say, “yes”
to those who are similar. Compliments
tend to increase compliance, as do positive
associations, which is why Nike pays millions to Michael
Jordan to boast the footwear. How will you create
a positive bond and establish those powerful common denominators
with your clients? On the other hand, how can
you create a distance to protect yourself and make more
objective decisions when you are too enamored because
of the common bond?
The Power
of Incremental Commitment
Once
you or your buyer has made some level of commitment to you
or the sale, their behavior will be consistent to that commitment.
Those who structure our interactions
so that our need for consistency leads to their benefit
often exploit this principle.
This is
NOT integrity selling and is simply not fair play.
However, you should be aware of this principle for your
own personal defense as well. If there is initial resistance,
suggest small levels of commitment that lead to the larger
commitments necessary to make the sale. A very successful
Triangle realtor told me that she always gets
a commitment up front from her clients and thus
rarely loses a client. She makes it very clear that she
expects their loyalty in exchange for her work and dedication
to them. Consider the advice of Jack Stanko,
a used-car sales manager in Albuquerque. “Put 'em
on paper. Get the customer’s OK on paper. Get the
money up front. Control 'em. Control the deal. Ask 'em
if they would buy the car right now if the price were
right. Pin 'em down.”
The Power
of Instant Influence
Buying styles have been altered by our “auto-response”
age of instant love and push-button
success. People are busier than ever and
their lives are on overload causing them to feel even more
stressed out with one more decision in their lives.
The
spreadsheet approach to problem solving is quickly disappearing
except for a number-crunching CPA. Your
selling style must thus accommodate accordingly. The same
brilliant mind that has created a fast paced, information-overloaded
world of complexity, has also created the mental fatigue
and stress which causes buyers to resort to a more instinctual,
impulsive buying pattern. Thus, it is important for you
to focus, simplify and create
shortcuts for the buyer. While options
and alternatives can create flexibility, they also can
add to the information overload. Three easy to
understand choices will cut the deal. Confusion will lose
it!
By developing a selling
style that incorporates these three principles and the other
nine described in my forthcoming book, Forget
Selling, you will increase sales with integrity
and the power of influence and persuasion.
Editor’s note:
Edie will share her other principles in forthcoming NC Journal
for Woman issue. |
Edie
Raether, MS, CSP, is an expert on sales performance and marketing trends.
As an international keynote speaker, sales coach and corporate trainer,
she has inspired over 3,000 professional associations and Fortune 500
companies, as well as the National Association of Realtors. She has also
been an NC licensed realtor, and a expert resource to hundreds of publications
such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Selling Power.
