The rep was excited about a recent sales call on a prospective customer. The rep was sharing the prelimary details when I asked, "Tell me why you feel that way. What did you do right?".
Here are some of the answers:
- I'm good at building relationships with many types of personalities. I'm good at being a chameleon. I'm likeable - and likeability creates comfort
- I built credibility by offering industry insights, specific to their industry, based upon my experience. This created confidence in the customer's mind because they instantly knew that I'm not just another sales rep selling off of literature, etc. I know their industry!
- I'm genuine
- I did the hard work for the customer by doing the price comparisons for them
- My industry knowledge allowed me to assume the price they were paying
- My product knowledge helped me cross reference their current product to my product offering
- I broke down the price to a common denominator which saved the customer time - AND - will help him to make a quicker decision.
- I did the comparative work for him. He acknowledged this and thanked me
- The prospect asked me a question about a competitors product, I knew the answer and offered him my opinion supported with common sense and the logic provided by our manufacturer. Ironically, the prospect had just had a recent conversation with his wife about the exact same issue and my "common sense/logical" opinion matched the thought he had shared with his wife.
It was refreshing at a time when I needed a boost. It was validating in the sense that, at times, it feels like my sales training/sales managing messages are going unheard.
Many factors made the reps sales call go great. I don't need to point them out. It should be pretty obvious, right?
However, a couple paragraphs from the book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable by Seth Godin @ThisIsSethsBlog (which I just finished and am passing along to one of my daughter's college friends who is graduating this year - Go, Joy!) sum up the true magic that occurred. I've made bold the section that says it all:
"When your boss gives you a script to read, or when you crib something from a how-to book, it almost never works. That's because you're not telling the truth, you're not being human, and you're not being transparent.
You might be parroting the words from that negotiation book or the public-speaking training you went to, but every smart person you encounter knows that you're winging it or putting us on.
Virtually all of us make our living engaging directly with other people. When the interactions are genuine and transparent, they usually work. When they are artificial or manipulative, they fail.
The linchpin is coming from a posture of generosity; she's there to give a gift. If that's your intent, the words almost don't matter. What we'll perceive are your wishes, not the script."
How are you differentiating youself to your prospects or your customers? Are you just "reading from a script or cribbing from some how-to book"? You must be better than that! If you're not, they know...and they won't like you...and they won't buy from you...and they probably won't see you again or return your voice mail or email and you'll come crawling to me with excuses. Hmmm.
Be a linchpin. Start today by being genuine and transparent. Like most things, it's a choice.
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