Beware! Your True Intentions are Showing

When I opened the email, the first sentence jumped out me: "I've just been to your website and your company is a perfect fit for our services!" Clearly the seller was really excited about his discovery.

On the other hand, I was backpedaling as fast as I could go. I wanted nothing to do with him. If he'd caught me on the phone, my instincts would have immediately erected barricades. If we were meeting in person, objections would be spewing from my mouth.

Why? Because he was seemed too excited about selling me. Without even realizing it, his approach screamed "self-serving" and I recoiled from it. My reaction isn't unusual. In fact, it's the norm. You do the same thing. We all hate being sold!

Yet invariably, I see sellers engaging in self-sabotaging behavior that can only lead to failure. For example:

• When their company introduces a new product or service, most sellers rush to convert their hottest prospects. Filled with passion, they unwittingly create insurmountable obstacles that actually derail their sales efforts or delay them indefinitely.

• When good-hearted, intelligent & talented people put on their sales hat, they suddenly morph into blathering idiots. It's as if they think this is what selling is all about – even though they're repulsed by their own actions.

• When well-intentioned sellers are fearful of meeting their quotas or even staying in business, their desperation to land a client or get the order causes them to push themselves on others.

Whether you want to or not, you always communicate your intent. Prospective buyers sense it instantaneously and react accordingly. If they feel you have their best interests in mind, they're attracted to you. Conversely, they're repelled by any behavior that smacks of self-serving intentions.

To be successful selling your prospect or service, focus on making your prospects successful. Use these strategies to re-jigger your thinking.

Change Your Question
Once you've targeted an account to go after, instead of focusing first on "How can I sell this to them?" ask yourself, "How can I improve their business?" When this question is at the forefront of your thinking, you start behaving different. You can't make calls until you've researched their firm, know their company's objectives and understand the challenges they're facing. You prepare for appointments with their success in mind, not yours.

Change Your Language
When your intention is to help your customer improve their operation, you don't talk about your product or service. Period. It's really quite irrelevant at the onset of your discussion. Even though you're really excited about it, you don't talk about it. Your offering is simply a tool that helps them achieve a very specific business objective. That's what's important. It's all about them!

Change Your Role
Stop putting on your sales hat! Stop thinking of yourself as a seller. You are a business improvement specialist. As a result of your work to improve your customer's operation, they will buy your product or service. Sales is the outcome of what you do, but it is not your purpose.

Many sales managers & business owners will rail at what I say. They want you to "go out there and sell, sell, sell." Marketers will push you to "tell your prospects all about our unique differentiators." Even you will likely feel resistance to making these changes.

But truthfully, the more you need sales, the more important these strategies become. Top sellers know this. When you're in their presence, you never feel like you're being sold. So you open up and tell them more. That's how it works. And before long you're happily doing business with them.

Always remember: your intention is showing. If it's all about you, you're toast. The best way to make a sale is to make a difference.

Comments

[John Windsor]

Outstanding post, Jill, with concepts near and dear to my heart.

[Jon Miller]

Jill -- Great post. I think this is an area where marketing (done right) can help. Let's assume a different scenario:

You are aware of the seller's company because you saw them a few month's ago when you were searching on Google, so you clicked through and read a few useful articles on their website. Curious, you signed up for their email list or RSS feed and have been reading regular posts about the value the seller's clients have received. Now, with your budget finally approved, you went back to their website and filled out a form requesting that they contact you. With a relationship established, you are in a much better place to get the seller's note.

The sales rep can still screw things up, by seeming stupid or despererate -- but his chances of success will be much higher than a cold call or email.

Good marketing can't always save bad selling, but it can certainly make an average sales rep look like a great one.

[Lena L. West]

Jill:

Thanks for this post and for reminding people that it's all about their intentions. Everything - absolutely everything - starts with an intention.

I'm working on a PHP database project with a client and we found someone to do the work. We liked our conversation we had with him. We were referred to him by a client so, his work was good. We were ready to cut him a check and he INSISTED that he tell us about his company. I mean, WHO CARES ABOUT YOUR COMPANY? I wanted to ask him, is your intention to help us develop this database or tell us about your company? Sheesh!

Once I get to know him better, I'm DEFINITELY giving him a link to your site!

-Lena
CEO, http://www.xynoMedia.com
Creator, http://www.TechnologyDiet.com

[Josiane Feigon]

Hi Jill,

You are spot on- great post.
I want to attend your Jan 26th Sausalito event but can't make that time slot. Will you have any extra time to meet for tea?

Josiane

[Bob]

Every one seems to acknowledge that there is something intrinsic and different! Ironically most of them fail to position their product properly to a target customer.

[Michael A. Stelzner]

Jill - Your post, combined with a telesales experience I had today inspired me to blog about this on my blog also. Thanks! - Mike

[Richard Fouts]

This post reminds me of a old saying that is so true: selling is not about you and it never will be.

Thanks, Jill for a great piece.

[David A. Peterson]

I find myself preaching these concepts to my reps over and over again. Stop being a transactional sales person and try a more consultative approach.

Coaching session after coaching session I cover these points until they either finally get it or they move on.

I think reps are scared at the conversion from transactional sales to consultative sales because the pace slows down and they have high goals. It's hard to get them to see that if they just concentrated on the call they are on right now instead of making 100 additional calls they could actually make more money - what a concept take less calls and make more money!

David A. Peterson Editor - USReference.com

[Michael Keenan]

I agree outstanding post.

[Marty Petraitis]

I couldn't agree more that sales is NOT about selling it is about your client's outcome. If you understand how to help them and HONESTLY approach them as helping their business then you are NOT A SALESPERSON but a successful BUSINESS person who clients LOVE TO BUY from you.

[John Asher]

Hi Jill,

Right on - a quality sales professional is a provide of valuable information regarding many solutions to a problem. This article is some of the best sales advice I could give to young professionals. Taking their time and respecting that the person on the other side of the phone, desk, or Internet connection is a real-live person, not a "sale" is the key to establishing long-term relationships that have a much higher ROI than the "one-off" sale.

[Steven R. Watts]

So absolutely true. Great insight into B2B selling. It's even more important for an inside sales person. Face-to-face interaction is going to be limited, so the impression made on a key decision maker is extremely important. As people we really do have this uncanny ability to "sniff out" intent. Unless the company or product is such a perfect fit that no salesperson in the world could screw it up, being disingenuous is a recipe for trouble, if not outright disaster.