Stop chasing your prospects. Let them come to you. You have heard that before. What really is going on here though? You have also heard that people don’t like to be sold. Instead, they like to buy. But is that true? Lets look at the process for a moment.
First off, let us not give sales people a bad rap. If nothing is sold then there would be no economy. Doctors and lawyers don’t see themselves as salesmen, but they sure need someone to buy their services or they would not be in business. What gives the sales profession a bad name is bad salespeople. No one likes to be sold by someone who doesn’t do their job well, just like no one likes a doctor who doesn’t know his profession. In fact people actually like to be sold!
Prospecting is a part of the process of making sales. If done correctly it is not chasing. Today when I got home I turned on the answering machine and there was a message from a salesman for a local car dealership. The salesman invited me to check out new inventory at his dealership-even though I had never bought a car from there before. Somehow he knew that I might be in the market for a new car and he was being opportunistic because he thought I had a need. I have no problem with that.
Now as to whether people like to be sold or not, let me ask you this? How often have you met someone that pitched their product on you by fast talking, giving you all kinds of unwanted features and benefits type of talk that you never really asked for and then attempting to close the deal by never taking no for an answer with a comeback for every objection? Did you like that process? Of course not. On the other hand have you ever patiently listened while selling to someone and rarely said anything, except to answer a question?
Recently I was asked to reduce our vehicle fleet from 96 down to 76 vehicles. Now that meant I had to sell 20 cars and trucks, which I did, by the way, in 12 weeks. Now I never signed up to be a “car salesman,” but I was intrigued with the challenge. Here’s how I did it:
1. I never put a For Sale sign on the cars. I wrote one letter in email form, which I sent out to influential leaders and asked that they let their members know about the opportunity to buy our vehicles. I followed up by making a brochure to place in their meetinghouses. That was all!
2. I went to work to put those vehicles in top condition. The shape of the cars themselves, along with a final complete detail pretty much sold the cars themselves. Since I had been doing this before, word had already gotten around that I had good quality cars. I would get calls from out of state about my cars. I was also getting repeat buyers!
3. Quite a few times my buyers would actually say to me that I was a good car salesman! That means to me that they thought they were being sold, but the truth is that they bought and all I did was listened and transitioned the process by helping them.
I wish I was that good with marketing online. But the process is the same. Prospect to people who have a need for your product. Make sure you have a quality program. Your websites and sales funnels will be what sells (not you) and the more you know your product the more you will be able to help!
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