Transfer of Trust
13 02 2008Why should I do business with your company?
Why should I do business with you?
Turns out there is 6 main variables: 3 lenders calling the borrower. 3 salespeople.
These are the 2 questions going through your prospect/potential client’s mind. Conscious or unconscious these are the 2 questions they are asking themselves.
Why should they do business with your company?
Why should they do business with you?
You better sprinkle some reasons for both into your sales call.
Sprinkle throughout the courting process from prospect to client – don’t throw up on them.
What differentiates you from the other salespeople?
Do you even know why they should do business with your company?
Its canned – be canned – so you don’t have to think about what to say or how to say it. So you can actually pay attention to the goals and needs of your clients. And be yourself! Have a conversation. Ask a lot of questions. Open-ended – let them paint pictures of exactly what they want and why. Link their pictures, in their words, into benefits. This begins to establish value.
How do you differentiate yourself from the other sales professionals?
Listen for any extras – kids, hobbies, interests etc
Connect with your client by building rapport. Be yourself! Unless you suck and then be somebody else.
In time, through rapport and frequency of contact, tension goes down and trusts increases. Court your prospect across the “transfer of trust” bridge to become your client. Be the professional and help your client make a well-educated decision. Show them what to do next to increase their financial position.
When you establish value, price doesn’t matter.
Never quote price before establishing value.
How do you get your client to exchange a premium and go out of their way to do business with you? And then tell their friends about the experience.
Congratulations on the inclusion of this post in the Carnival of Trust http://trustedadvisor.com/carnivalofTrust/
hosted this month by Duncan Bucknell and his IPThinkTank blog http://duncanbucknell.com/blog/288/The-March-2008-Carnival-of-Trust
I see it much as you do. It’s about suspending the obsession with ego so that you can be curious, and focused on the Other. And if you can do that, then–paradoxically–all those things you sought in the first place come unbidden.
I would make only one tiny quibble. While I completely agree that if you establish value, price doesn’t matter, I find there are sometimes when it’s important to mention price even if you haven’t established value. Specifically, when the customer or client asks you a direct price question, and when to avoid answering it would be evasive and not of service. If you are prepared to violate the more general rule you suggest (never mention price until you establish value) in response to a higher need–client service–which rarely comes up, then you are perceived as even less focused on self, and more willing to be of service.
And if you’re really good at being unselfish, then, voila, a lot of what you wanted in the first place comes around anyway.
Congratulations again on your inclusion, and thanks for the good post.