Have you noticed how difficult it is to actually speak to someone on the phone these days? Either they donʼt answer calls at all or if they do, they say ʻI canʼt speak nowʼ or ʻCould you call back laterʼ. I donʼt usually leave messages these days because many people donʼt bother listening or responding to them. What about emails? Well, even if the recipient knows who you are and your content is interesting, itʼs still likely that less than 20% of your emails will be opened, a smaller percentage will be read and even less will actually respond.
It seems to me, more than ever before, people are just too busy. Too busy to answer the phone, too busy to respond to messages, too busy to read emails and the bad news for us is that theyʼll definitely be too busy to be ʻsold toʼ. It seems to me that if we stick to the ʻold ways of sellingʼ then weʼre going to have to work two or three times as hard just to get the same results we got a few years ago.
Obviously there are some things in selling that wonʼt ever change, for example:
People buy from people they like.
First impressions are important.
People buy benefits not features.
Those things will always be important but thereʼs a lot that has changed. I donʼt think many people have time to listen to all that old sales patter these days and I believe they are going to want a different approach from us when weʼre presenting our ideas to them.
Over the next few weeks I thought Iʼd send you some of the things Iʼve changed in my approach to selling recently. But before that it may well be a good idea to see if youʼve got the right attitude towards this problem. Go through the following questions to see if youʼre ready and willing to change:
Are you set in your old ways or are you happy to drastically change the way you sell?
Have you tried to change but find you keep going back to your old habits?
Are you prepared to adapt to this modern, digital world and use all available technology in your sales processes?
Do you respect other peopleʼs time or do you complain that ʻpeople just donʼt pay attention like they used toʼ?
How easy are you to do business with in this fast paced world we live in?
What message will people get when they check you out ʻonlineʼ?
Are you actively building a database of clients and prospects and are you communicating with them regularly in a way that adds value to their lives?
Are you prepared to give people something for free before they buy your product?
Do people chase you for your service or does it feel like you have to chase them?
I donʼt think I started this article with the right question, in my opinion selling has definitely changed. The real question is are you prepared to change with it?
LET’S LOSE THE MAYBE’S!
I donʼt seem to have any spare time these days. With emails, texts, Facebook, LinkedIn, phone calls, meetings etc my life is completely full and I donʼt have room for anything else! So Iʼve decided to get rid of all the MAYBEʼs in my life. All the people who canʼt make up their mind whether theyʼre a YES or a NO.
This has become so important to me of late that Iʼm starting most of my sales meetings with a conversation like this:
ʻAfter weʼve finished talking today I expect both you and I will either be a YES or a NO. That is, youʼll either like what Iʼm saying and think it could be useful for you and your team, or you wonʼt! Same for me. Now I love both YESʼs and NOʼs, the people that drive me mad are the MAYBEʼs.
I expect like me youʼve got a pile of MAYBEʼs on your desk, people who are either too nice to tell me NO or just canʼt make up their mind. Have you got a few of them in your life?
Well, letʼs not finish our meeting with either of us being a MAYBE. Let’s decide right now to be either a YES or a NO. If youʼre NO then that’s fantastic! I know that I donʼt need to do anything else for you, I donʼt need to send you anything, I donʼt need to call you in fact I can leave you alone completely. If you’re a YES then weʼll probably need to communicate further, book another meeting, arrange a phone call, decide who needs to send what to who etc.
Iʼm a big boy now and I realise that not everyoneʼs going to like me or value what I do. Please donʼt say MAYBE just to spare my feelings. It will make both our lives so much simpler and easier and save us a lot of time, if we just said NO.ʼ
Itʼs those MAYBEʼs that sap all our time, they require lots of attention and make us believe the future is going to be brighter than it actually is. What do you say we all join forces and get rid of the MAYBEʼs in our lives?