How many difficult clients are you currently working with? If that question triggered an eye roll, then keep reading.
Every small business has their share of difficult clients. But you have to ask yourself what makes them difficult?
If you were to do a debrief on your most difficult clients, you’d find that they simply weren’t a good fit for your business. In fact, if you looked closely enough, you might realize that maybe, just maybe, you sold out. You gave up on some element of what makes you successful in order to close a deal for money that you needed.
It may not feel good to read that, but, it might feel a little better if you read Sell Without Selling Out by Andy Paul.
You Can Sell Without Selling Out
A lot of people will tell you that difficult clients come with the territory, but Andy Paul doesn’t agree.
How to Sell Without Selling Out is full of helpful advice for those who want to sell their product or service without resorting to salesy tactics or compromising their ethics.
Why Does Andy Paul Hate Sales?
According to Paul, salesey doesn’t sell. He should know. Andy Paul is a global sales advisor, top podcaster, and entrepreneur who says he almost didn’t make it past his first sales training class out of college. And do you know why? Because his bosses said that he wasn’t “salesey” enough.
Well, Paul showed them! Since then, Andy Paul has helped boost the performance of teams selling a wide variety of products and services. Today he’s doing what he loves — sharing his unique insights about how to sell without selling out.
The key to Paul’s sales strategies is changing your mindset around sales.
Master The 4 Pillars of Selling
In Sell Without Selling Out Paul reveals the four “sell in” pillars that are the indispensable instruments of selling.
- Connection: Engage on a human level
- Curiosity: Find out what frustrates them
- Understanding: Dig deep into what makes the buyer tick
- Generosity: Share your values and vision
In so many ways, this book reminds me of a smarter, kinder, gentler, and more useful selling system. And, to be honest, I think we could all use this type of sales approach both as buyers and sellers.
Ask Yourself — What is Sales?
My favorite thing about this book is how Paul explains sales in the simplest, most human terms possible:
“What we do, as sellers, isn’t complicated. We listen to understand what the most important thing is to our buyers. And then we help them get it.”
If you’ve ever purchased anything — especially for a significant amount of money, you can appreciate the power of this type of sales mindset. In other words, if we as salespeople would simply take our attention off of our own needs for revenue and put our attention on the client and their needs to get what they need and want, you’ll find yourself looking forward to every sales call because you’ll be helping people while building your business.
Here are just a few of the benefits:
- Build trust with buyers by focusing your efforts on building relationships.
- Create positive experiences for buyers. This will help them make decisions quickly and increase your chances of winning the sale.
- Make sure that the way you are selling your products and services is in line with your values and the values of your potential buyers.
- Listen FOR what buyers need and want. You’re already listening to your customers, but are you listening for what they truly want. For example, you can listen to your prospect talk about different shovels, when what they really want is a hole. Once you know the ideal outcome they want, you can find creative ways to deliver it.
- Instead of leading your client toward your product or service, help them make decisions quickly and without spending too much time on it.
Start Fresh and “Ditch the Pitch”
I don’t often say this, but I have such mad professional love and respect for Andy Paul! He says what we as buyers want from our relationships with sales people – helping us make the right buying decision.
He also gives us as sales professionals the freedom to do what we most desire — to firmly and finally ditch the pitch! Just imagine– not persuading, not trying, not finagling. Just helping and making a real difference in our customer’s lives.
What Will You Do With All That Freedom?
The question here isn’t whether you should read this book or not, it’s what will you do with all the mental freedom you get after finally selling the way you want to be selling.
Just imagine finally being able to help customers they way you want to be helped. Imagine having a customer list of people you would be happy to call your friends. Imagine being a business owner who finally loves selling!
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This article, "Get Ready to Sell Without Selling Out" was first published on Small Business Trends
via https://www.aiupnow.com
Ivana Taylor, Khareem Sudlow
