The
funniest things go through your mind when riding a bike on switchbacks
up a mountain. It came to me today while slogging up the hill that
something a client of mine and I had talked about last week riding up
the same mountain together was pretty important. Sales people and
business owners really don’t get it.
He related that he had been at a gathering and a friend introduced
him to an insurance guy, then promptly walked off, leaving my friend
with a guy who oozed “sales pitch.” Sure enough, the sales pitch came
almost immediately.
My friend was polite but cut in and made it very clear that he was
not the least bit interested in insurance of any kind, that he was
totally happy with his existing insurance of every kind, and didn’t
need any second opinions at this time of any kind. The insurance guy
nodded, then went on for 20 minutes about his great insurance. My
friend finally had to make up an excuse to get out of the conversation
and move on.
If this insurance guy had understood the best sales tactic ever, my
friend would have had no annoying story to tell me. What most sales
people and most business owners do not understand is that our job is
enter other people’s worlds, not get them to enter ours; to meet them
where THEY are at, not where we want them to be.
Drawing people into “my world” is what we all want to do. Let me
tell you how great I am, how great my product/service is, and how great
you would be if you just jumped into my world with both feet and bought
my stuff. I know what’s best for you, so I’ll ignore what you’re
saying and keep on recruiting you to enter my world.
What if we took the opposite approach? What if we said to
ourselves, what does that person want and need, without regard to what
I’m selling? What if I was simply willing to enter their world, to
mentally and emotionally meet them where they live, not where I live? This is the essence of servant-selling. Serve, don’t sell. We all
want to buy stuff, but none of wants wants to be sold stuff. Serve me
where I am at, regardless of your product/service, and I just might be
interested in buying from you.
Here’s the simple, but incredibly challenging “sales tactic.” It
comes from the book, The Power of Purpose, by Peter Themes, (the
subtitle, “Live Well by Doing Good” is my life vision). This isn’t a
sales book, but should be. Peter says the highest tier, Tier Three, of
“thinking” is “What does the other person I’m talking about think and
feel about themselves, and how can I help push them forward in that?” Tier Three thinking does not focus on what I feel and think, or even
what the other person feels and thinks about ME, but only where they
are and what I can do to help push them forward right there.
Start purposing to enter other people’s worlds, and apply Tier Three
thinking to everything you do. You’ll be surprised how hard it is to
stay focused on the needs of others (it was very revealing to me how
self-focused I am). It will also be the most powerful way to break
down barriers, make a friend, and put someone in a position where they
want to buy from you.
If you start entering other people’s worlds, meeting them where THEY
are at, and do it with the right motive, you may never have to sell
anything again. People will be too busy buying from you.