The secret to sustainable sales success is not
found by trying to shout louder than everyone else out there. The secret is to
move away from the crowd and the noise and to begin the process of building
connection with the right people, in the right place at the right time. This is
a case of going back to basics and instead of trying to spray your message out
into the world and sitting back and praying that someone will hear it and
miraculously get to know like and trust what you have to offer. You must
clearly define who your target clients are, find out where you can connect with
them so that you can begin to build connection and trust with them.
These changing times, where we have so much going
on around us all the time, has forced us to take a step back and to change the
way we market our businesses. People have not changed, they still choose to buy
from businesses they know, like and trust and can offer them the best
opportunity to get maximum value. It is time to stop shouting a message that
people don’t want to hear, in places where your prospective clients aren’t
listening as this is totally ineffectual and just a waste of energy. Commit to
begin the process of communicating, connecting and influencing the right people,
so that they can easily see that what you have to offer is exactly what they
need.
Connect with the right people
Once you have invested the time to identify the
right clients, in the right markets and you have found out how to connect with
them. You have built connection with them over time and now want to show them
the value you offer, use the concept below as an effective way to guide them
towards accepting your value proposition as an ideal fit for their needs or
challenges.
Learning the art of effective persuasion and
influence is best understood by revisiting some ancient wisdom that was given
by Aristotle, many centuries ago. He suggested that there are three levels of
persuasion, namely Logos, Pathos and Ethos.
Describing your Value
Proposition
The first step in the process of influencing others
to see the value you offer and that it is perfectly suited to meet their needs,
is to appeal to them on a basic, logical level. This is a process in which you
communicate a logical message to your prospective client showing them that your
market offering is the most obvious choice. This is a process in which you are
persuading people that what you have is exactly what they want and need.
This is best
illustrated by an example:
Appealing to your prospects logic, is a process in
which you ask them a few questions, in which you highlight your unique selling
proposition and the incredible benefits your product has to offer. If you are
attempting to persuade someone to use your services, as a time management
consultant, then you would use the following questions to show them that, what
you offer is the only logical solution to their current circumstances.
·
Do you
agree that if you focused on improving your team’s effectiveness and discovered
the right actions to take every day, so that they would stop spinning their
wheels, you would significantly improve your results over the next twelve
months?
·
Is it
true that you arrive home from work every day exhausted, yet you feel that you
have not accomplished much at all?
·
So you
want better results, but you feel like you don’t have sufficient time, is that
right.
·
So what
if making this small investment will allow you to identify the exact actions
that you need to take every day and then give you a set of tools and
techniques, which would improve your efficiency so dramatically, that it would
feel like you gained a couple of hours each day, Would you be interested? Would
that give you a huge advantage over your competition? Would it help you to make
far more money?
This method of persuading people that what you have
to offer is exactly what they need is perfect, for communicating your message
to people on a one to one basis or when speaking to small groups of people.
Persuade, but never manipulate
The challenge that we all face when attempting to
influence people is that there is a very fine line between persuasion and
manipulation. You can never build a successful business by manipulating people;
they will eventually see right through you and will no longer trust anything
that you have to say.
The way I define the difference
between influence and manipulation is:
When someone is trying to manipulate someone, they
have a negative intent and are selfishly looking at the interaction from their
own selfish perspective only. This is a one sided transaction, where there is
only one winner.
On the other hand when you influence someone the
intent is always one of offering a mutually beneficial solution to satisfy a
need. Persuasion always results in a mutually beneficial outcome, where both
parties feel like they have received fair exchange. The best way to persuade
someone, that what you have to offer is exactly what they need, is to always
ask yourself these few questions
- · Why should this person want what I am offering?
- · What is in it for them?
- · Is it the best option for them, will this transaction be a fair exchange?
When you ensure that what you are attempting to
persuade people to buy, is aligned with their needs and that there is always a
fair exchange, where everyone wins, you have created the foundation for great
success.
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