To See Ourselves As Others See Us
The Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote:
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us
Burns was writing in the Scots-English dialect of the 18th century; translated into the English we understand today, those words mean:
If only we had the power to see ourselves as others see us – we would avoid so many blunders
Hard to argue with that. So, how do your customers see you? Here are two common views customers have:
• You’re a typical salesman, intent on taking an order above all else and concerned primarily with the commission you would earn
• You’re interested in them, as a business and as people, and what you want is to make sure they receive the advice …show more content…
It Isn’t Really About The Product
As humans, we like to think that we are all logical, reasoning beings. We are deluding ourselves. Perhaps not entirely – between three and four out of every 10 decisions to buy a product or service are made on logical grounds. The other six to seven have more to do with emotion and feelings than with logic. That 65% of buyers are buying because of the way they feel about the person they are buying from and the way they believe that person feels about them.
So stop trying to sell products and services to your customers and prospects, and start selling YOU and the feelings of warmth, security and confidence they get from dealing with you.
You may be able to ignore that advice if you are the only person in the world selling this product or service, and it is one the prospect or customer absolutely must have. And how many people in the world do you imagine fall into that category? And are you one of them? No, I thought not.
You might also want to look at these …show more content…
It isn’t hard to decide which of the two categories – advisor or hard sell merchant – your customers put you into, because they tell you. Not in words, but in what they call on you for. So monitor it. Every time you receive an email, make a customer visit, take a telephone call – any time you have any contact at all from prospects and customers – make a note. (You’re doing that, anyway, right? Because, if you’re not, get yourself a CRM program RIGHT NOW and start; you can’t plan how to meet your targets and monitor your progress unless you track every single contact with a customer or prospect to see where it goes and to analyze how you could have handled it better). What I’m asking you to do is to add one question to that CRM record: Was the purpose of the inquiry to ask your advice or help? (If so, you were an advisor). Or was it to get a quote for a possible order? (If so, you were a seller).
Tot up the number of answers in each category at the end of each month and you’ll know how your customers see you. And, if you’re clearly seen more as a seller than as an advisor, you have some hard work ahead of you, because you have to change that
The Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote:
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us
Burns was writing in the Scots-English dialect of the 18th century; translated into the English we understand today, those words mean:
If only we had the power to see ourselves as others see us – we would avoid so many blunders
Hard to argue with that. So, how do your customers see you? Here are two common views customers have:
• You’re a typical salesman, intent on taking an order above all else and concerned primarily with the commission you would earn
• You’re interested in them, as a business and as people, and what you want is to make sure they receive the advice …show more content…
It Isn’t Really About The Product
As humans, we like to think that we are all logical, reasoning beings. We are deluding ourselves. Perhaps not entirely – between three and four out of every 10 decisions to buy a product or service are made on logical grounds. The other six to seven have more to do with emotion and feelings than with logic. That 65% of buyers are buying because of the way they feel about the person they are buying from and the way they believe that person feels about them.
So stop trying to sell products and services to your customers and prospects, and start selling YOU and the feelings of warmth, security and confidence they get from dealing with you.
You may be able to ignore that advice if you are the only person in the world selling this product or service, and it is one the prospect or customer absolutely must have. And how many people in the world do you imagine fall into that category? And are you one of them? No, I thought not.
You might also want to look at these …show more content…
It isn’t hard to decide which of the two categories – advisor or hard sell merchant – your customers put you into, because they tell you. Not in words, but in what they call on you for. So monitor it. Every time you receive an email, make a customer visit, take a telephone call – any time you have any contact at all from prospects and customers – make a note. (You’re doing that, anyway, right? Because, if you’re not, get yourself a CRM program RIGHT NOW and start; you can’t plan how to meet your targets and monitor your progress unless you track every single contact with a customer or prospect to see where it goes and to analyze how you could have handled it better). What I’m asking you to do is to add one question to that CRM record: Was the purpose of the inquiry to ask your advice or help? (If so, you were an advisor). Or was it to get a quote for a possible order? (If so, you were a seller).
Tot up the number of answers in each category at the end of each month and you’ll know how your customers see you. And, if you’re clearly seen more as a seller than as an advisor, you have some hard work ahead of you, because you have to change that