Are you afraid of taking risks because of the risk of failure?
Within all our business models, there’s a need to wear a sales hat. But what if you took off that "sales hat" and instead wore a "service provider hat"?
Stay with me on this. Almost every client and prospect you come into contact with has at some point been mislead, misinformed maybe even blatantly lied to. Maybe they heard idle promises and this left them with a feeling of mistrust of all “sales” people. I know I encountered this quite a bit when I sold temporary staffing services.
How did I become someone that my clients and prospects could trust? I stopped selling them to them and simply pointed out real ways I could help them. I uncovered the pains they were experiencing and helped them find solutions even if it meant that I did not get their business. I took the "risk" factor away for them and simply offered my knowledge and ideas without expected anything in return. Risky - you bet. Just think about the time spent without any guarantee of a possible sale. But in reality isn't that the chance we all take? We are never really guaranteed the sale or opportunity simple because a prospect agreed to meet with us.
So why on earth would I do all that? Because I become a valuable and trusted resource for them and almost every single client I did this with eventually became a client of mine and one of them was my largest and most profitable account I ever brought in.
The same applies in the real estate business. You’ve heard it from sellers who were promised the moon and the stars only to have their home not get one offer and they pull it off the market – maybe even try to sell it themselves as a FSBO. Perhaps you have a prospect you’re meeting with that comes across as very demanding – wanting soup to nuts because they were promised things and they were never delivered from a previous agent.
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First know what you’re capable of delivering – don’t make promises you can’t keep
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Listen to what your prospect is saying (don't speak)
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After they are done - offer a solution that addresses their biggest problem while at the same showcasing how you can be of the greatest benefit to them
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Develop a customized plan - talking directly to a prospect about their individual nees - make it personal (for clients this will be more involved)
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Monitor and share feedback with prospect/client regularly (check in with prospect to see how things are going - make a call, drop by - you may just have a new client ready to work with you.)
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Think outside the box and do something different - each client is unique so make their solution unique.
Coming up…Stay tuned for more on Giving Your Clients What They Want & Need: Extra Credit for Showing Your Work
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