Are You a Consultant to Your Potential Clients?

Growing up, I have admired my uncle Dan in many ways.  One of the ways that Dan has been a great mentor to me is by being is the best salesperson I know.  When I was a teenager and thinking about careers, he was nice enough to take me along with him for a day of sales calls, introducing me as his assistant.  It was obvious that he and his customers had a tremendous amount of mutual respect.  I heard about him making the President's Club at his company so many times that he got sick of going to Hawaii.  And even though his success allowed him to retire at the tender age of 44, he enjoys helping others become better salespeople by flying all around the world providing educational seminars on the topic.

The founder of Trust Triangle Selling, Dan has written a book on selling, has his own iPhone app, and also puts out a monthly newsletter with sales tips.  Even though I am no longer a salesperson, I still subscribe to his newsletter because his advice can be applied to many different situations.

 

This month, Dan's newsletter describes his personal experience as a home buyer looking for his next digs.  While I wasn't with him during his experience going to the ~10 open houses he writes about, it sounds like there are some powerful sales skills that agents can learn from him.  

 

Read Dan's Newsletter here.

 

As you can see from his experience, Dan had at least ten different agents he could choose to work with.  Agents who pushed information instead of being a consultant did a poor job differentiating themselves from the pack - and the one who did is the one who took time to show that she understood their unique needs. 

 

 Are you a consultant when working with potential clients, or an information pusher?

 

How do you gain trust and rapport?