The word “selling” is not a dirty word.
Nor should it ever be considered to be a dirty word.
Selling is the passionate demonstration of the compelling benefits of owning something, to someone who is yet to be the owner of that something.
On that note, I received this email this week from my good friend and mentor Dave Dee:
“There is a word that almost anyone selling professional services does not want to be associated with.
Can you guess what it is?
If you answered “salesperson,” give yourself a gold star.
Last week I did a virtual presentation on selling for a group of alternative healthcare practitioners. I asked how many of them disliked selling. Everyone but one person said they didn’t like it, and no one wanted to think of themselves as a salesperson.
That’s understandable because of the negative connotations that the word has. It immediately conjures up the high-pressure, fast-talking guy delivering his “pitch”.
(As an inside, legendary sales trainer Tom Hopkins had a list of words that salespeople should never use, and “pitch” was one of them. He said professionals don’t “pitch”; they do “presentations.”)
You don’t have to think of yourself as a salesperson, but you must know how to sell.
Please answer these questions:
- Do you offer a quality service that helps people?
- Do you care about your clients?
- If you’re talking to a qualified prospect, who needs your help, do you believe that you are the one who should help them?
If you answered “yes” to these questions, you have an obligation to close the sale. If you don’t, you’re not only doing yourself, your business, and your family a disservice but your prospective client a disservice.
Professional selling isn’t about manipulating people into buying something they don’t need or won’t help them. It’s about finding out what people want and helping them get it.
So go out there and help as many people as you can.
Dave Dee”
The truth is, that SELLING IS SHARING.
When you share with someone how good or how great your product is, and what great benefits they will receive when they use your product, or own your product, you’re not selling your product to them…
You’re sharing the fact with them that they are doing themselves and their family an injustice and a disservice by failing to procure ownership of whatever it is that you’ve been demonstrating to them.
If you are passionate about the benefits that will come to them when they own your product, you owe it to them to ensure that that ownership does take place for them.
When they fail to buy whatever it is you are passionately recommending, and they walk away empty handed, you have let them down.
And you know that they will be worse off for not buying.
Sometimes lousy sales people will justify their inadequate selling skills by saying something stupid, like:
“Well, I gave them all the options, and they chose not to buy….so it’s not my fault they didn’t buy….”
But if the person who fails to buy is uneducated, chances are you have really done a disservice to them by confusing them with options.
It is your duty to help people in need to acquire what they need.
Giving them options and letting them “think about it” is dereliction of your duty.
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Dr. David Moffet BDS FPFA CSP is a certified CX Experience coach. David works with his wife Jayne Bandy to help SME businesses improve their Customer Service Systems to create memorable World Class experiences for their valued clients and customers. Click here to find out how David and Jayne can help your business