To Be Successful At Selling You Must Have The Prospect’s Trust

While listening to the news the other night the question was asked, “Why do people watch one newscast over another?”  The answer, “Trust.”  I believe the answer is both true and profound.  People listen to and believe those people they trust.  Selling is very similar to a newscast; in both cases, people are persuaded by and believe the words of people they trust!  In a sales coaching session today, one of my clients, somewhat discouraged with her closing ratio asked, “What more can I do to increase my sales.  I find the opportunities.  I discover, uncover and remove the pain.  I prepare and deliver a quote and yet, I experience a lot of indecision and hesitancy on behalf of the decision makers.”  In total frustration she pleaded, “What am I doing wrong?”

I don’t think she was doing anything wrong in her sales process as far as she was going.  What she was doing wrong was what she wasn’t doing.  She wasn’t building trust with her prospect.  Far too often I find salespeople doing exactly as this client.  They do everything right up through the step of delivering the quote.  Once the quote is presented, they believe their job is completed and the next step is to wait for the prospect to respond.  Either they like the quote or they don’t.  If they like it, you get the order and if they don’t, well you know how that goes.

The sale really begins once the quote has been presented and yet, many salespeople believe presenting the quote is the end of the process.  People buy from people they BELIEVE, LIKE and TRUST.  There are many people offering similar products as solutions to similar problems with similar pricing.  Why does one salesperson win the sale and why do the others lose the sale.  You might be thinking to yourself, “That’s easy, the difference is price.”  Well, it is only price if you let it be price.  I’ve seen too many situations where the prospect purchased the same or similar product and paid more for it from one sales person than was offered by others.  The decision to purchase is not always price.  I was talking to one of my clients who told me he quoted the lowest price and didn’t get the order.  He was totally frustrated and claimed he had no idea anymore what it took to land a sale.  I encouraged him to ask the prospect why he lost the sale and the answer was, “I didn’t believe you would be able to deliver it to me on time.  You talked about how busy you were and I didn’t want to risk not receiving the product when I needed it.”

When you spend the time to build BELIEF, LIKE and TRUST with your prospect, you will close those opportunities that seem to hang in limbo, and you will make sales without becoming the low priced, thinnest margin seller.  How do you build BELIEF, LIKE and TRUST?  Romance the sale.  As I met with my client this afternoon I asked her if she was romancing the sale.  She knows better and admitted that she had become complacent.  She had fallen back into the bad habit of presenting the quote and then waiting for a decision.  That approach encourages the buyer to line up all the quotes and then pick the lowest price.  Salespeople need to spend time with the prospect in order to build the trust necessary for them to feel comfortable buying from you.  Ask yourself, “Do you want the buyer making the purchasing decision in your absence, or worst yet, in the presence of one of your competitors?

Romancing the sale allows the sales person to have multiple contacts with the decision maker.  Romancing the sale provides the perfect opportunity to present additional information to help convince the decision maker of the value of your offering.  Romancing is the vehicle by which salespeople build BELIEF, LIKE and TRUST with their prospects.  Why do people watch one newscast versus another?  Trust.  Why do people buy from one salesperson versus another?  Trust.  Why was my client not closing as many sales as she should have been?  Lack of trust.  What will she be doing on a regular basis beginning today?  Romancing every prospect and building BELIEF, LIKE and TRUST with each one of them.  She won’t make every sale, no one ever does.  But I can promise you, just as I promised her, your sales will improve dramatically when you spend the time to develop BELIEF, LIKE and TRUST with your prospects.