Episode 47 - How Sales People Undevalue Themselves

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE
Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already
Have.


We're going to be talking about how saying thank you for your
time to a potential client when you go to see them, may actually
kill the sale. We’re also going to tackle how business people
unnecessarily subordinate their time, their positioning, and
their value.


I see this a lot: as salespeople, we unnecessarily subordinate
our value; and doing so really harms our positioning with our
client, and the perceived value of our brand and what we sell. We
tend to undervalue what we do.


We have continually drummed into ourselves that the “customer is
king,” and that “the customer is always right,” because they're
the ones that are paying us. These things are true to some
extent. But our overall value in a transaction is often as high,
if not higher, than the customer that we're buying from. After
all, there are way more customers to sell to, than there are
suitable businesses to buy from, let alone ones that offer great
advice and great service.


There are a couple of common phrases that businesses and
salespeople tend to use that devalue their position in the eyes
of a client. The first one is: “You know, I'll just take 10
minutes of your time,” or “Oh, thanks so much for your time.”
There's no reason for it. We're making ourselves sound less
important than the people we’re selling to.


I remember a conversation that I had with one of my early mentors
when I sold Quicksilver and Ripcurl. We were talking about a
particularly prickly retailer who had a habit of speaking very
rudely and abruptly to agents.


For a reason that I can't recall, I'd been on the rough end of
one of this guy's rants. I remember my mentor saying something
that stuck with me: “Sometimes we forget that our clients need us
as much, if not more than we need them.”


If you think about it, what would happen if there were no longer
any vendors? It’s pretty hard to run a retail store if all the
vendors suddenly went away, so it should be an equal exchange of
energy when two business equals meet.


You might think, “Oh, you know, my business is so competitive
that we have to try to sell at every opportunity we get.” I agree
with that, but you don't have to unnecessarily disable your
chances before you even get the chance to have the conversation.


So replace “Thank you for your time,” with “Hey, great to meet
you.” You don't need to thank the person for their time because
they could potentially be thanking you for your time too. Replace
“I’ll only take 10 minutes of your time,” with “The process would
typically take us between 10 and 15 minutes. Is that okay with
you?”


Before, I've talked about a number of other phrases, words and
overused clichés that you need to avoid at all costs in a client
conversation if you want to improve your chances of starting and
finishing a sales conversation that actually results in your
client buying from you. I urge you to think about this: make sure
that you understand that your time and your value is as valuable,
if not more than the person that you are talking to - not to feel
elitist or arrogant, but just understand that your time is just
as valuable.


To DOUBLE your lead-to-sale CONVERSION with the leads you already
have, go to http://JohnBlakeAudio.com for his
exclusive, free, no-fluff, audio training and companion PDF
guide.


Inside you’ll get word-for-word email followup templates, phone
scripts, and more that you can put to use today.