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Unfortunately, when
I first entered the sales profession, I was taught that the way to sell was through
manipulation, intimidation, and domination. Our training back then stressed that
the best way to get appointments was to stretch the truth about the real purpose
of our calls, that the only real way to sell was to pressure our customers, and that
selling was "only a numbers game." The old game plan was to hit an area
quickly, talk fast, and set people up for the "power close." The Golden
Rule took on a new twist, rephrased to say, "Do unto others, then get out!"
Sadly, that once popular approach to sales is still taught by some trainers and corporations
today. Only a short time ago, one of the most popular sales-training books was Selling
Through Intimidation. High-pressure tactics, trick closes, and speed-talking
techniques continue as the foundation of far too many sales training systems. Even
today there are occasional releases of books guaranteed to teach you how to "power
sell" your way to success through so-called hardball techniques.
Companies that trust their futures to those tired techniques will not survive in
the competitive and tightly niched markets of the 21st Century. Salespeople who trust
their careers to those simple and out-dated methods will languish right along with
the companies that espouse them. Salespeople and organizations who trust their careers
and business success to their personal credibility will thrive.
This new idea also contrasts markedly with the old-school philosophy that sought
out people who had the personality for sales. A good personality for sales may well
produce short-range sales success, but today's demanding and busy customers are unlikely
to place their faith solely in a winning sales personality. A reputation for honesty
must be built on a level deeper than personality. Long-range sales success will rely
on the credibility one has as a person.
More salespeople than ever before now recognize that personal credibility is the
most vital ingredient for success in selling. Today's successful salesperson relies
not on making single sales nor on tricking customers into buying, but on a multifaceted
strategy of long-range repeat business and customer referrals, grounded in a reputation
as an honest and highly credible person.
Credibility Unlocks The Door To Success
Since we know that most people get tense in crowds, it follows that crowded marketplaces
will also make buyers tense. The greatest personal challenge you face today is overcoming
the tension that exists in a highly crowded selling environment.
Behavioral psychologists have a term known as territorial imperative. Most
graphically evident in lower animals, it is nonetheless true with humans: Virtually
every living creature marks out an area that he or she will defend against all intruders.
When that personal space is invalid, its owner examines the intruder carefully to
determine if it is friend or foe. Only when one trusts the intruder will he or she
relax. Without credibility, you will remain an untrusted intruder.
If your credibility can transform this natural tension into trust, you will have
a greater chance to break through its resistance and close the sale. Failure to establish
credibility with your prospects will reduce you to merely another face in the bustling
crowds of salespeople they see daily. Your credibility is the key to your prospectsí
view of you as an honorable person.
Credibility Begins With High Self-Esteem
Often, people with low credibility have no clue why their reputations suffer.
They know that deep down inside they are honest people, yet they fail to convey that
conviction to others. The reasons for that failure are usually based on the nonverbal
communications they send out to people around them.
Communications experts have made it common knowledge that more than 80 percent of
the signals we send to others are communicated nonverbally. That means that for every
statement you make, you send four nonverbal signals to your prospect. Every contact
you make with your prospects must be an action that tells them you are trustworthy.
Always assume that your every action is under scrutiny to see whether you should
be allowed into the prospect's personal space. See how much sense this idea makes
in light of my earlier affirmation: "People won't long remember what you said,
but they'll never forget how you made them feel." Most of the signals that determine
how you make people feel are in that nonverbal 80 percent category.
More than any other single factor, the way you see yourself determines the way others
see you. Your self-image shapes everything you say and do. It shows up in the way
you dress, walk, talk, sit, laugh, and in what you do with your eyes and hands. People
watch all these signals when they decide whether to trust you and believe what you
say.
Therefore, a salesperson with low self-esteem will transmit his or her internal struggle
to prospects. The prospect senses that something is amiss and never trusts the salesperson
enough to open up his or her personal space. Therefore, the most direct route to
high credibility is through high self-esteem.
Bill Brooks is CEO of The Brooks
Group, an international sales training and business growth firm based in Greensboro
NC. For more information visit www.thebrooksgroup.com.
If you would like to receive The Brooks Group's free e-mail monthly sales or sales
management newsletter e-mail: Barbara@thebrooksgroup.com
or call The Brooks Group at 800-633-7762.
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