Have you ever been the guy or gal that ran out of gas? Shockingly you discover you forgot your wallet. You’re in a state of panic.
Thankfully someone empathizes and hands you a few dollars. Crisis is averted. Or, if you have never run out of gas and you are the epitome of perfect planning, I know you’ve encountered the man or woman asking for a couple bucks. Perhaps it comes along with some strange story that doesn’t add up. Yet, your heart strings get pulled and you hand them your change dish. It’s harmless, a couple bucks to a stranger, no harm no foul.
What if that suspicious person with their strange story asked to have $5,000? The response would probably look something like this:
With that visual in mind, how do you expect the prospect, you just met, to react when you hand them a proposal with a fat price tag and hope for the best? They don’t know you from Adam.
You are a polished sales professional who can do much better. Your customer deserves more too. The relying on what you know strategy is safe and comfortable, but it is all too easy to get caught in the status quo. So here are my tips on how to stop being the crazy person at a gas station asking for thousands of dollars.
1. Understand the term relational equity
To understand this post in its entirety, you must understand relational equity. In theory, if you want more pocket change, you need to make a personal and professional connection with prospects and contribute something of value to their needs. Do this by listening with the intent to understand. Share resources to back up your claims. Sincerely be out for the best interest of the prospect and convince them that is the case. These simple yet often overlooked principles build strong, trustworthy relationships with prospects.
2. We are all in the H2H business.
You’ve heard B2C and B2B, heck we often operate in B2B2B. But never forget that every single one of us operate in the HUMAN TO HUMAN business model. Interpersonal relationships never go out of style and it has only become more important as we’ve grown digitally. Your prospects want a real person they can connect with and trust. If you can be that person for them, you will gain a large advantage over any competition.
3. Let your prospects know what you believe in.
If you want to connect with your prospects on a whole different level, be vulnerable. Allow them to see and know what you passionately believe in. This is not just a marketing concept, this is a human concept…If you tell your customer a story you will temporarily have their attention, but if you change the story that people tell about themselves, you will permanently own their hearts. And that my friends incubates an environment of trust, respect, and prospects who don’t hesitate when saying yes.
4. Don’t fear going first.
You have the power to deliver actual value to your prospects by speaking up, leading with education, and giving them valuable content before there is any contemplation of a sale. All too often we hear comments like “my customer didn’t ask for it” (i.e. maintenance, monthly payment, failover, etc.). All I have to say about that is, if you are waiting around for your customer to ask for something, you are at a disadvantage. Connecting into their pain, sharing knowledge they can relate to, and making authentic recommendations is how you build a beautiful salesperson/prospect relationship.
5. Invest Invest Invest (*hint I’m not talking about your retirement portfolio).
Selling anything to your prospect is basically a withdrawal from a customer’s account. There is nothing wrong with going in for the ask and withdrawing if you have taken the time to deposit or INVEST that relational equity into their account. But there is a big problem if you try to withdrawal when there are no funds in their account.
If you remember anything from reading this, just remember the term RELATIONAL EQUITY.
As it relates to your daily sales tactics, if you are not INVESTING into your customer’s relational equity account you are basically the stranger at the gas station asking people for thousands of dollars.
