A Funny Sales Secret

 

My friend Walt is the funniest person I know. He can walk into a room of strangers and within minutes the crowd will come alive, people will be laughing and they will gravitate toward Walt to find out more about him and to just be in his company. In most social settings you can almost always find a crowd of people around someone who is cracking them up with stories and jokes? Walt happens to be a master at making every individual person in the room feel good by using humor. It is no coincidence that he is also one of the best salespeople I’ve ever known.

What’s this story got to do with you? Well, close the door and pull the shades because I’m about  to tell you a very important sales secret and I don’t want too many people to find out about it as it could upset the entire sales dynamic in the world.

Here it is – People buy from people they like.

I don’t know about you but personally I’m not too keen on buying anything from someone I don’t like. In fact, I pretty much have to like, trust, and respect them. And, someone who can make me laugh, who cares about how I feel, who shows they like people and treats them as a friend is a requirement if I’m going to buy from you.

I have too many choices to ever have to buy from someone I don’t like, trust, or respect.

Years ago I was pretty active in National Speakers Association. It was always funny but yet sad to watch people talking to each other in the hallways between presentations. Too many of them would be talking to someone standing a foot in front of their face yet they’d be scanning the crowd to see if they should be talking to someone with more celebrity. So many opportunities to really get to know someone were wasted. But, I guess that’s why the organization wasn’t called the National Listeners Association.

Have you ever thought about how you establish a connection with people? We can’t all be like Walt and engage and entertain and entire room of strangers. But, one-to-one, we can be just as engaging and show that we really care about the person we’re with at that moment in time. We can do that with eye contact, a smile, and being present in the moment. We can do it by asking them non-threatening questions. We can do it listening and giving feedback so they know we heard and understood what they just told us. We can do it by tuning out everyone and everything else and giving them the respect they deserve.

The next opportunity you have to establish that connection with someone think about this other sales secret and act accordingly.

It’s not about you.