There are many things I hate about poverty and having a desperate need for money. The feeling of anxiety brought on by financial strain is real and has a grave affect on the soul of a person. However this feeling of “need” for money also permeates how business is conducted in many entrepreneurs. After 25 years of working for my self and helping other do the same I’ve come to really appreciate 1 simple fact. The real and tangible need for money can many times create a sales environment that the client really detest and the sales person is really uncomfortable with too.
Show me any salesman that is pushy, obnoxious, or high pressure and I’ll show you a desperate person just trying to etch out a living. The problem is it is not the clients problem you need to make a sale. While they can empathize with your need to make a living, their primary responsibility is to do what’s right for them and their family. So what is an entrepreneur, small business owner, or sales person to do when they feel the weight of needing to be productive, but understand that allowing those feelings to leak over into their presentation, or sales process is counter productive? Focus on value. There are 2 ways you can create tremendous value and have your prospects begging you to pitch to them.
#1 Create an environment or sales process for your prospective clients that is so valuable, so informative, so engaging that the very process itself is well worth their time. What this literally means is making the act of “pitching” to your client so fun and informative that they receive tremendous value whether a purchase was made or not. When this happens something amazing happens. The very process of being pitched to is shared with others, that’s called auto-referrals, and your conversion rates will go up. The greatest skill set you could ever achieve is making your engagement process so fun, entertaining, and informative for your prospect that they would like to go through it again. When this happens what you will see is people begging you to sale to them. When people are having that much fun being sold to, the buying decision is almost automatic.
#2 Create a business model in which you are paid for the engagement regardless of conversion. Most people don’t even realize this is possible. If you have been in business like me for years you may think this is impossible. You, like me may be conditioned to think the only way to make money is to have someone buy something from you. The day I discovered how to monetize my business without having to make a sell is the day my business exploded. This feeds into being able to do step #1. Think about it for just a minute. What kind of environment could you create for your listener, your visitor, your prospective clients if you were never worried whether they made a purchase from you or not? How much better of a consultant, coach, sales professional, or expert in a given field would you be if you could get paid by simply helping your prospective client?
Doing the above 2 things will create the 2 things you must possess in order to have any influence or impact in your field and that is rapport and authority. If you would like to hear a live call where I illustrate this very technique, then listen to the podcast below.
I spoke to 28 people today, didn’t make a sell, and earned $250 in 3 hours – Episode 212