The Ultimate Sales Machine - Chet Holmes [36]
ME: Would you like to be respected?
THEM: Well, of course, I’d like to be respected.
ME: Would you like to be trusted?
THEM: Well, of course, I’d like to be trusted.
ME: Would you like referrals?
THEM: Well, of course, I’d like referrals.
ME: Would you like a preemptive strategy for when your competitors try to undercut your pricing?
THEM: Well, yeah, that’s a great objective.
ME: Would you like to be perceived as an expert?
THEM: That could be valuable, yes.
ME: How about influence? Would you like to have influence in that meeting?
THEM (the tacticians): What does that mean?
ME: Hang with me here a second. How about brand loyalty? Is that important?
THEM: Heck, yes.
ME: What about some urgency to buy now? Would that be a good thing?
THEM: Yes. That would be good.
If you even think about these objectives, doesn’t it automatically change how that meeting might go? So much of the sales process and potential strategic objectives are left up to the individual salesperson—every time. What if you, as the leader of your company, could devise a way to accomplish all those strategic objectives, and do them every time anyone in your company is in front of a buyer? How much more powerful would you be over your competition?
Let’s go deeper.
Increasing Sales 600 Percent by Adding Just One Additional Strategic Objective
Two furniture stores open up in a town on nearly the same day. One is totally tactical and the other is very strategic. If you go in to look at couches in store 1, the salesperson tries to sell you a couch. Tactical. Over a four-year period, this store grows at about 10 percent per year, mostly driven by the increasing costs of furniture.
In store 2, of course, they try to sell you a couch, but the management constantly trains the salespeople to sell the store. “First time in our store? Well, let me tell you about it.” And while the salespeople are on their way to the couches, they pitch the heck out of that store. They tell you about the history, the owner’s devotion to ser vice, why they have lower prices than their competitors, how well trained they are on furniture construction, and how that benefits you as the consumer.
The purpose of this buyer education is to create brand loyalty. Over time, this store builds a large and loyal following of customers who automatically come there first when they are interested in any type of furniture. When you shop for furniture, you probably go to various stores with little or no brand loyalty. Or you may see a sale in the newspaper and go because of the sale. But if you had a relationship with a store that stood behind its product like no other and could thoroughly explain the differences in furniture quality (there’s quite a bit to know) and even offered expertise in decorating, you might have an affinity, a loyalty, a preference for that particular store. When you needed furniture, you would go there first because of the relationship that it purposefully built with you. Buyer education paid off handsomely for one of our two new furniture stores. Over a four-year period the tactical store remained a one-store location, while the strategic store opened six locations.
People will even pay more if they perceive there is a greater value or a deeper reason for buying from one provider over another. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve helped companies step up out of the commoditizing world in which they live by being more strategic. In a moment I’ll have you do an exercise that will pound this idea home. Let’s do a little more setup so you get as much as possible out of the exercise.
Here’s a question I want you to answer: when your buyers look to purchase your type of product or ser vice, how much of an expert are they? When I ask this question in front of a large audience, every one pretty much admits that in any given purchasing situation, the average buyer is not much of an expert. For example, you are probably not much of an expert at all about carpet cleaning, are you?