Would you be surprised to learn that most people don’t like being in sales and don’t believe they are good at it? The reality is everyone is in sales of some sort and in ways many people don’t imagine. Why do some forms of selling illicit feelings of fear, disgust or sleaziness when other forms of selling are so much a part of your persona that you don’t even realize it is happening?
The answers to that question lie in each person individually. Getting in touch with the answers that are personal to you are essential if you want to be more successful in influencing others to buy responses from you that you know will be valuable for them to have. Would you be more effective in life and in business if you were a professional at helping others buy? That’s possible if you can believe that you already have the basics to get started and that with a little training and practice you’ll be getting buying results you never before thought possible.
To make this real, think about a customer who could benefit from buying your service, an employee who could benefit from improving their performance, colleagues who could benefit from implementing your ideas or a friend who could benefit from considering your advice.
In each of these situations, the person you are relating with is more likely to be influenced by your communication when they believe the value of what you are offering helps them meet a need they have a desire to satisfy. Selling to another that is influencing them to buy a solution that is good for them, has three separate components that all must be present and a fourth that serves as the glue to tie them together.
Most certainly you and everyone else are good at helping others buy certain solutions without even realizing that all three components, including the glue, are present when you are trying to help them. The three components are your buyers’ needs, their desires and the solutions you offer. Communication is the glue.
Every time someone uses a solution you offer, it means that they have acknowledged a need they have, that they have a desire to solve it, that the features and benefits of your solution will serve their need and that the communication you used with that person helped them in some way connect their need and their desire to your solution. You’ll be a professional at helping people buy when you systemize your approach and practice it to the level at which you predictably get the results you desire.
Professionally helping others buy includes selecting the right people to help, and deselecting the ones who don’t qualify to receive your solutions. There is no point wasting your energy trying to help someone who isn’t open to exploring that they have a need in the first place. The better your communication skills are, the more powerful your questions make them think and the more genuine your desire to help really is, the more they will see a need they have to satisfy and the more they will see you as someone who shares solving their problem as a common goal.
Next, you must understand their desire and help them develop the intensity of that desire to the point that they want to overcome any resistance they have to solving their problem. This means using your communication skills, generally in the form of questions, to help them connect with the value of solving their need. Is the value to them future pleasure or avoidance of pain? Is it leaving current dissatisfaction behind?
Most certainly there is an emotional component of that value that will drive them to buy, even if later they defend their choice with logic.
When you’ve been successful at getting someone to buy solutions you offered in the past, what emotion did you help them satisfy or get? When you’ve done the need and desire part well, your buyer will look to you for solutions. They’ll likely buy from you because you’ve built credibility and they trust helping them see their real need and connecting them with their desire to solve it. Your solutions will be sought after and adopted more intently if your communication path approaches problem solving in this manner.
How is this approach different than the many people use today when they consciously try to get someone to use their solution? Most people identify another person’s need before that person has articulated it on their own. Then they begin telling the other person what their problem is without that person’s permission, and they continue on to tell them what they need to do to solve it. No wonder people avoid other people who demonstrate those kinds of sales tactics.
Would more of your friends adopt your advice if they felt a shared understanding of their needs first, especially if it were your questions that helped them clarify its elements? Would more of the people on your team implement changes in their performance if your questions and communication helped them aspire to a higher level of desire to do better work? Do the chances for your company sell more increase when your ability to understand need and connect desire drive for customers influences them to ask how they can get started with your service? The answer to all of these questions, of course, is yes.
Improving your success at helping others buy solutions from you will only occur if you believe it can and if you believe you are or can be good at it. Once you believe you can do it and realize that you already have years of success under your belt, you’ll be able to take the next step, which is learning how to systemize the process and communication that works for you.
Beliefs can change in an instant. Your success at influencing others with your communication skills is but one belief change away. Is there a better time than now for you to make that choice?
About ActionCOACH
Brad Sugars founded the brand Action International in 1993 when he realized there was a disconnect between business advice and implementation. The answer was Action! Brad Sugars created a business coaching company so that business owners throughout the world can realize their goals in business. Today the company is known as ActionCOACH. To learn more about business, visit Brad Sugars Review blog!
