You may have superior sales training, such as great listening and questioning skills or knowing how to respond to a client. Yet, there is one trait that can rob you of your potential in any sales meeting.
Fear.
It’s understandable. You worked hard, and you waited patiently for this opportunity to meet with a new potential prospect. You likely spent considerable time planning for this meeting. You want to make a positive first impression. All eyes are on you, especially if this is an introduction to a C-level exec at a target organisation.
The expectations have been set. If you don’t perform, you will be judged. Who wouldn’t feel pressured in that situation?
I have asked the question to many sales professionals: what do you fear about selling?
By a long way, the biggest fear is not being seen as credible. When I dig a little deeper on this, it seems this fear is associated with a worry they won’t know the answers to the client’s questions. They worry this may affect how the client feels about them. It’s about personal reputation.
Basing your confidence around operating within your area of expertise puts you on shaky ground. This type of confidence is driven by a fear of not knowing answers to your client’s questions or not looking credible in their eyes.
When you come from this perspective, it changes your conversations with your client.
There will be a tendency for the salesperson to steer the conversation back to their comfort zone. By doing this, they can talk about what they know.
The problem with this approach is that it limits the scope of the conversation. Eventually, the client sees the individual as a product seller. Because the salesperson cannot talk outside their product, the buyer never sees them as someone they would consult on broader transformational projects.
The problem is even more exaggerated in professional services.
I’ve often seen situations where the consultant does not want to be seen as a salesperson. Quite rightly, their goal is to position themselves as a trusted expert with the client. In these cases, they feel the idea of selling violates that position.
I don’t see it this way. I would argue the process of selling is the process of building trust. The dilemma is with a concern about keeping their reputation intact. A better approach is showing some vulnerability by exploring areas of the client’s needs and wants on which they’re not an expert.
It may push you out of your comfort zone, although it has a significant impact on the client. When you drop back to only focus on the areas you know about – usually the product or service – you remain further down the selling pyramid as an information-giver rather than a problem-solver.
I want to have bigger problems to solve. If you can’t solve a big problem, your customer won’t contact you. They contact somebody with whom they feel they could have a more expansive conversation about their challenges.
True confidence is going into a meeting free of wanting to protect your reputation.
True confidence is being genuinely interested in the client’s highest needs and challenges. If you can help them solve these problems, then great, and if you can’t, you may be able to recommend somebody who can.
The fear is linked to being too attached to the outcome and too concerned about making a sale and getting a result.
Of course, it’s important to remember that you need to win work or sell your product or service at some point. But – paradoxically – the less you concern yourself about making the sale, the more you’re likely to be successful.
So my question for you is the next time you go into a client meeting, relax and ask yourself the question:
“What is my real focus here? What do you believe you’re there to do?”
If you have a genuine desire to help others, show empathy when listening to their issues and have the confidence to ask an insightful question, you do them a great service.
Turn your fear into confidence by being willing to say you don’t know and confident enough to say no to the client where appropriate.
Buyers don’t expect you to know all the answers. They do expect someone who is willing to help them find those answers, which is very different.
And this is what the best do really well.
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