Do your potential customers see you as the expert?
Or are you being a little bit too humble with your knowledge and your attributes?
It can be very tempting when you’re talking to a potential new customer to be very gracious, very warm, very open; to share a lot of knowledge and information, but not to be too direct or too dictatorial about what you think is exactly the right thing for them.
Because none of us want to be too salesy or pushy or aggressive, or all those awful things that we’ve seen from terrible salespeople in the past do we?
But as a result of that, sometimes that means we’re not specific enough in helping the customer to make a clear choice.
And this can often be one of the reasons why a customer who seems like they are absolutely sold, somehow turns out not to be.
By not directing the customer towards the specific product or service you think is right for them you’re actually making their decision harder.
So the customer may listen to everything that you have got to say. They may love all your evidence about how you’ve helped other customers. They may have been bowled over by all your testimonials. There’s no doubt in their mind that you’re are an expert in what you do.
But the crucial question for any potential customer at that moment is whether you’re the right person for them.
One of the most important things that you have to do at that point in time, is make the customer’s decision as easy as possible for them.
They’re looking for you to tell them exactly how you plan to help them and exactly what it is that you recommend that they buy from you.
Let me give you an example…
I remember talking to a gentleman about three years ago who ran a social media management business. It was a great looking business with really good success stories, fabulous looking proposals and lots more besides.
And yet he was constantly sitting in front of customers who didn’t go on to buy from him.
When I asked him about his meetings with all these great prospects he showed me examples of the 3 typical proposals he would take to each meeting.
So the customer was given a choice of 3 different packages and explained the benefits of all 3. And then left to choose.
But at that stage, how does the customer know which one is right for them? The customer was looking for him to pinpoint which of the packages was the best one for them and why.
You see, it’s not the customer’s job to work out which of your offers is the best one for them. It’s your job to tell them!
They need to understand why it’s right for them and to hear that you’ve listened to exactly what they’re looking for and can deliver it.
There is a lot of evidence that proves that whenever somebody has more than one choice, i.e. if it’s anything other than a straight yes or no, or A or B choice; that significantly reduces the likelihood of them reaching a decision.
So if you’re offering customers a range of options to make sure you’re not too pushy, the chances are that you’ve actually just overwhelmed them.
Whereas if you give them three options but recommend one of those as the best option for them, then rather than being pushy, you’ll come across as confident and considered.
When you can explain that option A is the right one for this, this, and this reason, then you’ll appear professional and assertive (not pushy) and you’ll eliminate that confusion of choice for the customer.
So you might need to consider being a little less gracious!
This doesn’t mean for a second that you should go down the pushy, slimy, sleazy, salesy route. But you do need to make it very clear to a customer that you are the expert and that is okay.
By showing that you’re confident you can help them and that you know exactly the right way to help them, you’ll narrow down that choice for them. You’ll get rid of all that confusion for your customer.
By making it a straight yes or no choice and being confident about what you’re offering, you should naturally find way more of those customers starting to sign on the dotted line. Even though you probably don’t have a dotted line. But you know what I mean!
I hope that’s been helpful and given you some food for thought about how you may be losing some customers who you know you can definitely help.
The great thing is that this is a really small, easy change to make, but it can have fantastic results.
I would really love to hear your comments and thoughts on this blog below. Let me know how it applies to you, and if you change anything as a result it would be great to hear about that.
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