“Hey Randy, it’s Dave from XYZ Corporation. I was just giving you a quick call to touch base and see how things are going. Give me a call back at 602-555-0123. Talk to you soon.”
How many times have you left that voicemail? And how many times have they actually called back? Or worse. How many times after this voicemail did they just start dodging your calls altogether?
Professional sales people often leave a voicemail such as this because they are attempting to satisfy the Like You element of The Buying Zone. However, what they actually end up accomplishing is the exact opposite of what they set out to do; get the customer to Like You.
Don’t get me wrong. I am all for being nice, approachable, non-pushy, and not too direct. However, if the pendulum swings too far to the other direction we end up becoming irrelevant, unimportant, a waste of time, or the absolute worst trait: annoying.
The proper balance between pushy and arrogant salesperson, and irrelevant is a slippery slope; but if you want your customer to choose you or your product or service over your competition, you had better find the exact proper balance between arrogance and ignorance.
If you call or visit your customer and try to tell them how to run their business, you will offend them, and they will respond in their mind with “don’t tell me about my business!”
If you call or visit your customer and just “check in” or “touch base” you will be viewed as irrelevant and a waste of time.
Either way; you assuredly are going to lose the deal you are attempting to win.
Therefore, it becomes increasingly important in the sales process to find exactly what it is your customer enjoys about buying from you and what they don’t. Then you must provide them the things they do enjoy, and avoid the things they don’t.
In The Buying Zone we discuss the several different things you can do to influence the customer and get them to Like You, and also avoid the things that would make the customer not.
Some of the things you can do to get the customer to Like You are:
· Be responsive
· Insightful
· Funny
· Pleasant
· Caring
· Empathetic
· Helpful
· Have a good relationship
And surefire ways to get them to want to avoid you are:
· Be annoying
· Be pushy
· Try to sell something they don’t need or want
· Be too direct
· Be too passive
Of course, it’s not only you that can make or the break the sale. Your company itself can do things to make the customer either Like You or not.
A company can make their processes:
· Easy
· Smooth
· Convenient
· Quick
· Simple
· Provide multiple choices
All of these are fantastic ways a company can influence their customers enjoyment to buy from you. Likewise, here are some ways companies often get in their own way and make the process so painful, customers will go shopping for another provider.
A company’s processes may be too
· Frustrating
· Rigid
· Inflexible
We discuss all of the ways and the importance of how to get a customer to enjoy buying from you in The Buying Zone. Click here to purchase the book and discover exactly what is going on inside the mind of the buyer as they interact with you.