If Sales Calls to You Are Win-Lose Battles, Read No Further
By John Aberle | heart-centered , Sales and Marketing , Soft Sell
If you like hard sell, don’t read to this article.
If you like the hard sell approach, if sales calls to you are win-lose battles, then selling to help customers buy won’t work for you. Heart centered, soft sell sales and marketing is all about caring for your customers first. But don’t get misled by the term “soft” sell because soft sell is still about selling.
Difference between hard sell and soft sell
The difference between hard sell and soft sell comes down to a matter of priorities. Are you there to provide a service, to help first or is the most important element in the sale whether you get the order regardless of how well your solution works for the prospect. The service approach of helping customers buy is the heart centered, soft sell sales style. The attitude of needing to beat the prospect so as to get the order is the hard sell attitude.
Ironically, they both work some of the time. However, people who are service oriented, who really care about helping their prospects, are likely to feel a little bit of themselves shrivel up when they use the control, manipulation and pressure techniques to win at the expense of their prospect or customer.
The advantages of heart centered approach
The other irony is that, in most cases, while the heart centered approach can take longer while you probe to undercover what the real issues are and what you prospects need to fix or want to get and what it will mean to them, this is the best way to connect with them so that they know, like and trust you.
And having them know, like and trust you is the only “shortcut” to repeat sales. Customers want to feel appreciated as people, not just as wallets waiting to be picked.
If you’ve read this far, presumably sales calls to you are opportunities to connect with customers, to provide a service instead of being win-lose battles. Learn how to help customers buy. You’ll enjoy your sales profession more. In fact, you’ll find selling fun, fulfilling and mutually rewarding.
I invite you to check out my post on my consulting blog, “Do you hate selling? It’s possible to love it.” This article includes my first YouTube video talking about loving selling.
