Think of sales strategy in terms of skateboarding. When you skateboard, you have to gain momentum. After figuring out which foot you’re more comfortable with to place in front, usually the left for most regular skateboarders, you use the right foot to push forward. This takes energy and effort to move the board while maintaining your balance. As you ride more, you start building up steam. You start gliding and even develop a kind of flow. When you have a momentum going, it gets easier to move towards the direction you want to achieve.
That’s what a sales strategy looks like. Starting out takes effort. You put the plan in place and start riding. Once you get that energy going, it starts to feel natural as you spend more time on it and gets easier to maintain. You still have to constantly pay attention to what you’re doing, but sticking with it and realising results becomes easier the more you push forward.
There’s a reason why some strategies create results while some don’t. What separates success from failure in terms of the result is largely determined by communication. The usual way when we try to sell something to someone is that we project our values onto the other person until they perceive what we value as a value to them. When done with the pitch, we expect some sort of behavior from them. But this is the exact opposite of what you need to do. First, you need to accomplish one thing which is to bypass the neurological boundaries that they have in their head about you. The reptilian brain that says “I don’t know this person. I don’t trust this person. There is danger”.
You need to build rapport with this person. Just because you’re saying something and the other is nodding sending you some sort of response doesn’t mean that you’re already there at the level we want. You need to create common interest with this person. Give them compliments. Make them feel comfortable. Let them see a glimpse of what it’s like to take a ride with you. You’ll know you’re already there with rapport when their body starts to relax. When you hear them echoing the same thought as you are. You start to feel that strong communication flowing towards you, mirroring and matching your words and actions with their own. You see that loose unguarded body language from them which is usually 55% of communication compared to verbal which is only 7%.
Once you’ve created a rapport with this person and their guard is down then you have access to their mind and to their hearts. Your job now is to take your product and create that link to their highest value. What is their ultimate dream? What do they want to achieve in life? Their answers to these questions have to match with your product. If not, there’s no way they will go out of their comfort zone to purchase your product.
After you’ve connected and linked with those two, use what I call the power of takeaway. Say something like:
“So, John, now that we’ve established that there’s a big need for this product, I do want to let you know that there are only 13 days to purchase this product and there are only 2 products left. I would love to give you an opportunity to have this in your life (body moves forward). However, I’m not certain that it’s right for you or that there’s anything left (body steps back). But if you’re interested (body moves forward again) what I might be able to do is this…”
I use my body to create the power of takeaway. Also referred to as the Push Pull. When you’ve reached this level, you know that John or another potential client have a genuine interest in your product. You’ve shown that yes there is a product available but he might not be able to get it because of the limited value. Creating that urgency to purchase.
Once you’ve created an urgency, then you go into the close. Then you basically say:
“So, this is what we’ve done so far, John would you agree? Yes? This is what we’re going to do next John. The question is, how would you like to fix that up?”.
Not when. Not would you. How would you like to fix that up?
So, remember, in sales, always establish rapport first. Make sure that you have rapport up to 100%. See that guard goes down. And know if you’ve actually gotten into the person’s system to directly link your product to their highest value. So that they understand how your product is an absolute necessity for them to feel they’re purpose and be happy in life. Use the push-pull technique and create an urgency. Close it off with, how would you like to fix that up?
