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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER! IF YOU'RE IN SALES, FEAR HAS COST YOU MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, AND THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU. Fear is the reason most salespeople don't like to pick up the phone (salespeople average just four hours per week on the phone, and our job is to talk to humans!). Fear is the reason we don't ask for the business more, even though our customers want to buy from us. Fear is the reason we don't offer our customers additional products and services, even though they would love to buy more from us. This book deals with that fear. You will learn exactly how to overcome this destructive fear in sales, and replace it with confidence, optimism, gratitude, joy, and proactive sales work. These are the powerful principles in the new field of positive psychology which are transforming how we work and succeed. Selling Boldly is the first book that leverages positive psychology to help you sell more. You'll also learn a series of fast, simple sales-growth techniques--like how to add on to existing orders; and how to close 20% more quotes and proposals instantly; and how to properly ask for and receive referrals--that will grow your sales...dramatically and quickly. Alex Goldfayn's clients grow their sales by 10-20% annually, every year, as long as they apply his simple approaches. YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT TO DO I am not going to teach you much in this book that you don't already know. You're a professional salesperson. You do this for a living. You know, for example, that testimonials and referrals are among the best ways we have to grow sales, right? But do you ask for them enough? Most people don't. You know that calling a customer on the phone is more effective than emailing her, but you still often revert to email. You know your customers buy other products and services that you can help them with, but you don't ask them about these products. You'd like to help them, and they would like more of your help -- that is why they've been with you for five or ten or twenty years -- but nevertheless we don't ask them. There is a difference between knowing what to do, and actually doing it. I know you know. With Selling Boldly, we start to do what we already know. We will cover what keeps us from doing these things (fear), how to overcome it (by listening to your happy customers), and how to implement these simple but powerful sales growth techniques (by briefly planning them, also doing them). Because sales growth comes from doing, not knowing. Today, we start doing. And growing. These approaches are laid out in this book, in precise detail, for you to implement in your own work. Alex doesn't hold anything back in this manual for selling more. What's the secret to selling more? There is no secret. There is no magic bullet. There is only the work. There are only the mindsets, and the communications. In Selling Boldly, Alex teaches readers how to attain these mindsets, and how to implement these communications, so that sales have no choice but to grow!
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
About the Author
PART I: Fear Is the Greatest Enemy of Sales … and Positive Psychology Is the Antidote
1 The Single Greatest Killer of Sales
The Coffee Shop
The Insulation Contractor
Asking for a Referral
Why Don't We Ask?
The Reason Is the Greatest Single Problem in All of Sales
2 The Massive Cost of Fear in Sales
Fear Is Automatic
How to Leverage This with Your Customers
What We Are Afraid Of
It's Not Just the Fear—It's What We Imagine It Will Lead To
What Fear Makes Us Do
The Incredibly Important (and Easy) Work Fear Keeps Us from Doing
How to Deal with Fear
The Customers Are Afraid, Too
3 The Antidote to Fear: The New Science of Positive Psychology
The Powerful Impact of Positive Psychology On Sales Growth
You're Not Doing It Wrong!
4 The Selling Boldly System: Step 1—Get Your Mindset Right; Step 2—Behave Accordingly (Communicate Boldly)
You Already Know What to Do
We Know This Works
There Are No Secrets
5 The
Selling Boldly
Toolkit: Planners and Downloads
Guidelines for Using the Selling Boldly Sales Planners
It Begins with This Mindset Planner
Prepare and Use These Planners Every Two to Four Weeks
Prepare and Use Your “The One‐Page Sales Planner” Weekly
PART II: The 10 Critical Mindset Shifts for Dramatic Sales Growth
6 About These Critical Thinking Shifts
These Mindsets Snowball, Building on Each Other
You Have a Choice
“The Selling Boldly Mindset Planner”
7 Proactive Selling versus Reactive Selling
Default Brain versus Focused Brain
Are You Hunting or Gathering?
Busting Out of the Vicious, Reactive Selling Circle
Reactive Selling versus Proactive Selling
How to Become Proactive
8 Confidence versus Fear
Where Confidence Comes From
9 Boldness versus Meekness
What Bold People Do
Meekness is Unfair to the Customer
Remember, It's Your Choice
10 Optimism versus Pessimism
Optimism Makes Money
How to Be Optimistic
11 Gratitude versus Cynicism
The Power of Gratitude
We Can Choose to Be Grateful Right Now
What Salespeople Can Be Grateful For
We Get to Struggle Here
12 Perseverance versus Surrender
The Power of Perseverance
It's Not Our Job to Give Up
Persevering in the Face of Adversity
My Children's Trees
13 Value and Relationship versus Products and Services
Focusing on Value versus Products and Services
How Do You Know What Your Value Is?
14 Taking Constant Communication Action versus Overplanning and Underexecuting
Doing Things versus Thinking About Doing Them
We Need Action, Not Perfection
15 Making It Look Easy versus Laboring
How to Make It Look Easy
16 Plan‐Driven versus Inquiry‐Driven
PART III: How to Develop the Selling Boldly Mindset
17 Why Feedback from Happy Customers Is the Key to Developing the Selling Boldly Mindset
Why Happy Customers Don't Call
What Happens When We Talk Only to Unhappy Customers
What Talking to Happy Customers Does to Us
Just Ask, and They Will Tell You
18 How to Get Testimonials from Your Happy Customers
The Purpose of These Conversations
First, We Need the Happy Customers
How to Conduct the Interviews
The Single Most Important Question
Other Questions to Ask During the Interview
Quantify and Emotionalize
Obtain Permission to Use These Comments
A Note on Language
Use Silence
19 Transcript of Actual Customer Interviews
The Customer
What Happened
The Testimonials
20 How to Use Testimonials Internally to Change Your Mindset and Your Culture
Who Should See These Testimonials?
We Must Marinate in This Positivity
PART IV: From Mindset to Technique: Powerful Sales Growth Actions
21 About These Communications
They Are All Communications
I Know You Know This
Don't Overcomplicate It
Use “Easy” Language
Do You Have a Few Seconds?
It Doesn't Take Money to Make Money
What If My Day Is Totally Reactive?
Repeatedly and Systematically
It's Impossible to Overcommunicate
Simple, But Not Easy
Designed to Set You Apart
Quick Wins
Give Customers and Prospects a Backscratcher
22 Focus on What You Can Control
Sports Are Like Sales
Focus on What You Can Control in Sales Too
23 Silence Is Money
Here's What I Mean by Silence
Why We Are Not Silent
How to Be Silent
24 Don't Forget about the Prospects
Why Prospects Are Sales Growth Gold
25 Use the Phone Proactively
Four Hours a Week
Telephone Scenes
Nobody Calls Anymore
Why Don't We Call?
All the Good That Happens When We Call
You Don't Increase Phone Hours by Trying to Spend More Hours on the Phone
Leave That Voicemail!
Who to Call?
What to Say
Set the Calls Up If You Wish
Your Objections to Making Calls and My Responses
26 Always Ask for the Business
27 Tell Your Customers What Else They Can Buy from You
Customers Niche Us, and We Niche Them
How to Tell Your Customers about What Else You Can Sell to Them
How to Ask This Question
A Whopping 20 Percent of DYKs Close
Do YOU Know What You Can Sell to Your Customers?
Planning Your DYKs
Column 1: The DYK Complete List
Columns 2 and 3: DYK If/Then
Column 4: DYK Top 10
How to Use This Planner
More DYKs = More Sales
28 Let Your Customers Tell You What Else They Buy
How to Plan These
29 Following Up Will Make You Rich
So You've Sent a Quote or Proposal
The System Is the Key
30 Sell with Your Testimonials: Show Your Prospects How Happy Your Customers Are
What the Testimonials Should Look Like
Active and Passive Testimonial Sharing
Active Testimonial Sharing
Don't Underestimate the Power of Aspiration That These Testimonials Create
Your Objection and My Response
31 “What Percent of Your Business Do We Have?”
Why Would the Customer Give You This Information?
32 People Love Giving Referrals—But We Hate Asking
Why Customers Love to Give Referrals
There Are Two Different Kinds of Referrals
How to Ask for a Referral
The Who, the How, and the When
The Finer Points of Referral Asking
Using the Selling Boldly “Referral Planner”
33 The Power of Handwritten Notes
“You Would Have Lost Us if You Hadn't Sent This Note”
Why Handwritten Notes Are So Effective
Find a Routine for Your Notes
Send Human Notes, Not Thank‐You Notes
34 The Post‐Delivery Call
35 Putting It All Together with the “The One‐Page Sales Planner”
Start on the Planning Side
Now Turn the Page to the Schedule Side
36 For Owners, CEOs, Executives, and Managers: This Is How to Implement Selling Boldly at Your Company
Nobody Likes Change
How to Implement Change with Customer‐Facing People Effectively
The Two Greatest Differentiators between My Clients Who Grow the Most, and Those Who Grow the Least
37 Now, Go Help More People More
Acknowledgments
Appendix: 100 Questions to Ask Your Customers and Prospects (and Yourself)
Headline: 100 Revenue Growth Questions
First, Some Questions to Ask Yourself
Questions for Your Customers and Prospects
To Increase Sales per Customer
To Get Testimonials
To Use Testimonials
To Ask for Referrals
To Ask for the Business
To Follow Up on Quotes and Proposals
To Check In Proactively by Phone
To Follow Up after Delivery or Conclusion of Work
And the Three Most Important Questions, from Me to You
Index
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
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E1
ALEX GOLDFAYN
SELLING BOLDLY
Applying the New Science of Positive Psychology to Dramatically Increase Your Confidence, Happiness, and Sales
Copyright © 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per‐copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750‐8400, fax (978) 646‐8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748‐6011, fax (201) 748‐6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762‐2974, outside the United States at (317) 572‐3993, or fax (317) 572‐4002.
Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print‐on‐demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e‐books or in print‐on‐demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data is Available:
ISBN 9781119436331 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781119436348 (ePDF)
ISBN 9781119436355 (ePub)
Cover design: Wiley
For Noah and Bella, who teach me how to live boldly and fearlessly every day.
About the Author
Alex Goldfayn is the CEO of The Revenue Growth Consultancy, a seven‐figure solo consulting practice which adds 10 to 20 percent annual revenue growth to clients by systematically implementing the mindsets and actions in this book, with layers of accountability, recognition, and reward.
Alex engages with organizations over 6 to 24 months to create the right proactive communication habits among customer‐facing staff. The day Alex's clients launch their Selling Boldly revenue growth actions, they are communicating exponentially more with customers and prospects than they were the day before. And this goes on for years. This is how his clients attain and maintain such dramatic and rapid growth.
Alex does more than 50 speeches and workshops each year, and regularly keynotes large annual association meetings as well as sales kickoff events.
You can learn more about all this work at www.goldfayn.com.
Alex is the author of The Revenue Growth Habit: The Simple Art of Growing Your Business by 15% in 15 Minutes A Day (like the book you're reading now, also published by John Wiley & Sons). It was selected as the sales book of the year by 800‐CEO‐Read, and Forbes selected it as one of the top 15 business books of the year.
He is also the author of Evangelist Marketing: What Apple, Amazon and Netflix Understand About Their Customers (That Your Company Probably Doesn't), published by BenBella Books.
To learn more about growing your sales 10 to 20 percent annually with Alex, or to schedule him to speak at your next event, call him at 847‐459‐6322 or email him at [email protected].
PART IFear Is the Greatest Enemy of Sales … and Positive Psychology Is the Antidote
1The Single Greatest Killer of Sales
Want to grow sales? Here is an executive summary of this book in two sentences and two steps:
The first step is to know how good you are so that you gain confidence, positivity, and boldness.
The second step is to communicate with customers and prospects more, because the more we communicate, the more we sell. (The less we communicate, the less we sell. It never works the other way. We can never communicate less, and sell more.)
That's the book in a nutshell. If you keep reading, you'll learn in deep detail how to dramatically increase your positivity, confidence, and joy by listening to your happy customers—and then, simply, offering to help them more.
That's how easy it is to grow sales.
We begin with three stories that lay out the single greatest killer of sales growth.
The Coffee Shop
I was at the airport in Minneapolis, ordering an iced coffee, and the young woman behind the counter asked me if I would like a bottle of water with that.
This stopped me in my tracks because I teach all of my clients this technique—I call it the did you know question—and although it's an incredibly simple question that requires only a few seconds, almost nobody ever asks a question like this. Anywhere, ever.
I asked her, “Do they teach you to ask this question?”
“Yes, they do,” she said. “It's a part of our training.”
“How many people buy a bottle of water?”
You know what she said?
“Almost everybody.”
Guess how much the water cost? Five dollars!
The coffee?
It cost $3.
It's amazing.
With this simple question, this coffee shop nearly triples its sales, from $3 to $8.
With water!
Was I mad at her for trying to sell me a $5 bottle of water?
Of course not. She was trying to help me. And like everybody else she asks, I know that a $5 bottle of water is absurd.
So how was she being helpful?
I was getting on an airplane. I needed water, anyway.
If I didn't buy it from her, in a single transaction, I would have to take my coffee, and my rolling luggage down the terminal to a gift shop and procure my bottle of water. I'd have to set down my luggage, and my coffee, take a water out of the cooler, risk dropping my coffee on the floor because I'm now holding both the water and the coffee in one hand, as I try to get to the other, new, checkout line. Once I would get to the front of the line, I would have to set everything down again—luggage, coffee, and water—and pay. Again. And how much money have I saved? A dollar or two? Maybe? I could use that time to relax, or make a proactive phone call to a customer to check in (much more on this to come throughout the book).
The young checkout person at the coffee shop offered me water, which (1) saved me time, and (2) allowed me to complete my beverage acquisitions in one transaction. I valued that. I appreciated it. So, apparently, did nearly everybody else she asked. Remember, she asks everybody, and almost everybody buys the water.
And so, I ask you: What is your bottle of water?
What can you sell to your customers, who have been buying the same products and services from you for years, decades maybe, without considering what else they can buy from you? Right now, today, your customers are buying from the competition products or services they could be buying from you. These are products and services they should be buying from you. In fact, your customers would like to buy these things from you. After all, they've been with you for all these years for a reason. They're very happy doing business with you. And everybody knows one purchase order is better than two or three or four. They want to buy more from you and, of course, you would like to sell them additional products.
But none of that is possible, because they don't know.
We don't tell them what else they can buy.
And they're too busy to know. Or ask. They simply assume they can only buy from us that which they have bought for years. And we assume that that is all they need! They niche us, and we niche them.
They would buy, if we would ask. But we do not, so they do not.
In this book, in Chapter 27, I will teach you exactly how to ask your customers to buy your bottles of water.
The Insulation Contractor
Several years ago, my family moved into a new home.
We had a room over the garage, and it was colder than the rest of the house.
So I called three insulation companies. I'd never bought insulation services before.
They all came out, did some testing, and sent me their quotes.
I received quotes from all three of them.
But only one of the guys followed up with me after he sent the quote.
Guess who got the business?
That's right, the guy who followed up.
Guess who was the most expensive?
Right again, the guy who followed up.
So why did he get the business?
By following up with me, was he bothering me?
Was he annoying me?
Was he taking up my time when he called?
No, none of those things.
When he followed up, he was showing me he cared.
The other guys did the opposite.
When they did not follow up, they were showing me they did not care.
But their expensive competitor called me, and emailed me.
He even said to me, “Why don't you send me the other two quotes, and I'll see if I missed anything.”
I know this wasn't really fair to the other guys, but they weren't talking to me. In fact, they were nowhere to be found.
I teach my clients a three‐step follow‐up process that closes 20 percent of all outstanding quotes and proposals! Each follow‐up is a one‐line email that takes about five seconds to copy and paste. If you replace one of the emails with a phone call, we find that a whopping 30 percent of all outstanding proposals and quotes close. Can you imagine?
The customer asked you for a quote or proposal, and you sent it. You've done the work! But when the customer doesn't reply with a quick “yes,” we very rarely follow up. By the way, customers will rarely call to say “no,” they are not accepting your quote. They feel badly about saying no, and nobody really enjoys rejecting an offer.
When my clients follow up on quotes and proposals, they find that customers love it.
They appreciate it.
And best of all: as I experienced with the contractors, the competition isn't doing it.
Customers value our follow‐up, but we do not do it.
Much more on following up on quotes and proposals in Chapter 29.
Asking for a Referral
Have you ever stood with a group of people in a social setting, perhaps with a drink in your hand where somebody asks for a recommendation for a service provider?
Perhaps they ask for a chiropractor who can help their ailing back, without making them sign up for a multi‐week plan that forces them to visit three times a week.
Or maybe they ask for a dentist who can clean their teeth without poking them and causing pain.
Or, possibly, they request a lawn service that knows not to cut the grass when it's raining.
What do other people in the group do when such a request is made? How do they react?
They almost trip over each other, in their haste to recommend their person.
“You need to use my chiropractor. He's fabulous.”
“No, listen, my chiropractor is different from everybody else. He needs only one visit to fix you up.”
“Wait, let me tell you about my guy. He's fabulous!”
Right?!
People are literally arguing with one another, making the case for their provider.
They want you to use their person.
People love giving referrals, but we do not ask for them.
Your customers are very happy with your work. Again, I know this because they've been with you for years, and they keep coming back.
Of course, they'd like to connect their friends and colleagues with a trusted, excellent provider of a product or service.
There are many reasons why people love giving referrals, which we will explore later in this book, but the big picture is that your happy customers would be more than pleased to refer you to people they know.
If only you asked.
But you rarely do.
And, in turn, they rarely do.
Much more on referrals in Chapter 32.
Why Don't We Ask?
So, if we know our customers would like to buy more from us …
If we know they're buying products and services from our competition right now that they could buy from us, and we would like to sell to them …
If we know we should ask our customers about buying our other products and services …
If we know we should follow up on quotes and proposals more …
And if we know customers love giving referrals …
Why don't we ask the did you know question?
Why don't we follow up?
Why don't we ask for referrals?
Why don't we ask?
Come to think of it, why don't we ask for the business every time we talk to a customer? (See Chapter 26.)
And why don't we use the phone more? Most salespeople actually go out of their way to avoid the phone. (See Chapter 25.)
We would only benefit from making these communications.
And our customers would benefit a great deal!
So why don't we ask?
The Reason Is the Greatest Single Problem in All of Sales
We don't ask because we are afraid.
We don't ask because of fear.
Fear of what?
Fear of rejection. What if they say “No”?
Fear of failure. What if I won't succeed?
Fear of upsetting the customer. What if they yell at me?
Fear of losing the customer. What if this customer leaves me forever (because I let them know about another product I can provide)?
Fear of shame or embarrassment. What would I tell my colleagues? What would I say to my family?
A few chapters from now, we will go through these fears, one at a time.
Then we will reject them, one at a time.
But for now, understand that fear has cost you an awful lot of money.
And it has cost your customers some amazing opportunities to do more business with you. They've missed out on benefiting more from the wonderful value you can provide them.
Fear is the single greatest killer of sales growth, for individuals and companies alike.
And this book is about how to overcome it. Selling Boldly teaches you how to quickly and easily identify fear; how to develop the critical positive mindset shifts and attitudes, put forth by the incredibly valuable field of positive psychology, that will inoculate you against fear—these attitudes are the enemy of fear; and how to easily train yourself to think in a way that leaves no room for the insidiousness of fear, by immersing yourself in the glowing feedback, emotion, and experiences of your happy customers. Then we discuss the fast, simple, no‐cost sales techniques that have been proven, again and again, to quickly and significantly grow sales. And finally, we talk about rolling out this powerful Selling Boldly system for yourself, personally, and also what it looks like if done systematically at your organization.
Here's a more detailed overview:
In the first few chapters, I introduce the major problem in sales: fear. It has cost you so much money and it keeps you from doing what you
know
you should do.
Then,
Part II
digs into 10 critical mindset shifts for dramatic sales growth. Are you selling proactively or reactively? Confidently or fearfully? Boldly or meekly? I lay out the differences between opposing sets of approaches, and explain why the positive one will lead you to dramatically more sales success. This part of the book is about how to
think,
because we can't outsell our thinking. If you are fearful and meek, that is how you sell. If you are confident and bold, you sell this way. The latter makes a lot more money, and in this section I will teach you how to get there.
Part III
examines
how
to obtain these positive mindsets. There is one very simple thing you can do to shift how you
think
about what you do so that you can shift to much higher sales. That very simple thing is to systematically talk to your happy (not complaining) customers, and seek to understand what they like best about working with you. If you ask them, they will tell you.
Next,
Part IV
lays out more than ten simple sales‐growth communications techniques for you customers and prospects. These have been carefully designed and fine‐tuned over many years of implementation with my clients, and most of them take just a few seconds to put into practice. Example:
What else are you buying elsewhere that I may be able to help you with?
That's a three‐second question, but it has made my clients hundreds of millions of dollars over the years! Sales growth comes from taking action, so if you'd like to jump straight to what to
do,
read this first. But then go back to read the earlier parts of this book on how to develop the appropriate mindset to execute these communications confidently, boldly, optimistically, and joyfully.
Finally,
Chapter 36
examines how salespeople
and
managers and executives can implement these systems at your firm. If you're an owner, CEO, president, GM, or head of sales, I will teach you how to install this
thinking
and
action
in your organization. For the mechanics on implementing and enjoying the benefits of Selling Boldly at your company, read this.
Throughout the book, you will find planning forms and tools to help you implement the Selling Boldly system. To create strategic, dependable sales growth, we need to infuse some proactive sales actions (the ones detailed in Part IV) into our otherwise generally reactive day. Use the tools to organize and plan your thoughts and actions and also make them a launch point for implementing our simple but powerful revenue‐growing communications techniques.
2The Massive Cost of Fear in Sales
If you sell, fear has probably cost you, personally, millions of dollars.
If you work for a company that generates $5 million in annual revenue, fear has cost your firm tens of millions of dollars over the years.
If the company is a $20 million business, fear has cost the firm hundreds of millions of dollars over the years. And if the company does $100 million annually, the total lost is in the billions.
But this is just individual firms. If we think about the sales lost across industries, or neighborhoods, cities, states, and nations, over years and decades, we're talking about many trillions.
This includes the immense amount of money salespeople have lost out on in take‐home pay and in vacations not taken; the losses to the local economy not injected with this money; the investments businesses have not made, thereby hurting their suppliers; and the customers not helped.
I know the impact of fear on sales because I've worked with hundreds of companies and thousands of salespeople on the topic of revenue growth.
My clients add 10 to 20 percent, and often a lot more, to their sales growth annually. We accomplish this by systematically making the simple communications laid out in Part IV.
But we don't start there with my clients (nor in this book); we start with mindset. Because how you think, how you deal with fear of rejection and failure, is how you sell.
It is impossible to outsell your mindset.
If you are confident and optimistic and bold, you will enthusiastically and joyfully make the pitches to customers and prospects that growth requires. You will proactively pick up the telephone. You'll ask for referrals. You'll follow up on quotes and proposals.
But if you are fearful and cautious, you will avoid this work. You will seek refuge in less risky activities. Like email. And “research.”
But let me be clear: nearly all salespeople deal with fear. It's human. We are wired to have it, and to avoid the situations that might make it come true.
You are not unique if you deal with fear; you are with the great majority.
Conversely, if you can consistently make the simple customer communications that lead to fast sales growth in spite of your fear, you will stand far above the sales crowd.
In this book, I arm you with the tools, the actions, and the thinking techniques to do this.
If you work through the tools and actions in this book—and do the work—you will find yourself selling much, much more, and fast.
Fear Is Automatic
The thing about fear in sales—and all types of fear—is that it happens automatically. We just have it. We've learned it over our entire lives. When does it start? When we are children. When our classmates reject us as friends. When we are left out of a group. When we are not one of the early picks for the kickball team. As we get older, we get rejected by potential dates. In organized sports, we can get cut while trying out for a team. Rejection can come from applying to colleges and universities, and then, of course, by companies that fire us—or don't even offer us a job.
These fears are in us.
They rear their ugly heads automatically.
But dealing with them requires (1) awareness of these fears and (2) proactive countermeasures. Anything worthwhile or good requires some effort. To begin, let's identify and define the fears specifically, and then detail what they make us do and also what they keep us from doing. At the end of this chapter, I give you a very simple two‐step process to deal with your fears.
How to Leverage This with Your Customers
This dynamic holds true for everybody who reads or watches the news, including your customers.
We live in a scary world.
There is disease and disaster and war and the threat of war.
Nearly every political campaign descends into negativity. The positive campaigner is a rarity (and he or she usually loses).
The news media is happy to report all this negativity because it brings eyeballs—and the more eyeballs, the more the media is paid by advertisers.
On top of this, the customers of your customers are always complaining, rarely happy.
Altogether, on many days, your customers probably feel like they're barely able to keep their heads above the water.
What can we do?
In our own little way, we can help our customers.
With the right mindset (stay tuned for Part II!), we can be an island of calm and dependability and positivity for our customers in a storm of negativity and heartbreak.
We will do what we say we will do.
We will be reliable.
If there is an issue or problem with their order, we will communicate with them proactively. We won't wait until they call us to find out. We will tell them ourselves.
We will take care of our customers.
We will be present.
We will call them not only when we need something, but also to check in with them and say hello.
We will offer to help them with even more products and services than they are buying now. And they will be grateful.
Be an island for your customers.
Bring your customers peace. Bring them positivity.
Bring them confidence.
These are rare commodities in today's world.
It's not hard to stand out from the crowd.
The competition isn't doing these things.
Your customers will be grateful for you.
And they will come to you again and again with their business and with their trust.
What We Are Afraid Of
Let's define the fear. When we say that fear has cost you many sales and much money, here are the specific fears that nearly all salespeople deal with.
Fear of Rejection
What if they say, “No”?
What if they reject me?
This is the big one.
All people try to avoid rejection.
There is nothing pleasant or enjoyable about it.
Nobody wants to be rejected, and of course, who can blame us for feeling this way? I feel it too, in my own sales work. Everybody feels it.
We perceive it personally. And we perceive it emotionally.
We perceive it as a rejection of me.
But the customer is not rejecting us, is she?
