The Easiest Way To Sell To People… Without Having To Actually Sell.

Over the last week and a half I’ve gotten back into sales in addition to marketing for one of my clients.

See, after we had brought in 10 or so leads for the business, it seemed odd that not a single one had become a customer. I asked a few questions, and it sounded like the client was focused on the sale on the sales calls instead of on the customer.

This is a common mistake. I’ll explain why, and what the solution is in this article.

Few things are as annoying as a salesperson trying to sell you something you don’t want, need or care for.

Don’t get me wrong - I’ve been in selling for most of my adult life. In fact I think we’re all in sales, but that’s a bit of a philosophical tangent I won’t go into today… I love sales and I can appreciate it when a salesman is actually good at his job.

With that being said… I can DEFINITELY understand why sales has a reputation for sleaziness, and how annoying a bad salesperson can be.

It doesn’t have to be like this. You can actually sell without being annoying, without being sleazy, and without resorting to high-pressure guilt-tripping.

How To Sell Without Being Annoying

When you watch movies like The Wolf of Wall Street, Boiler Room and Glengarry Glen Ross you get a feel for how to sell by being a manipulative sociopath.

This is a conversation from Boiler Room between a customer (C) and the salesman (S):

C: I have to talk to my wife first.
S: Ok, what kind of a job do you have?
C: I’m a purchasing manager.
S: So you make decisions at your job, right?
C: Yes, I do.
S: So do you call your wife before you make every decision?
C: Well, uhhhm, that’s a bit different.
S: How is that different? Besides, it’s YOUR money. You earned it. And you’re just investing, right?

Making comparisons that are as solid as a wet cardboard box, forcing people into a ‘yes funnel’ so they agree with you, etc.

It’s all classic stuff and… I’ve never liked it.

If you think about it, it doesn’t even make sense.

If you sell a good product and the client can benefit from using that… why would you have to handle 312 objections?

And that’s the real secret.

Most people spend most of their time selling to the wrong people.

The Sales Cliché That Changed My Life

My first mentor gave me a one-liner that I’ll never forget.

“People love to buy, they hate to be sold”.

He told me this after he looked over my sales presentation. It was his way of saying that the presentation was… not great.

(He’d use different words, but I’ll let you use your imagination to fill in the gaps).

I followed his advice and instead of trying to pitch my stuff constantly I started to focus on asking questions, qualifying customers and figuring out if we were even a good fit.

If it looked like we weren’t a good fit, I’d do something revolutionary.

I thanked them for their time and left them alone.

This did two things:

It saved me hours and hours and hours of time.

It saved me untold amounts of frustration, stress, and tension.

It allowed me to use much more time talking to prospects that were a good match.

Selling is much easier if you come from this angle.

Ask questions to find out what their problem is.

Tell them what your solution could do for them.

Ask if they want that.

Try it out for size. I think you’ll enjoy it a lot. It sure beats using high-pressure tactics, manipulation, twisting their arm and getting stuck in endless discussions.

Talk soon,

Sam