Clever, shallow, smooth as silk, glib salespeople are the scourge of the earth. They are focused on your money and how to separate you from it. There are no barriers to entry or qualifications to enter this field of work. Some will tell you anything, they live for today and like a shark, are constantly moving in order to feed. Snake oil purveyors to the naïve and trusting.
So, how do honest salespeople get anywhere when the image of the profession is so negative. By the way, we are all in sales today. You might be in one of the “professions” but you are no longer above the fray. Lawyers are competing for clients just as voraciously as dentists, architects, engineers, doctors and everyone else who spent years slogging through varsity. The title might be vague, such as the popular “business development”, but the activity is the same, just without the skills.
The key point to differentiate yourself from the carnival barker pond scum is to stop focusing on sales. Instead focus on the re-order. This mental shift is fundamental. A sale can be a one time thing, a transient satisfaction of a temporary itch. The re-order concept is totally relationship based. There is a degree of trust that brings the business to you, without you having to go and hunt it down. Clients want to work with you because they feel safe and secure.
So what is the key to gaining the trust and providing the value? I believe the term kokorogamae (心構え) or “true intentions” is the key. Your true intention is to be a partner in achieving the client’s success, on the basis that the more successful they become, the more goods or services you will need to provide them, as they grow and expand their operation.
If your true intention is to build trust, then there will be no attempt to snow the client at the first meeting, to lure them into a false sense of security. You will bring insights you have gathered, that spark those client “we hadn’t thought of that” moments. You ask questions enabling you to best analyse whether you in fact have a suitable solution or not, for the client’s issue. If you don’t have it, you say so immediately - you don’t prevaricate or equivocate.
Your questioning skills are such that the client feels safe in the knowledge that your really understand what their business needs. You introduce the solution’s features, the benefits of the features, the applications of the benefits and the back up evidence to support what you are saying. You execute on the order from the client, as agreed and you deliver value at every point possible.
No trust or no value – then no re-order. It is simple and complex at the same time. If your “true intentions” are correct, then value and trust will flow accordingly and so will the re-orders.
