How Wide is the Gap?

When you are sick, at what point do you seek help from a doctor? If the ailment is mild, you handle it on your own. Only when the pain is great enough do you seek relief. For you to seek medical assistance there must be a significant difference between how you feel, and how you would like to feel. When this is the case, you are willing to accept the doctor’s solution.

It’s the same with selling. In order to sell successfully, there must be a sufficient gap between the prospect’s current situation, and their desired situation. If they don’t see the value in what you are offering, it will be very difficult for you to close the deal. There must be sufficient ‘pain’ for them to be motivated to spend their money. There must also be a clearly demonstrated difference that your solution will cause.

For example, let’s say your business is a commercial cleaning company. If their primary concern is saving time, you must demonstrate how using your service will give them “X” number of extra hours every week to do their productive activity. If their primary concern is how clean premises enhances their image, you need to help them see how all your extras can actually make a noticeable difference in how they are perceived by their visitors.

During your conversations with prospects, focus on how your solution is going to make their life better, or save them time, money, or hassle. Utilize your ‘Sales tool kit’ to paint a word picture that will cause them to envision themselves benefiting from doing business with you. Make sure that you demonstrate a wide enough ‘gap’ between the way things are for them and the way things will be after using your product or service!

Please feel free to contact me, or your BERN consultant; help is only a phone call or email away!

- Al

Communication/Persuasion by Jim Rohn

Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.

For effective communication, use brevity.

You cannot speak that which you do not know. You cannot share that which you do not feel. You cannot translate that which you do not have. And you cannot give that which you do not possess. To give it and to share it, and for it to be effective, you first need to have it. Good communication starts with good preparation.

The goal of effective communication should be for listeners to say, "Me, too!" versus "So what?"

Learn to express, not impress.

Be brief on the logic and reason portion of your presentation. There are probably about a thousand facts about an automobile, but you don't need them all to make a decision. About a half dozen will do.

Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.

What is powerful is when what you say is just the tip of the iceberg of what you know.

It's not the matter you cover so much as it is the manner in which you cover it.

Please feel free to contact me, or your BERN consultant; help is only a phone call or email away!

- Al

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” —Stephen Covey

Covey speaks of one of the most important aspects of professional selling. Far too many sales people are focused on their ‘presentation’, jamming the prospect with all kinds of features and benefits, and reasons why the person should buy. Instead, the primary focus should be on understanding the prospect’s unique situation. Only then can you propose your customized solution.

Our human tendency seems to be to seek first to be understood; you want to get your point across. Unfortunately, you may ignore the other person, pretend that you're listening, selectively hear only certain parts of the conversation or attentively focus on only the words being said, but miss the meaning entirely. So why does this happen? Because most people listen with the intent to reply, not to understand. You listen to yourself as you prepare in your mind what you are going to say, the questions you are going to ask, etc. You filter everything you hear through your life experiences, your frame of reference. You check what you hear against your autobiography and see how it measures up. And consequently, you decide prematurely what the other person means before he/she finishes communicating. Do any of the following sound familiar?

"Oh, I know just how you feel. I felt the same way." "I had that same thing happen to me." "Let me tell you what I did in a similar situation."

You might be saying, "Hey, now wait a minute. I'm just trying to relate to the person by drawing on my own experiences. Is that so bad?" In some situations, autobiographical responses may be appropriate, such as when another person specifically asks for help from your point of view or when there is already a very high level of trust in the relationship.

When the focal point of your sales interactions is learning as much as you can about the person’s unique circumstances, your overall sales results will be far greater and longer lasting.

Please feel free to contact me, or your BERN consultant; help is only a phone call or email away!

Al

Allen Rigby CSP
Business Consultant, SEA Program
(705) 792-0989 or 1-866-963-7327 al@selfemploymentassistance.ca

www.selfemploymentassistance.ca

A Definition of Success by Zig Ziglar (excerpted from his new book, Born to Win! Find Your Success Code)

Here’s a short list of the characteristics of what I believe success isn’t and what I believe success is. Let’s start with what success is.

What Success Is:
1. Success is knowing that you did a great job when you close the door to your office at the end of each workday and head for home.
2. Success is having a home and people to love who love you in return.
3. Success is having the financial security to meet your obligations each month and the knowledge that you have provided that security for your family in the event of your demise.
4. Success is having the kind of faith that lets you know where to turn when there seems to be no place to turn.
5. Success is having an interest or hobby that gives you joy and peace.
6. Success is knowing who you are, and Whose you are.
7. Success is taking good care of you and waking up healthy each day.
8. Success is slipping under the covers at the end of the day and realizing with gratitude that, “It just doesn’t get much better than this!”

You see from this list that success is more than a one-sentence definition. Success involves the whole person, and if you skimp on one area, you will limit your success in others. Now, let’s take a look at what success isn’t.

What Success Isn’t:
1. Success isn’t missing dinner with the family several times a week because of working excessively.
2. Success isn’t rushing home from work and hiding out with the TV thinking, “After the day I’ve had, I need my space!”
3. Success isn’t about how to make more money when you already have more money than you can spend.
4. Success isn’t about going to church and ignoring everything you hear.
5. Success isn’t all work and no play.
6. Success isn’t about being so busy that you live on unhealthy fast food, served to you through little windows.
7. Success isn’t spending mental energy worrying about late projects, being home on time, your health, missing your child’s school play, being able to pay your bills, or finding joy in your life.
8. Success isn’t texting while you drive to catch up on your overloaded schedule.

Please feel free to contact me, or your BERN consultant; help is only a phone call or email away!