Your customers—and especially your prospects—don’t care about you. They don’t care about the products you’re selling, and they don’t care about your company. If they did, then they would return your phone calls. They wouldn’t check their texts/e-mails when you’re talking to them. They’d respond to your direct mail, and they’d get excited about the stuff you’re offering; stuff you know would be good for them.
All the sales advice, all the sales books and whatever other help you find can’t change that. They really don’t care. For the most part, you’re just another added burden—taking up their time and mind space with just another agenda item. Your customers want less...not more!
All the sales gurus, sales trainers and sales coaches talk about empathy and relationship selling. But how much of this advice is actually put into action? At the end of the day, you’re probably just selling. You have something to sell and you’re damn sure going to find someone to sell it to.
Unless you’re going to just play the numbers—make enough calls and eventually hope something sticks—it’s only going to get worse. Time and attention are resources that are rapidly depleting. And every day there’s something new taking another little piece.
Unless you want to be a casualty of this inevitability, you’re going to have to prove to your customers and prospects you truly deserve the attention they’re willing to give you.
Empathize; really get into their lives. Put down your briefcase, your samples and your sales playbook. That person you’ve targeted is not just a prospect—a way for you to make quota.
Customers and prospects are people, just like you. They have families, just like you. And those families take priority. They may have a parent that they’re contemplating putting in a nursing home. Their son may have autism. They may be stressing over how they’re going to pay for their daughter’s college.
- Categories:
- Business Management - Marketing/Sales
