Too often salespeople put their focus on being liked. “If the prospect likes me, they will buy” becomes the motto. Instead of focusing on the real added value they can bring to the table, salespeople often put their effort into being friends. In this day and age, being liked is just the ante to get into the game. The world is filled with well-liked sales people that can’t close a deal. A salesperson’s goal is to make money not make friends. While being likable is a huge advantage, it rarely closes the deal all by itself.
Many prospects will not buy anything from a salesperson simply because they like them. Every person in the world has people they like. However, they wouldn’t necessarily buy a product or service from those people. Parents like and love their children. However, most parents wouldn’t put a lot of credibility into what their child suggests they buy. This is because they lack expertise and credibility to support their suggestion. We teach three rules: People buy from people, people buy from people they like, and people buy from people like themselves. While this is true there has never been more of a press to commoditize what we sell. So we must continue to work past simple friendship to include return on investment, differentiation, and real value.
We have to sell to our prospect’s pain. Pain and action are linked. Pain brings about commitment to change. Show the product or service in a light that shows how it solves a problem or benefits the prospect. Don’t just strive to be liked. Strive to discover why your product is the best fit. A prospect will buy if they see a solution to their problem but won’t necessarily buy if they simply like us. In an ideal world, we will be able to get the prospect to like us. However, that is only leveraged to find the right reasons for the prospect to buy. People will buy from people they like, but only if the salesperson positions the solution the right way.
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