Have you ever sent the prospect the message that you "needed" the order?
- Master the art of "singing like you don't need the money."
Some sales are lost because the prospect senses that the salesperson "needs" the order. A salesperson can telegraph these messages through nervous reactions, body language, hesitancy, etcetera.
It's OK to want the deal. It's just not OK to need it.
An effective technique to help you keep your cool when you are tempted to act as though you need the deal is to repeat the following phrase in your mind, over and over again:
I am financially independent and I don't need the business.
There's a country tune about singing "like you don't need the money" that captures basically the same point. No one is suggesting blind denial as a sales strategy, of course, but the power of personal optimism captured in that song title is something that the very best salespeople always manage to broadcast. If you really don't need the money, if you were financially independent, wouldn't you know what to say? Wouldn't your questions come easier?
Prospect: Why should I buy from you?
You: (Nurturing, but not abrasive) Maybe you shouldn't...but let me ask you a question...(and here you continue with your line of questioning.)
Remember, if you were really financially independent, if you didn't need the business, you would neither act arrogantly nor beg for he business. You wouldn't have to!
Hard numbers
Some people dismiss the "fake it 'til you make it" approach (also known as the "act as if" approach) because they consider it either "unrealistic" or rooted in "denial."
If you are tempted to fast-forward over this selling rule on such grounds, you should stop for just a moment and consider the clinical evidence that supports the "fake it 'til you make it" principle. A recent study of law schools by Segerstrom measured the optimism of first-year law students, and correlated the students' later earning power with their ability to assume the best about themselves, their abilities, and their circumstances. The study, which used a five-point optimism scale, concluded that each and every one-point climb in personal optimism coincided with a $33,000 advantage in annual income a decade later!
We believe that the optimism-to-income curve is even steeper among the best professional salespeople, and we have thousands of practitioners following the Sander Selling System who prove the point daily.
What "needy" messages are you telegraphing right now? How will you correct them? What positive "act as if" messages could you send instead to yourself - and the prospects and customers you come in contact with every day?
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