Although this lesson is interesting and helpful on its own, its effectiveness is powerfully multiplied when used within the context created after reading Lesson 1 - The First Thing to Think About and Lesson 2 -  Matchmaker - Assist the Buyer. If you haven't reviewed those articles recently, I recommend that you do so before reading on.

Now that you have clearly understood your customer's needs and wants and determined that what you have to sell is an excellent fit to meet those needs and wants, it is almost time to get to the juicy part of sales - the exchange of money for value.

Before getting to that important moment, it is helpful to understand how people make their buying decisions and why they currently buy the things they buy. Having this knowledge will greatly increase your chance for making a successful sale with integrity.

To understand how people decide when to exchange their money for some product or service, let's look at how we make our buying decisions. Think about purchases you've made recently and the reason for those purposes. I've found these to be the common reasons we buy:

Belonging and Acceptance

One of the strongest drivers for any person is the desire to belong and to satisfy the need for acceptance within a group. Think about all the things you've bought just because other people had it, it was the fashion of the time or it helped you to be accepted into a group you wanted to be in.

This is why I've owned a Jansport bookbag, a motorcycle and golf clubs. Since then, I've given away my Jansport, sold my motorcycle and allowed my golf clubs (and accompanying pull cart) to collect dust. As I look at my current purchases, I'm surprised how many of my purchases are still based on this first reason.

How Knowing This Helps You: Build social proof by showing honest testimonial of your current clients being happy with your product or service or both and providing evidence that what you have to offer is preferred by the groups that your prospect is inclined to join. If you don't know which groups your prospect is inclined to join, go back to Lesson 1 (hint: use the same way to figure out what your potential customers want). Great way to build credibility is to serve others and being recognized as a consistent giver of value.

Boosting Self-Esteem and Confidence

Raising our self-esteem is one of those natural desires that greatly influence how we make decisions and when we decide to open up our wallets. A comedian once said "If women didn't like nice cars, men wouldn't be driving nice cars." and I have to admit there is some truth in that statement. We are all willing to spend money if we know it will help us improve the way we feel and look at ourselves.

It's not always about the practical use of what we buy that matters but how it makes us feel. The multi-BILLION dollar plastic surgery and cosmetics industries have been a major beneficiary of this reason to buy, not to mention any company dealing in designer merchandise (clothes, leather goods and shoes).

How Knowing This Helps You: In addition to all the wants and needs you've gathered from your prospect, remember that your prospect always has a desire to boost their self-esteem and confidence. If what you offer can increase their self-esteem, always highlight how it can make your prospects feel even better about themselves. Look out for these warning signs for low self-esteem to help you find potential clients.

Conditioning

Pavlov's dog should really get some royalties. He is probably the world's most famous dog when it comes to conditioning. For those of you who think I'm talking about hair products, the dog's athletic prowess or have no idea what I'm talking about, let me explain. For those who know where I'm going, feel free to skip the next paragraph.

Ivan Pavlov was a psychologist, and one of his most famous experiments was ringing a bell every time he was about to feed the dog and measuring the saliva levels. As you can guess, the dog soon associated the bell with being served food and automatically began salivating when he heard the bell. The basic idea is a stimulus (bell) triggers an automatic response (more saliva).

Although this experiment was conducted over 100 years ago, it provides our third explanation for why people buy. We are conditioned to buy. The goal of most advertisements is to associate a stimulus (their product) with an automatic response (handing our money over). I am shocked by how conditioned I am. I need to have Coca-Cola (or Pepsi) when I eat pizza, I automatically buy Bounty when I need paper towels and I think about GoDaddy when it's time to get a new domain name.

How Knowing This Helps You: Treat people well every time they buy from you and follow through on all of your promises. Be well-liked by smiling, being enthusiastic and listening intently. Click here to learn How to Build Rapport with Anyone.

Your actions will condition people to like, trust and believe you. Once they like you (because you've provided them with exceptional service) and trust you (because you've delivered what you promise), every time you make them an offer, they will associate you with all those great feelings and experiences.

Fulfilling Necessity and Convenience

Everyday there is someone buying food, gas and electricity and they do so because they either need it or it makes their life much easier. Out of all the reasons in this article, this one sets itself apart because it not only applies to everyone but products meeting this reason is very easy to sell. Who wouldn't exchange money for food when they are starving or pay for the use of a private bathroom after a week without showering. Unfortunately, due to the ease with which you can get someone to buy with this reason, competition is usually strong.

How Knowing This Helps You: Try to make what you are selling meet a need or help to make life more convenient. Be able to honestly answer "Yes" if someone asks whether your product or service is useful and whether it will make them happy.

If you have the "greatest" product ever and no one wants it but you, you're going to have a very hard time selling it. Although it is possible to educate and persuade your prospects about the benefits, it takes both time and money. You're better off selling something with some real demand. Anything that caters to any of the other reasons in this article is a great start. To set yourself apart, think about what you can offer that is unique to what is being offered.

Helping Someone You Know

I have a drawer full of Girl Scout cookies.

I didn't buy them to belong or be accepted into a group.

It hasn't really helped me boost my self-esteem or confidence.

I was definitely not conditioned to buy them.

It is something I don't need and it has actually made my life more inconvenient to find storage space for it.

So why did I do it?

To help out my co-worker's daughter.

That's it.

People buy things to preserve or build relationships. I am more inclined to buy something if I know that it will be helpful to someone I know. It is this reason I patronize my friend's restaurants, use my friend's services and buy girl scout cookies. I've come to realize that I tend to spend more on others than I do on myself. Life (which includes business) is about relationships and the more you give, the more you receive.

How Knowing This Helps You: Build relationships with everyone. If you haven't build up a strong network, start now. Once good relationships are established, your chances for getting a positive response for what you have to offer increases dramatically.

The best way to build your network is to help others. If you serve others without expecting anything in return, you will be the one that everyone wants to help even if it means buying some girl scout cookies. Relationships are ongoing and require maintenance. If you haven't done anything for your network lately, what are you waiting for?

Although it is important who you know, it is more important who knows you.

People rarely buy because of rational thinking and detailed pros and cons charts, they buy because of emotion. They ask themselves so many questions:

Will this be useful? Will it make me happy? Can I afford it? Will it do what it promises? Is it worth the money? Do I need it now? Do I trust this guy?

In the next lesson, we're going to talk about answering some of those questions and effectively building the bridge between what your prospect wants and what you have to offer.

Until then, I would be interested to hear how you currently make your buying decisions. Please share your experiences and thoughts in the comments section.

The post How to Sell with Integrity – Lesson 3 – Why People Buy appeared first on Embrace Possibility.

If this sounds foreign to you, you may want to review Lesson 1 again by clicking here.

Now that you've got some great information about your prospective customer concerning what they want, the next thing you want to do is to make sure you thoroughly understand your products and/or services. You need to know all the features and be able to translate them into benefits because the next step is to ... (drums start rolling)

(drums abruptly stop) ... before I tell you what the next step is, we should really discuss the difference between features and benefits and why you want to sell using benefits. A feature is a characteristic about your product or service.  A benefit describes how these characteristics make people's lives better.

Here are two examples:

For my own products and services, I use a method from this excellent post on extracting true benefits from features.

Anyway, where were we? Oh yea, the next step after finding out what your customer truly wants is ... (drums roll again and then dramatically stops as you read the answer)

Compare What You are Selling to What Your Customer Wants to Buy

If there is a good match, your work is halfway done. If what you are selling doesn't match the prospect's needs, END the sales process and refer them to someone who has what they're looking for. Remember you are still the assistant buyer. Even if your products and services might not help them, I highly recommend going above and beyond and helping them find a way to meet their needs and wants. The famous author, salesman and motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, was on to something when he said "You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want."

I believe that's great advice and try to live by that suggestion but what if I am a bachelor looking to "sell" myself to eligible women? I don't really want to spend my time referring women to other more suitable guys. I don't care if I am a good fit or not.

To avoid this undesirable situation, you have two choices:

Define your ideal customer based on your current features/benefits or create better products or services that cater to the needs of your target customer

To continue with the bachelor analogy, your chances for success increases dramatically if you first decide what type of woman would find the benefits you have to offer attractive. Are you good looking (benefit = beautiful babies or the envy of her friends), make a lot of money (benefit = financial stability) or caring (benefit = being loved and cared for)? Once you know your ideal customer, then you just need to target them and make them see the benefits you have to offer.

If you find that you are not a good match for a certain type of prospect but you still want to target them, develop better products or services with features and benefits that appeal to your target group. For someone having a hard time getting the job they want or a job with a company they want to work for, it may mean taking classes or other jobs to upgrade their skills or networking to make themselves more appealing to the hiring manager.

The goal is to match what the buyer wants to buy with what you have to sell.

Please note that the customer doesn't always know everything about the products or services they come across and unfortunately there are people who exploit this lack of information by exaggerating or misrepresenting the benefits of their products to make the sale. My advice to you is NEVER DO THIS!! Always be honest because the most precious commodity to a salesperson is trust. Once your reputation is tainted as being untrustworthy, it will be much harder to build rapport and get past the first step in Lesson 1, which is to drill deep into what the prospect really wants.

In the next lesson, we're going to discuss how people make the decision to buy and how you can increase your chances of closing the sale.

The post How to Sell with Integrity – Lesson 2 – Matchmaker – Assist the Buyer appeared first on Embrace Possibility.

If you believe selling is sleazy, please click here and read this article before reading on.

For those who truly believe salespeople can have integrity and still be great and want to start learning how to sell effectively, here is Lesson 1.

Before you even open your mouth, the first thing you want to do is think about ...

... the product or service you want to sell. Right?

WRONG!

Most people want to start with their product or service because that is what they created, know or want to sell. Starting with what you want to sell is one of the main reasons most people have a hard time selling.

The first thing you want to think about ...

... is your customer.

Who is it and what do they want? If you don't know, then your next step is to find out.

Only when you know what your customer wants, can you begin the selling process.

A great salesperson is not someone who can sell anything to anyone. A great salesperson is someone who finds out what the customer wants or needs, determines whether his product or service can fulfill that want or need and "sells" to the customer only if there is a match.

Your want to shift your mindset from one of a traditional salesperson to an assistant buyer. A great assistant buyer knows specifically what his client wants. That is the relationship you want.

So how do you find out what your potential customers want?

You just ask.

How do you get them to open up to you?

You need to do three things.

Build Rapport

Without trust, you won't get the answers to your key questions. Sometimes you may not even get the opportunity to ask any questions. If you want a refresher on building rapport, read How to Build Rapport with Anyone.

Ask the Right Questions

Once you have rapport, your purpose is to understand what your customer wants by asking the right questions.  So what are the right questions?

It depends.

The questions you ask will be dependent on the answers you get. Before you close out this window thinking you've just wasted your time, let me make it up to you by telling you this:

Different people have different motivations to buy.

Three people can buy the same SUV for different reasons: One buys it because it is safe. The second because it is on sale. The third because it looks good.

It is important to recognize this concept before I introduce the series of questions that will drill down to a person's motivation.

Question 1 - What do you want?  A new job.

Question 2 - Why do you want a new job? Because I want to to be challenged.

Question 3 - And why is being challenged important to you? Because I went to a good school and got a good education and I don't want it to go to waste. I want to be able to showcase my abilities.

Question 4 - And if you were able to showcase your abilities, how would that impact your life? I would be happier and I would be able to impress my boss and colleagues. I wouldn't have to feel so replaceable. 

Question 5 - What does it feel like to be replaceable? I worry about everything I am doing at work and I am suspicious of other people trying to make me look bad. I get paranoid and sometimes I don't get a good night's rest if my boss says he wants to meet with me. I always expect the worse.

Question 6 - What do you think will happen if this continues to go on? I'll probably have a bad relationship with my coworkers and perform badly at work from all the worrying and lack of sleep.

Question 7 - And how would that make you feel? Absolutely horrible. I want to be a nice person but it's hard to when you are competing with everyone. I don't want to get fired or a nervous breakdown. 

Question 8 - And you're telling me that your current job is preventing you from living the life you want. What is it worth to you to fix this problem and live the life you want? A lot

Now we still haven't mentioned the product or service but if you had a product or service that could help this person, what do you think will happen?

Listen Actively

To effectively ask the right questions and to capture the person's motivations, fears and frustrations, you need to let your potential customer talk and you need to listen because everything that is being said will help you decide whether your product or service is right for your prospect. You actively listen by asking more questions to clarify exactly what your prospect wants.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Now that you have a good idea of how to ask your prospect what they want. Practice building rapport and drilling deep with your prospects. Really internalize the method of questioning and remember to listen attentively and be curious and sensitive about what your prospect is and is not saying.

In Lesson 2, we'll cover what you're going to do with all this great information you got from applying Lesson 1.

The post How to Sell with Integrity – Lesson 1 – The First Thing to Think About appeared first on Embrace Possibility.

All successful people have it and all unsuccessful people don't. If you are already successful, you know what this skill is. If you're not, I have three pieces of great news for you:

The first is that what you're missing is a skill and not a natural-born ability which means you can learn it.

The second is I am about to tell you what it is. I've studied this skill extensively and have experienced the positive effects it has on my life.

The third is that I am going to organize my experience, research and knowledge and teach you this skill through a series of easy to understand articles here on this blog.

So what is this skill?

It is ... SELLING.

I know I know. You don't want to get into sales. Salespeople are sleazy. I understand how you feel because I used to think the same way. I thought sales was for the uneducated or the shameless and that their goal was to cheat me out of my money. It was this belief that has held me back from success all these years.

So how did I change my mind? I realized that everything involves sales. Think about it. How do you get the things you want? The only way is ...

... by convincing others to give it to you.

Some of you went to college because colleges (... and your parents) sold you the idea that a college degree will lead to a better life and then proceeded to sell you that education and credential. If you are working, you are getting paid money by your employer because you were able to sell yourself as someone who can get the job they want done. For those in relationships, you are with your significant other because you've sold them on being someone they enjoy spending time with. If you are still reading this article, it is because I've sold you that this is something worth your time to read.

Successful people got what they want by convincing others to give it to them. If you don't believe me, ask any successful person what they think about the skill of selling.

If you are still not convinced, feel free to take some time to observe how selling is all around you and then come back to this post.

If you are convinced and ready to learn how to sell, read on.

To kick off the How to Sell Series, here is a pre-lesson:

To learn how to sell, the first thing you need to do is to remove any negative feelings and ideas you have about sales. If you think all salespeople are sleazy, you won't learn effectively because deep-down you don't want to be sleazy. Just accept that there are sleazy salespeople but also understand that there are many genuine salespeople as well.

For this week, take time to be aware of your attitude towards selling and salespeople. Decide for yourself whether sales is necessary for success.

With all the lessons, it is important to think about and apply what you read or else your learning would be incomplete. Reading about techniques and concepts is only a small part of learning.

When you are ready, click here to go to Lesson 1 of the How to Sell series.

The post You are NOT Successful because … appeared first on Embrace Possibility.