How do you react when someone tries to persuade you to do something you don’t want to do? If you are normal, you almost always resist. If he or she continues trying to convince you that what they want you to do is good for you, how do you react?
If you are normal, you resist even more. If another person gives you all kinds of positive reasons to do what you don’t what to do, and tells you that there are no reasons not to, what do you do?
If you are normal, you’ll find all kinds of reasons why you shouldn’t do it. You figure that other person is hiding the truth – the whole picture – from you. You begin to feel that that person is not someone you can trust and you don’t want to have anything to do with someone like that. That’s the way most people react to that kind of treatment.
How does this apply to selling?. Research shows that over eighty (80) percent of all people want to do business with a salesperson they can really trust and respect. Yet, almost all salespeople sell by attempting to persuade and convince prospects to buy something they don’t want. And they do it in a way that causes them be perceived as someone who bends the truth (lies).
If you want dramatic improvements in your closing rates, you need to make radical changes in the way you sell. Stop trying to convince people to do business with you. Learn to be totally upfront with people by telling them what problems you solve and then ask them if they have any of those problems and if so do they want to fix them. If they don’t have any of those problems or don’t have the commitment to fix those problems politely end the conversation and move on.