请问徐大师

After my post about how to get more success with less effort from a software development project, http://massa.techndu.com/2007/11/05/TheNDAJoint.aspx, I had a comment posted and 3 emails asking how I qualify prospects or close the deal when the customer is wanting me to be specific while they remain vague. http://massa.techndu.com/CommentView,guid,c4aed57e-7468-4fb0-aeb9-a87d482721a6.aspx#commentstart

I don’t really understand what I’m doing with my blog that gets people emailing me privately instead of posting on the blog so a lot more people could benefit but I’m just glad to be getting the chance to help. HOWEVER, you might as well post because I’ll probably just talk about you anyway and if you post, you get a Guru link, and everybody knows those are the best kind of links you can get :)

Anyway, it made me stop and think about what I’m doing here, (I hate when that happens!), and who my readers are and I realized that a lot more of them are real, in-the-trenches-everyday, working SEO’s than are newbies wanting to know how to get to the top of Google by diddeling their meta tags.

I also realize that most of you reading are probably much better than I as a code jockey, designer dude and/or dudette, researcher, copywriter, link acquisition specialist, (or master baiter as I like to call them),and about a thousand other skill sets that are valuable to the SEO process, (whatever that is?). BUT, I do have extreme confidence in my ability to give benefit of my experience in two primary areas.

#1. The management of an online promotional services business. I can help you avoid hundreds of mistakes and ways of doing it wrong.

#2. Sales.

Do you know why I love sales?  Because once, and just as soon as, you can overcome some popular misconceptions about sales and salespeople and accept a few basic concepts, you cannot fail, you can only miss your numbers. If you can accept that missing those numbers was directly related to something you did, adjust your strategy and try it again, you WILL hit your numbers unless you give up.

So, today I want to try to help those who are responsible for making the sale and you know what, that is each and every one of you. The things that I can tell you that apply to looking someone in the face are applicable to saying those same things on a website. Whether you work for an SEO firm or whether you run 300 affiliate sites from your bedroom, you don’t make money talking to clients or building sites. Those things are an expense and they COST money. You MAKE money when you get your commission check and that means making sales.

The Worst Sales Advice on the Planet

Today I want to do what I believe will be the most help I could offer in a single blog post. I want to kill, destroy, cause to cease to exist in your mind, the single worst piece of sales advice on the planet.

We’ve all seen it time and time again, over and over. Every time I see it I have to fight the urge to upchuck, (my apologies to everyone named chuck. Thank goodness a form of “bob” never became accepted into the American vernacular as a synonym for a rather unpleasant body function).

The advice I’m referring to are things like:

Feel Their Pain

"Another way to get emotional with your prospects is to feel their pain. Like the things they like. Hate the things they hate."

"So take this advice to heart: Fill your prospects with warm and soft emotions, and you'll be filling your pockets with cold hard cash."

“Make your prospect like you by finding out what he likes and then telling him you like the same thing.”

The most common example I see used is fishing for some strange reason. You’re told that if your prospect likes fishing then tell him you do too.

{I don‘t want to provide links to these quotes not because I want to deny them the guru link love but because my intent is not to ridicule}

CONDESCENDING LOSER

Of course we are all free to believe what and who we want, but I can assure you that if you don’t fish, (and he does), yet you enthusiastically tell him how much you love fishing and he asks you what the biggest walleye you ever caught was and you tell him it was an extra large, not only do you look like an idiot, you also look like the biggest condescending loser the guy has met today.

Think about it for just a second, what would you think of someone you had just met and they made some comment about a topic you knew something about to try to get you to like them, and you also knew the comment illustrated their lack of knowledge of that topic, would you be impressed? Would knowing this other person was a liar make you like them and feel like you and they were relating to each other?

You see, you don’t have to try to get the prospect to think you and he are two peas in a pod. You don’t have to lie to find something to relate to each other about. You had something to relate to each other about the moment they decided to contact you. They didn’t call you because they were looking for a fishing buddy. They didn’t call you because they were lonely, (unless of course you are in the lonely business). They called you because something gave them the perception that you had something to trade that they needed or wanted.

Be honest, answer their questions and look for qualifying statements and closing questions. Do you know why you look for qualifying statements? So you can overcome objections and identify those closing questions.

Don't waste your time and theirs while running the risk of looking like a liar and a loser by trying to make them think you are something you are not. There is no need.

In another post I’ll show you some of the top qualifying statements you should look for and how to identify those closing questions but for today let me leave you with just two things that will do a LOT to help you serve your clients better.

#1. Learn that sales is not about talking it is about listening

#2. Anytime you see anyone giving any advice that suggests you do anything even the slightest less than honest, you can be sure the advice was not written by anyone who is actually involved in making direct sales.

Peace Y’all

G

You kids go outside and play. You’re driving me crazy bein underfoot all the time. And DON’T SLAM THAT SCREEN DOOR!

Don’t forget to post your comment instead of emailing me directly and get you some of that groovy guru link love. The Guru is already averaging over 750 uniques a day. Say something even remotely smart, (or at least something that sounds smart), and it could float to the top of the blog clog like a fart in a bathtub.