The Best Sales Tactic Ever, Isn’t a Sales Tactic

Categorized | General, Marketing

The Best Sales Tactic Ever, Isn’t a Sales Tactic

Written by: Charles Blakeman | Posted on 10 September 2009. Tags: sales management, sales tactics

The funniest things go through your mind when riding a bike on switchbacks up a mountain. It came to me today while slogging up the hill that something a client of mine and I had talked about last week riding up the same mountain together was pretty important. Sales people and business owners really don’t get it.

He related that he had been at a gathering and a friend introduced him to an insurance guy, then promptly walked off, leaving my friend with a guy who oozed “sales pitch”. Sure enough, the sales pitch came almost immediately.

My friend was polite but cut in and made it very clear that he was not the least bit interested in insurance of any kind, that he was totally happy with his existing insurance of every kind, and didn’t need any second opinions at this time of any kind. The insurance guy nodded, then went on for 20 minutes about his great insurance. My friend finally had to make up an excuse to get out of the conversation and move on.

If this insurance guy had understood the best sales tactic ever, my friend would have had no annoying story to tell me. What most sales people and most business owners do not understand is that our job is enter other people’s worlds, not get them to enter ours; to meet them where THEY are at, not where we want them to be.

Drawing people into “my world” is what we all want to do. Let me tell you how great I am, how great my product/service is, and how great you would be if you just jumped into my world with both feet and bought my stuff. I know what’s best for you, so I’ll ignore what you’re saying and keep on recruiting you to enter my world.

What if we took the opposite approach? What if we said to ourselves, what does that person want and need, without regard to what I’m selling? What if I was simply willing to enter their world, to mentally and emotionally meet them where they live, not where I live? This is the essence of servant-selling. Serve, don’t sell. We all want to buy stuff, but none of wants to be sold stuff. Serve me where I am at, regardless of your product/service, and I just might be interested in buying from you.

Here’s the simple, but incredibly challenging “sales tactic”. It comes from the book, The Power of Purpose, by Peter Themes, (the subtitle, “Live Well by Doing Good” is my life vision). This isn’t a sales book, but should be. Peter says the highest tier, Tier Three of “thinking” is “What does the other person I’m talking about think and feel about themselves, and how can I help push them forward in that?” Tier Three thinking does not focus on what I feel and think, or even what the other person feels and thinks about ME, but only where they are and what I can do to help push them forward right there.

Start purposing to enter other people’s worlds, and apply Tier Three thinking to everything you do. You’ll be surprised how hard it is to stay focused on the needs of others (it was very revealing to me how self-focused I am). It will also be the most powerful way to break down barriers, make a friend, and put someone in a position where they want to buy from you.

If you start entering other people’s worlds, meeting them where THEY are at, and do it with the right motive, you may never have to sell anything again. People will be too busy buying from you.

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This post was written by:

Charles Blakeman - who has written 40 posts on Business Blogs.

Mr. Blakeman advises companies from $100,000 to $100 million. He has extensive experience leading and growing companies. Mr. Blakeman is a lifetime business practitioner who now uses his experience to help other companies create success. He is a regular convention speaker, trade journal contributor, and non-profit board member.

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7 Responses to “The Best Sales Tactic Ever, Isn’t a Sales Tactic”

Carl says:

September 10, 2009 at 9:39 pm

Yes, I think that the ‘hard sell’ approach only works on very few, and the few sales that they get won’t offset the number of people that they annoyed.
A number of years ago, my wife and I bumped into this lovely young couple about our age, they were into music, and other things that we enjoyed (I play a guitar,) and we hit it off, the guy suggested we get together for lunch soon, to which we whole heartedly agreed.
When the said lunch date arrived, we got bombarded with 2 hours of Amway, I was furious, and said as much, to which he replied, ‘well you did ask me what I do’ hmmm,might have been better if he went about it a better way, as a result have never seen them since.

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Chuck Blakeman says:

September 11, 2009 at 12:10 am

Carl,

Perfect exampel of someone who had no intention of meeting you where you were at or serving you, they just couldn’t wait to regurgitate their great news on you. And instead of winning a possible life long friend with who-knows how much business coming to them, they’re out doing it to someone else.

Serve, don’t sell.

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James McGoram says:

September 11, 2009 at 2:27 pm

Nice article Chuck.
Something a business acquaintance of mine said recently got me thinking about when I was younger. I spent a great deal of time over a period of about 7 years working for a volunteer organisation; helping children and teenagers overcome problems and teaching them communication skills.
The key skill that any of us learned was to listen. I mean *really* listen; to listen with purpose, with empathy and, where needed, to clarify. Through such listening we develop rapport.
This has been the best sales tool I’ve ever been given, and I think it reinforces your idea of entering a person’s world – take the time to understand them, and you’ll know better what they need and how to provide it.

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Ken Duncan says:

September 11, 2009 at 9:48 pm

Kia Ora, Understand this, but it can be hard to do & you see it all the time.
People who have seen my recent posts may say I do what the insurance salesman does.
There is a difference. Done correctly security is one area where the client is hardly ever right. Especially in NZ.
I say this because you often get calls for security at clients request then end up with totally inadequate response or being asked to do something illegal.
I will give you three examples.
Called to help at a function. ON arrival no client & management don’t know what client actually wants. End of night where venue open to public & over 1000 people there drunk, mainly women. Finally meet client who says wanted a guard to pull out drunk women. In todays climate a lone male guard does not touch a female. to ensure the venue was sealed would require at least 6 guards. International standards would require 12.
second was called in at request for an event. Arrive management say client is very nervous about security. when they arrive, where they are from & what they are worth says ten man Close Protection not one guard (even though close protection trained & experienced).
Third time was arriving to carry out security for private function.
Person organizing it asks that Noise control be prevented from entering. We then inform them that it is illegal to stop noise control as long as they are in possesion of their warrant.
But getting back to your point, that is why looking to launch here in Christchurch a different way of doing security as there is no way to change NZ mindset regarding security until something big happens. Definitely not by telling them.
Couple that with submission to new Bill before Parliament & maybe things will change before it is too late.
Was hoping for Insurance industry to do their bit, but it doesn’t look like it is going to happen.
So point is valid & have to look at ways to get message across, but it doesn’t fit every situation.

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Chuck Blakeman says:

September 12, 2009 at 1:28 pm

James,

“take the time to understand them, and you’ll know better what they need and how to provide it.” – thanks for this – couldn’t have said it better.

Ken,

Sounds more like you’ve got a difficult situation that is more related to mediation and resolving tough situations than actual sales. I don’t envy your tough position.

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Sheldon (Marketing Consultant, Tauranga) says:

September 22, 2009 at 9:10 am

Charles, the approach you have outlined seems to lend itself to a networking legend. Instead of meeting someone and selling them what you have, you are proposing to meet someone and ask what they need. Then you can tell them “I know I guy called Dave who can help with that, give him a call and tell him I sent you”. Next time you see Dave you ask how it went at he’ll be more receptive to buying what YOU are selling. Hmmm A pretty indirect route, but it makes sense.

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Chuck Blakeman says:

September 22, 2009 at 10:07 am

Sheldon,

Great way to put it – networking legend. I am known as “the guy who’s gotta guy” because I’m always connecting one person to the next or referring them to a resource, possible employee, etc. As a result, I get a lot of this back (not right away, as you said it’s indirect, took over a year to see real big results), but now I never have to go to networking events. I just serve people who are existing clients and others I know, and they all do the same thing and send others my way.

It’s been a very powerful way for everyone to benefit and a great testimony to the real desire of people to be significant by pushing others forward first.

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