“The people who have been in the position of your customer, of your prospect, the people who have been in those positions before are the best people to help you remove that risk of your current prospects.” – Jeff Bajorek in today’s Tip 312
Do you have a trust problem?
Join the conversation below and go check the links to the previous tips in this series!
306: You Have a Discipline Problem
299: You Have a Messaging Problem
292: You Have a Preparation Problem
208: You Don’t Have a Closing Problem
Jeff Bajorek on LinkedIn
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today Jeff Bajorek is back with part 15 of the 16 part series that he kicked off back in tip #208 called “You Don’t Have a Closing Problem.” I can’t believe we’re almost done with this series. After the series finale next week I’ve got something special I’m going to do to make it a little easier to listen to all of them in a row, but before we get there, here’s Jeff with today’s installment:
Jeff Bajorek: You don’t have a closing problem. You have a trust problem. Anytime you’re asking your prospect to make a change, which is what you’re trying to do when you sell them something, that change is going to be associated with a certain amount of risk. Big changes carry perceptions of big risks, but you need them to make this change because if they were doing what needed to be done, they’d be getting the results they’re looking for, right? So what are you doing to allay those fears? Because of risk and fear kind of go hand in hand. And there are a lot of ways that you can accomplish this. Maybe you can get your foot in the door with a smaller project. Maybe you can demonstrate that you’re capable of delivering on your promises, demonstrating that you’re someone worth working with because you’re easy to work with because you show up on time because you’re dependable and you do the things that you say that you’re going to do and you can complete projects with smaller successes along the way. All of that helps to build familiarity and reducing the perception of, “Oh my goodness, I’m going to die if I make this decision.” Right? Because on a primal level, that’s what almost everybody who makes a final decision is thinking when they signed that contract. But I think the most underutilized technique or approach to removing risk is the voice of your current customers. You’re stark raving lunatic mad fans who have been in this similar position before and there were willing to take the risk because they knew what was on the other side of that chasm was worth approaching, was worth going after and you were able to help them get to where they wanted to be because of the changes you were able to help them make it. When you say it about yourself, it’s bragging. When someone else says it about you, it’s proof. Jeffrey Gitomer taught me that and I want you to think about that because it is absolutely true. The people who have been in the position of your customer, of your prospect, the people who have been in those positions before are the best people to help you remove that risk of your current prospects. Think about that and now I want you to think about whether or not you have that. Have you captured those testimonials in written form? Have you gotten them on video? Do you have a YouTube playlist of the 10 top customers in your kind of stable or your book of business, your list of accounts who have been in a similar position to your current prospects and do they have 15 seconds worth of video to say to talk about everything that you did, whether it was something they expected or something you over-delivered on? How powerful would it be if you could just shoot that playlist to them in a text message or an email as follow up to that last meeting to say, “Hey, you know, this is a tough decision and there’s nothing that I can say that will help you make this decision any easier.” But I do have a handful of friends who have sat where you sit right now and are very glad that they made that decision. Why don’t you listen to them? That’s a really powerful statement to be able to make and ultimately it is the thing that gets a lot of deals done. Do you have those things? Can you get over that trust barrier? Is your level of trust or is the level of trust that your prospect has in you higher than their level of skepticism that you can get the job done? Think about that. Then go fix it.
Scott Ingram: For more about Jeff and for links to the previous tips in this series just click over to DailySales.Tips/312 that’s also where you’ll find the video version of Jeff’s tip and links to help you connect with Jeff directly.
Thanks for listening and be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip… or not, because it’ll be Thanksgiving.