Two Extremes of Successful Selling

Most sales people don’t understand that making sales requires two extreme talents.  Stay off the middle road; that’s where failure lurks.  The more extreme you get with these two talents, the better.  In this episode learn to expand your boundaries and switch gears at the right moment to get the sale.

#1.  The Connection Extreme.  This is the ability to disarm merchants, make them like you and trust you.  Start out with an extreme connection.  Have the mental attitude that you’re not there to sell them.  Rather, you want to connect with them.  You’re there because you’re excited, positive, and having a great day.  You want to “match” merchants.  People connect with someone like them.  That extreme connection comes from mirroring.  It comes from thinking and preparing things to say which allow you to connect with the merchant.  Think of ways to push your pitch to the limits of the extreme. 

>This greeting would NOT help you connect:  “Hi, my name is James Shepherd.  I sell credit card processing services.”

>Here is an example of a good extreme connection opening:  “Hi, my name is James Shepherd.  I’m a local business owner in the area.  I love this shop.  This is awesome.  How long have you guys been here?  Wow!  You’ve been here for five years?!  That’s great.  I’m a little bit newer in the area and just have a business down the road.  Boy, this is just a great business.  Tell me more about this.  Why did you start this business?”

If you’re talking to a 97-year-old man, you’ll want to slow your talk down.  But if you see a busy owner who is yelling at employees and obviously on the go, launch in quickly, “Hey, how are you doing?  My name is James Shepherd.  I just wanted to stop by and introduce myself.  What’s your name?”

Some of you have mastered that extreme.  You’ve connected, gathered some information, maybe gotten the statement.  [Of course, if you are using instantquotetool.com with our 30-day free trial, you won’t need to get the statement.  *My little infomercial*  Go to instantquotetool.com and sign up.]  Although you’ve mastered the connection extreme, you don’t know how to switch gears to the other extreme.

#2.  The Extreme Focus.  There is a moment in the sales process, a tipping point, where you realize the merchant should choose you as his/her service provider.  You can say, “I know this person should switch to me; I know what the value proposition is.”   Very rarely, depending on what you’re selling, you may have a moment of realizing you SHOULDN’T sell a merchant.  That’s happened to me quite a few times over the years.  For instance, a coffee shop using the old Square system with 2.75% flat rate and interchange of 5% would not be beneficial.  I don’t want a money losing deal.  That time I got to the tipping point, and my extreme focus told me to move on.  (However, this was before Square’s pricing changes.  I wouldn’t leave so easily now.)  The extreme focus is when you decide to move forward (usually), and nobody is going to stop you.  There is no objection merchants could give that will throw you off.  Refer to some of my other recent episodes for tips on the art of closing the sale, the one call close, being prepared, knowing the value proposition, etc.

One of my favorite lines comes from my friend, Josh Brian.  When a prospect says he/she wants to think about the offer, Brian says, “Well, let me ask you ‘what DO you think about it?’”  Such a simple yet great line!  The prospect usually chuckles and gives the true objection.  Then Brian can “stay on the highway” of making the sale by offering a different solution to the objection.  That’s extreme focus.  Extreme focus says, “There is nothing you can say to me that is going to get me out of focus.  I am going to sell you because it’s best and valuable for you.  I’m extremely focused on my objective of closing the sale.  I’m going to write it up and get the documents I need.  Then I’m going to service the account like the merchant has never seen before.”  That is true sales professionalism.

So, extreme connection at the beginning of the pitch.  And then the tipping point where you switch to extreme focus.  Stay focused until you get a “yes” or a “no.”  If you get a “no,” make sure you get it about fifteen times before giving in.  That is how top sales people make more money than you do.

Read the previous post here:  http://www.ccsalespro.com/cash-discounting-trap/  The Cash Discounting Trap

Read the next post here:  http://www.ccsalespro.com/secret-sales-weapon-group-sales-approach/  My Secret Sales Weapon – The Group Sales Approach