About Brad Sugars

SELLING AS YOU KNOW IT is dead. And you should be as happy about it as I am.

Ever since Tom Hopkins and the dozens of other Americans hit our shores to preach how you can make more sales, boost the bottom line and get that client to part with their cheque, we’ve followed blindly. All the while assuming what we were taught is going to make our lives easier and our wallets fatter.

Well, I’m here to declare the old form of selling is officially dead.

The 24 best closes, the ‘Benjamin Franklin close’, the ABC, always be closing, and all of the techniques that have been taught in some form or another since the 70s have been murdered.

They’ve been killed by a far better educated, far more sophisticated consumer who in some form or another has been sold, oversold, and closed to the point of rebellion.

The old ways have been rejected outright by a consumer who now has the ability to research every purchase from you, your company, and every competitor of yours over the internet.

So, what do we, as salespeople, do now? How can we convert prospects if sales is dead? Well, we have to go back to the one thing that has always worked… RELATIONSHIPS.

All things being equal people buy from people they like. And to take that one step further, even when things are not equal, people would still rather buy from someone they like, more than someone they don’t.

So, is your business set up for relationships or a quick sell job?

Here’s a simple test: Do you send a brochure or a salesperson? Do you answer the phone or put people into a machine? Do you send an email or pick up the phone?

Do you record the person’s purchases or their family member’s names or both?

Do you have at least eight customers you now call a ‘good friend’?

Most companies we coach today are set up for making a sale, not building a relationship. It’s funny, the bigger a company gets the further away from relationships they tend to move. That’s your advantage as a business owner. You are a real person and you build real relationships.

Never ever think a big company can out-perform you in the area most important to customers today. People still think price is the most important factor and EVERY survey I have ever read shows it’s not true.

A relationship and people liking you is the most important thing in sales. That being said, we need to seriously move with the times. Much of selling and relationship building today is done before the prospect even walks through your door or picks up the phone. Your website needs to be your best information provider, and the ability to find you through Google today is vital.

Go to www.google.com and type in what any prospect of yours would when they think of buying your products or services. Where do you rank? If you’re not even on the first 2 pages, that’s a killer today.

Here’s a simple example, type in business coaching and see where my company is. If it’s not at the top today, it will be very close to it. Remember the old way of selling is dead; people have already researched their purchase long before they come to see you. They don’t tend to trust what a salesperson tells them so they ask their friends and then they ask the internet.

That’s why your website has to be a great sales tool for you.

You need to get people involved, you need to educate your prospects and let them complete their research so they already trust, understand and know your product or service before they contact you.

One final point. Every new customer could become a lifelong buyer if you treat them right. But if you build a relationship, they will not only buy from you, often they will convince their friends to buy from you too.

Business is not a short-term game, it’s not about the quick buck this month. It’s about the long-term relationships you build. You see, in business, it’s not who you know that matters, it’s who knows you.

Article reprinted courtesy of My Business Magazine