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How to be Human to Increase Sales

Posted by Carole Mahoney on 6/24/15 8:00 AM

Buying from people - blog

On Monday we held a special group session for new clients. Not surprisingly, they were all struggling with the idea of turning off their automated work flows.

The internet requires us to have a new mindset about sales. The known sales tricks and tactics don’t work on empowered buyers. The internet has changed the way we live, work, meet our spouses, have relationships, do business, market ourselves, and the way we sell.  

Ask yourself; how has the internet changed marketing? It made it go back to the one to one interaction, not the mass message. It has done the same thing to sales. It’s one to one, not one to many. Scripts, automations- they just don’t create as much value or differentiation that a real human being can.

This is the major shift- backwards. We used to do business on a one to one basis, we grew it by word of mouth. Then we got industrial and efficient, we started doing one to many, and then we started to suck.

Why would you want to scale crap? People aren't responding to your automations, so why do more of them? Why spend more time trying to figure out what the perfect conversion sequence is? FYI- Perfection isn't human, and doesn't exist. 

Now here we are again- the one to one interaction matters more. Why? Because we want instant answers. The millions of answers that Google can give us is not necessarily our answer. We have tons of information, but not sure what is right for us.

I've become a big fan of S. Anthony Iannarino's blog lately. In this post he says that providing value and differentiating is more important than efficiency if you want to operate at a higher level (like a trusted adviser maybe?). People still buy from people. You don’t like being treated like a number, do you? 

And that is why we coach salespeople to turn off their automations, and their work flows, and just have a human conversation.

We need to make sure that prospects are fully engaged and emotionally involved. An automated work flow can not do that.

Here are some of the (good) questions that clients had about this new approach to inbound sales:

How do we follow up on these form requests if we can’t sell or fix them? Ex: the standard response- "Hey saw you downloaded this, I went and looked at your website and have a few ways I can help you. You might also be interested in this article or piece of content about a customer like you ..." Why is that a bad idea? Aren't you supposed to be helpful?

Yes, but how can you help them if; 1- they don't ask or want it and 2- you don't really know if that problem is important or if what you are seeing is really a problem? By taking baby steps, you don't make any pushy assumptions that you have to dig out of later.

But if we take baby steps, how do we know if we are going too slow to keep their interest?

What if the competitors come in and give them a bunch of answers and promises? I've got all the information I need, why can't I just give them a proposal so I can close it?

Are you getting the personal compelling reason for them to change the status quo? Do you know what’s motivating and driving them? Are you driving the momentum or are they?

Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about them. You may have all the information you need, but do they? If they aren’t driving it and moving forward (they stop replying to your emails and ignore your calls and messages), that might be why.

Take the #notaboutme pledge!

Topics: sales coaching