← The Art of Sales with Art Sobczak
The Art of Sales with Art Sobczak
299 Forget About Trying to Sell; Focus on How You Make People Feel
00:16:20
A famous saying is that "You can't NOT communicate." Meaning that everything you do or say that is observed by someone, whether it is intentional or not, is creating feelings in others. We can be much more successful in sales, and in life, by focusing...
Loading summary
Transcript4 lines
- [00:03]
A
You are listening to the Art of Sales. Everyone sells every day and this is your source for conversational real world sales and prospecting methods that you are comfortable using and that get results. You'll help people buy instead of pushing them into being sold. Here's your host Art subcheck.
- [00:24]
B
You are not in the sales business. You are in the business of creating feelings in people. Success happens when we create positive feelings. Unfortunately, too often people are stirring up negative emotions. Let me explain and talk about how you can create positive feelings and have more success more often. So we just spent the past 10 days doing sales research in the field. Well, the field location was Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and the specific venues were restaurants, resorts, bars and golf courses. Okay, so it was a vacation. But I was reminded of some very important yet fundamental sales and human interaction lessons. So here are the two main ones as I started out this podcast with we are in the feeling business, meaning that every time we communicate with someone, we evoke feelings, good, bad, or sometimes neutral. And the other very important one related to the first one is this. You cannot not communicate. Anything you do or say or anything about you that is observed by someone else is considered communication and therefore it evokes feelings even if it's unintentional. Now the saying you cannot not communicate, that's been repeated many times. The best I can tell, it was originated by Austrian communication expert Paul Watts Lawwick. Kind of like my name, right? It should be obvious why this is so important to us as salespeople. Yet too often salespeople and sales training is focused on overcoming objections, techniques on getting past the screener, memorizing a hundred questions, and other techniques that are focused on what we want. So how about starting with a mindset and identity of how can I make this person feel like I'm interested in them and what they want and that they will feel positively about me and my possible ability to help them. So back to my sales research last week. Let me give you a couple examples at the most basic level that we experienced. So we spent most of our time at one property where we have a fractional ownership. And that's kind of a fancy word for timeshare. We played several golf rounds there at the Tiger woods designed El Cardinal Golf course on the Pacific Ocean. Great course where they play a PGA event in November. So a couple of the mornings when we had checked in, the young lady working the counter did not give off positive feelings. She acted as if we interrupted her at the counter. She didn't look us in the eye. Her Body language and facial expression was as if she just rolled out of bed. Seriously, her eyes were half closed. Now, all of these impressions were formed before she even spoke a single word to us. Then when she did speak, she mumbled, and I had to ask her to repeat herself several times over the couple days. And then she processed our transactions robotically. And then at the end, she kind of mumbled, half whispered, enjoy your round. Which seemed like it really pained her to say that. Now, I'd like to give her the benefit of the doubt, but she did the exact same thing two days in a row. And then I also watched as she did it with other golfers who were checking in. Now, just hearing that, how do you feel? Just my description probably evoked all kinds of negative emotions that you related to similar experiences of your own. Right? And I'm sure there might be some people out there coming to her defense saying, well, we don't know what's going on with her in her life and so on. And that's absolutely true. But if your position is one that requires you to create positive feelings in others, then we need to figure out a way to do it, especially when we don't feel like it. Now let me give you another example where creating positive feelings were off the charts, not just by one person, but by an entire organization. So toward the tail end of our trip last week, we arranged to stay at the Chileno Bay resort, which is a five star property. And we stayed there primarily so we could get access to the very exclusive and private Chileno Bay golf course. Now, the communication and the positive vibes began right after I made the online reservation months ago. Right after that, I got a personal email from the concierge thanking me for the reservation and letting me know that she would be able to help with dinner reservations, golf, or anything else we needed. And I replied that we would need a golf tee time. And then she promptly handled that the same day. So let me stop here and make an important point. In today's instant gratification environment, the speed with which you satisfy someone's request creates impressions. Now think of all the situations where you can make more positive impressions by acting more quickly for someone. I have a saying hanging right above my computer here in my office. I'm looking at it as I record this and it says, do it now. Okay. So prior to our arrival there, there was more communication so that our check in would be quick with minimal paperwork. Again, more positive feelings. So fast forward to last week. Pulling the car up to the reception area, two attendants on either side Opened our car doors, smiled, and enthusiastically greeted us by name. Well, they were apparently notified by the gate attendant whom we had to stop and give my name to. And it was no accident that these guys did this, of course. So they told us they take the bags, they bring them to our room and parked the car. Easy, right? Then another young lady came over, welcomed us and introduced herself with a great big smile and said she'd walk us over to the check in desk and then asked if we wanted a beverage. Well, it was a hot, steamy day, so I took her up on a cold Pacifico. More positive feelings here at every turn. Then at the check in desk, we were again enthusiastically greeted by another smiling woman who had a simple piece of paper for me to sign, handed us our keys, and then introduced us to Eduardo, who seemed like he just popped up out of nowhere. And he told us he was our personal assistant on our visit for anything we needed. And he gave me his personal self. I mean, he could not have been nicer. He drove us over to the room in a golf cart, asking questions about where we're from, our trip so far, listening, asking follow up questions. Genuine, authentic, interested. It was certainly not by accident that all these interactions were designed to create positive impressions and feelings every step of the way. These were certainly engineered by somebody who gave this a lot of thought, but they were executed perfectly. They were authentic. They were genuine. These were real people who cared about us. So Eduardo took us into the room, gave us a brief tour of the amenities, and then I noticed on the tv, the screen read, welcome back, Art Subcheck and Pamela. Well, we had been there five years ago, which apparently they knew, of course. That's impressive. Now, one could argue that, of course, you should expect this kind of treatment at a five star resort. True. But here's what I really found impressive. We noticed that every single employee we encountered on the property would make eye contact, smile, and then greet us with good morning, buenos dias, hi, hola, and other pleasantries. I mean, I'm talking about landscapers, housekeeping staff, maintenance guys, the guy raking the beach, everyone. Now, it's a policy of mine to always do this myself with people everywhere, regardless of their job or status, so that I can perhaps brighten their day a bit. And usually it works. But you know, often you encounter people who are not looking at you, just kind of looking at their shoes. But with this entire staff, they always beat me to the punch. Now, you might be thinking, okay, Art, this is not high tech. This is not new, this is not Revolutionary advice. Exactly. And it's probably the easiest thing you can do to make an impact with other people. Hey, it made such a big impact with me that I'm doing an entire podcast about a resort that I paid about three times more for per night than any other resort we usually stay in, all because of the little things that made us feel so good about them. So what are some takeaways and action items here? First, consider the negative implications of creating negative feelings, whether you're aware that you're doing it or not. So think about the early parts of your communication with the prospect. What is your email or LinkedIn communication saying? How about your voicemails and openings, both with the words you're using and your tone? I've ranted several times about the ridiculous trend that some prospectors are using today where they're apologizing for calling and using gimmicks like this is a cold call or don't hate me or you can hang up if you want. What feelings are those creating negative communication? And feelings are also, of course, bad for customer retention. How often do you say, oh, I can't wait to come back here after your interactions where someone is indifferent towards you? And how about on a personal level? How do you feel when you're going through the motions? You know, just kind of processing calls and transactions instead of really serving people? Probably stress, anxiety, can't wait to get this over with right now. On the positive side, the benefits and results are obvious. Greater customer satisfaction, word of mouth referrals, deeper relationships, and more. And very importantly, don't you feel better when you make someone else's experience better? It boosts your mood, your energy, your confidence, and it has a ripple effect. People react to you differently as well, don't they? All right, so what can you do? Well, it's got to start with your mindset. Make it a point to always remind yourself, how can I make this person's experience better? It requires us being less me focused and more others focus. Do it with planned interactions, like your sales calls, of course, but then also all the time with spontaneous interactions with everyone you come in contact with. Make it a part of who you are, not just something you do occasionally. Hey, it's really easy to look someone in the eye, smile, and say hi or even thank you. Someone like a maintenance worker or anyone who's working in a routine job where they're usually ignored by people who are passing by. I read something the other day that suggested parents not ask kids how their day at school went. Instead, ask them Whose life did you make better today and how? Wow. That's actually a great question to ask ourselves every day. All right. Hey, you know what time it is.
- [14:17]
A
Your attitude will be.
- [14:21]
B
You'll never feel what they say. It's the art of the sales. This quote of the day. That's right. It's time for the quote of the day. Today's quote comes from James Keller. And James said, a candle loses nothing by lighting another candle. Wow. Think about that. Hey, if today's message resonated with you, this is going to be a part of the basis for my new unique coaching program that I'm developing for salespeople who really want to be true sales professionals at the highest level. And there are several pillars that comprise that comprise true sales professionalism and being others focused, which we talked about today, is one of them. The others are being fearless and rejection proof, having a proven sales process and using tried and true messaging and finally being the person who is disciplined to do the work that is required. And I plan on rolling this out toward the end of the year. And if you want to be on the priority list to be one of the first to be notified about all the details of the program and the application process, going over to my new redesigned site, which is smart calling.com, then scroll down towards the bottom, there's a section about the Smart Calling Sales Pro Mastery coaching and training program and you can put your name and email in there and you'll be on the list to be one of the first notified. So again, smartcalling.com thank you so much for investing your valuable sales time with me today. Until next time, go out and make it your best sales day ever. I'm Art.