FIRST….and start selling yourself FIRST.  Boy did I have this wrong when I started in sales. I remember when I began my sales career, I was 21 years old and selling power tools for Black and Decker. I was so excited when I attended my first sales training. I thought in order to be successful I had to be an expert at every bell and whistle of my product. I believed that if I knew everything about my product I could convince someone to buy it. WRONG! I wish you could have been a fly on the wall to see me in action. A potential buyer would grant me a meeting and say “I have about 20 minutes, so what do ya got? Here was my chance to get the sale, so I started rattling off all my product expertise, without making a connection with the buyer and without asking about his needs. Needless to say, I was not getting much business this way.

My mentor and coach, John Maxwell taught me “People don’t care about what you have to say, until they know that you care.” Period.

When I say sell yourself, I don’t mean start spewing your resume and sales experience, unless they ask you of course. But keep it short and sweet. Honestly people don’t care about you, they care about themselves. In fact, talking about yourself in a sales call is rude because you are wasting their time. Start by creating a connection.  My sales mentor Ed DeCosta taught me, people only buy from people they know, like, and trust.  #truthbomb  How do you create a connection so they know, like, and trust you?

Here are 3 tips for creating a connection with potential clients.

1. Show them you care about them.

Ask questions about them, and show interest in their business.  How do you know if you provide any value to the person and/or business if you don’t know anything about them?  Make sure those questions are open-ended. If you are talking more in the conversation or if they can answer your questions with one word, then your questions are close-ended. Your question should require the person to pause and think about their answer. Most people love talking about themselves. It’s true. Watch how people light up when show interest in them, especially something they are really passionate about i.e. family, hobbies, favorite teams, travel, wine, goals, you get the picture. This isn’t manipulation, you should have a genuine interest in others, especially if you are in the business of helping others. If you don’t enjoy helping others, you will never reach your full potential in selling and it will never be personally rewarding.

2. Don’t forget to smile, and make sure it is a genuine smile.

People can tell when it is fake. I can picture a person giving me a fake smile right now and it just makes me cringe. In the famous book written by Dale Carnegie “How to Win Friends and Influence People” he states, “actions speak louder than words, and a smile says “I like you, you make me happy, and I’m glad to see you.

3. Remember things about them.

Write them down, if needed, and bring it up the next time you see them. Show them you care. Remember their name, important people in their life, hobbies, connect them to people you know that can help them.  Most importantly, make a system for remembering important information about your clients. I make it a point to keep important info about my clients under the “notes” section of their contact information on my phone. There are many systems available that I can share with you that work. Most importantly, have a system.

One thing I have learned in my life is that you have to keep getting better at connecting with people. Stop focusing on yourself and focus on helping on others.  Be intentional. Get better at creating connections with others. This will not only help you in business, but in every aspect of your life. Everyone can do it. You don’t have to be super outgoing. Some of the best sales people are introverts because they would rather focus their attention on others than themselves.

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Keep Blooming!

Val