How can you quickly position yourself as a trusted advisor when meeting someone new?
Here are 3 strategies you can use to immediately be seen as a credible, potentially invaluable resource:
- Mention similar businesses you’ve worked with, making sure to highlight the results they’ve achieved from their relationship with your company.
- Ask insightful questions about their business direction. This shows you’ve done your homework and are focused on helping them, not making the sale.
- Have a genuine conversation. I mean it. Stop selling. Trusted advisors don’t hype their credentials, pitch their products & services, or close. They focus on making a difference for their prospects. And, they’re willing to walk away from a potential opportunity if they’re not the right fit.
Your long-term success as a seller depends on your ability to implement these strategies.
Jill: these are good ideas – ones which will likely help a salesperson start out on the right foot. But there’s an important element that’s missing. In order to be successful, salespeople must start a sales relationship with the right intent. If it’s ‘close the deal,’ or ‘get this prospect to move to the next step,’ that will come across, and (I’m guessing here) 95.7% of the time, that intent won’t be perceived positively.
As my clients have explained it to me – intent is 100% within the salesperson’s control, and the decision to trust is 100% within the prospect’s control. While ‘trusted advisor’ is an admirable vision for salespeople, it should never be presumed.