Kay Betz, MBA, Salesperson and co-founder of Outfluence, LLC, along with Eric Byrd, Entrepreneur, Salesperson, Jazz Ambassador to South America representing the United States Department of State, will present a dazzling seminar in New Windsor, Maryland. The seminar is entitled Encore Selling. Gather your sales team and anyone involved with customer service or customer contact of any kind and bring them to this event. Combining information, motivation, entertainment, and introducing the unique selling power of silent communication, Kay and Eric will reveal thoughtful, purposeful, and genuine communication and selling techniques that your customers and prospects will respond to. Don’t miss this event.

Click here to Register

Registration closes May 5.

Outfluence in the Sales Environment III

Outfluence is a communication model that emphasizes an others-focus along with awareness of our personal silent communication, the silent communication of others, and a commitment to inspired performance. This series on Outfluence in a Sales Environment will address building trust with a customer. Review the initial article in the series to learn why we are focusing on trust.

Clarity in sales is paramount. So we have to say what we mean. What’s the best way to say what we mean and assure clarity? In its seminars on Building Trust in the Sales Environment Outfluence, LLC teaches that there are seven communicators that will get the job done. Today I will focus on one, which is that a salesperson should deliver information with authority but not with arrogance.

A successful salesperson understands that each customer stands on equal footing with him. He assumes that the customer is intelligent and is searching for product information upon which to make a purchasing decision. The salesperson is not supercilious in the representation of his product. Rather, he determines the customer’s needs through carefully designed questions and then he responds with facts, adding just the right touch of genuine emotion to express his belief in what he is saying.

The salesperson’s effort at bringing clarity to a selling environment also contributes to the development of trust between the salesperson and his customer. A customer wants to see that the salesperson is not only selling a product, but that he is selling a product that he believes is worthy of the customer’s consideration.

Another component to building customer trust is in your ability to advocate for the customer. To advocate is simply to support, and there are several ways to support your customer. Advocacy is one of four components in the salesperson’s development of a giving attitude. Customer service can be defined as a giving attitude.

My wife was being assisted by a salesperson in a department store when another customer brusquely interrupted and asked for assistance. After being politely advised by the salesperson that she was helping another customer (my wife) and that she would be with her shortly, the second customer interrupted twice more before the salesperson responded in more vigorous terms. The salesperson could have attempted to help both of her customers simultaneously, but she knew that that would spoil the pleasant shopping experience of her primary customer (my wife).

For many people shopping is a form of recreation, an escape from ordinary tasks of the day. Buying is part entertainment, part pampering, and part business, isn’t it? If you can find ways to advocate for your customer, your customer will come to trust you and look forward to doing business with you.

I have recorded a brief video to accompany this week’s Pearl. Please take a moment to watch it; you will learn how to acquire additional information on this topic, and I’ll tell you how to get some free stuff!

Check back with me next week and I’ll tell you about the interesting process Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones uses to silently communicate with certain of his players. I will also give you an idea or two on the subject of expressing friendliness to customers. These are super topics for building trust. In the intervening time, go out and inspire today with great salesmanship!

Building Trust

Outfluence is a communication model that emphasizes an others-focus along with awareness of our personal silent communication, the silent communication of others, and a commitment to inspired performance. This series on Outfluence in a Sales Environment will address building trust with a customer. Review the initial article in the series to learn why we are focusing on trust.

Today we will cover two topics; they are: Attitude Basics and Beyond Their Words.

Attitude Basics begins with the development of an engaging attitude. Our attitude is comprised of our smile, eye contact, listening skills, courtesy, and patience. The first attribute a customer notices is our smile. Is it genuine or is it contrived? A genuine smile delivers several messages about who we are to a customer. A contrived smile also delivers a message, and more than likely puts us at an immediate disadvantage with a customer. It’s an uphill battle to recover our equilibrium in the relationship and ultimately make a sale when a customer detects a contrived smile.

The quality of our eye contact reveals our confidence, or lack thereof, and our honest intentions, or lack thereof. For more information on this or any topic in this series, visit this location.

If someone told you that the next sale you make will eventually be worth $500,000 in your pocket, but it would require you to listen to a potential customer talk for 60 minutes about his favorite hobby, would you find time to listen . . . intently? Sometimes a customer needs a listener. Also, without listening closely to a customer we risk not hearing the complete order and deliver an incomplete product. People notice when we take time to listen to them.

It’s the little things that we do in the selling process that have lasting meaning to a customer. For example, opening and closing doors, saying please and thank you, commenting on a nice piece of jewelry or an article of clothing, patiently explaining details over and over again, these are courtesies that are silently recognized and silently appreciated. They build trust and they solidify relationships.

Occasionally we will encounter a customer who seems out of sorts, not himself or herself. Beyond the words that they speak, we need to be aware of our customers’ fears, their insecurities, and even their ulterior motives. Illness, loss, family issues, employment concerns, lack of personal confidence, psychological difficulties, age-related factors, and stress are all situations that affect our customers. If we see our customer struggling emotionally, the right thing to do is to determine the best way to help them at that moment. Salesmanship should give way to friendship in those circumstances. Business ethics don’t allow us to financially commit someone to a purchase knowing that the customer is not well.

In Part III of this Outfluence series on Building Trust we will address how to say what you really mean to a customer, and how to develop a giving attitude. In the intervening time, go out and inspire today with great salesmanship!

Watch for Ryan Black in April speaking about Outfluence in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (4/30); Kay Betz and Eric Byrd speaking about Encore Selling™  in New Windsor, MD (5/10); and Eric Byrd speaking at the MediX commencement exercises in Baltimore, MD. (5/22)

Contact 888-881-1660 or info@outfluence.com to schedule speakers on topics focused on securing a job, inspiring performance, basic communication, salesmanship, customer service, PowerWriters, and Outflence, among others.

Outfluence is a communication concept that obtains sales and retains customers. Dale Carnegie explained the principles of communication; Outfluence teaches you how to put them to work in your business thoughtfully, purposefully, and effectively.