Selling: Prospects or People?
For your thought and discussion… Many would-be entrepreneurs are: a. scared of selling; contemptuous of it; c. both. So, here’s how I think it could be much easier for everyone. Don’t think of the potential customer/client as a “prospect” (or even worse, in funnel speak, a “suspect”) Think of them as people.
What works for you in “selling?” What doesn’t work? What do you just hate when people are trying to sell to you (and have you been guilty of the same behavior when pitching your company? ‘fess up. I know I have. I’ve also found that the less I “sell” the more work I get. Funny how that works…)
If you’d like to leave a comment, please do so. It may take a bit to show up since I hate making people type in little letters (I can’t read most of them myself) - so I moderate all comments. Feel free to disagree - debate is healthy. However, I’ve blacklisted the worst obscenities, including the “f” word, as part of the troll wall.
Tags: sales, selling, marketing troubleshooting, entrepreneur sanity check
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May 21st, 2007 at 7:59 pm
This post came just when I needed it. Prospects are scary, but reframing them as “people” feels right. Thanks for the reminder.
May 21st, 2007 at 11:13 pm
OMG You mean we have to deal with people? Those complicated beings? You mean we need to understand their pain, their desires, their ambitions? We actually have to show them we understand and can help them?
Give me “suspects” every time. So much easier to put them into well defined demographic buckets. So much easier to sell to a demographic than to have a relationship.
But then alas, if we’re not interested in them as people, they probably won’t be interested in us, the people in our company. Which means we won’t sell anything. Therapy anyone?