Yes, you heard me correct, if you want to sell more, NEVER be closing!
My passion, purpose, and zest for life come from my adoration for SALES! My entire career I was told to “always be closing!”. Times have changed my friend(s), stop pulling out your hair because your old skool ways are not working, and get with the times! If you are doing what you have always done you will get what you have always gotten!
As I build the INSIDE view Inc, and grow my business and the businesses of my clients, I got thinking about how the world of sales is changing faster now than ever before. The basics of Sales are not so basic anymore. The old school, Harry Friedman seven steps of selling are not going to cut it anymore. The fundamentals need a pinch innovation to keep up! If I wanted to sell exponentially, and ensure I developed loyal, repeat and referral business for myself, and my clients, I needed to get creative. I needed to fascinate, and shock my customers in a great way!
Then it came to me! The fundamental reason I am so successful in the Sales and Customer Experience industry is that:
- I am wholeheartedly HELPING people with their challenges.
- Instantly, I’m IMPROVING lives with my product of service.
- And I have the absolute most success, is when I INSPIRE my clients to buy what I’m offering!
In this revolving world of sales, sometimes I wonder if we will ever know or be masters of every revenue stream in the 21st century? There are so many ways to close a sale, on-line, in-store, online in a store, and every day the list gets longer and evolves even faster that the speed of light. The fact still remains, at least for now, that there is a human behind the counter at your favourite store, a human showcasing a home for sale, or a human behind the on-line system that provokes a sale.
This human element in the buying process, made me dig deeper into the science of sales in the 21st century.
Regardless of how the client is coming to me to buy, I asked myself these three questions:
#1 How can I HELP people instead of just sell to people?
As I searched for what was, in fact, a simple answer, I came to the conclusion that I have always looked at a career in sales to be prestigious, and that perhaps this way of thinking may not align with the vast majority of Canadians perception of sales people. It’s possible they don’t want my help, however, if they come to me, I will help them! I learned this at the young age of 16. Working in a high-end luxury retail store, where ‘commission sales’ meant something different to different people. I will never forget my leader who told me, “Crystal, just help them find what will make them feel good! Don’t try to sell to them, just have fun with them!” It is that programming that has fundamentally been my sales DNA. In today’s world, wether that buyer is online or in front of you, helping is the new selling!
#2 How can I IMPROVE someone’s life with the product or service I deliver?
At the age of 16, I was in school full time and earning about $25,000 a year working about 12 hours a week. My only expenses were my $25 cell phone bill (a cute red-faced fido), my $49 car insurance and the about $30 a month I spent on gas ($30 = two full tanks a month!). My $500 beige Ford Tempo (that you could start without a key, and you could pop the trunk if you hit it hard enough) was paid in full! Life was GREAT! I was earning between $1500-$2000 a month doing what I enjoyed and I only had about $100 in fixed expenses. You do the math, that leaves a 16-year-old with a pretty hefty bank account to start living the dream! How does a 16-year-old earn $25000/ year working about 12 hours a week? Well, it was simple to me at the time. I started to see that when I improved someone’s life by adding what I knew they would need, they bought it! I thought to myself “If I don’t show ‘her’ the gloves($89.00) that match the jacket she might be furious with me!”. Or “If I don’t show ‘her’ the wallet($80) that goes with the purse, she might be mad at me?”. The icing on the cake was when I realized the power of consistency. I thought to myself “If don’t show ‘everyone’ how to take care of their leather ($30 for care products), it won’t last, then they will be really upset (pissed) with me, and won’t come back!”. It wasn’t uncommon for me to add-on $199 to a $99 jacket sale. In fact, looking back this was the culture of the company. 20 years later we are still a Cult-ure of sales professionals that are our own breed. Our mission to improve lives came from the environment we were in. Today the sales might be on-line, on social media, or in-person, but our expectations are that Sales Professionals are professional enough to make sure we leave with everything we need!
#3 How can I INSPIRE my customer to buy?
A few years later, as I developed my career and a real passion for the sales profession, I was often chosen to lead sales teams to achieve record-breaking success. I was asked to break the glass ceiling, set new sales records, build dynamic teams, develop industry influencers, then shatter the mold, because we were elite! I soon realized that if I wanted to be a successful influencer, I had to be even better than sales leaders who had oodles of experience on me. Then is clicked, My customer was my team. I told myself “I needed to inspire them to do what I am doing, but even better than me!”. In this mindset, I had to dig deep, like ten layers deep! I had to get my team to see what was in it for them? What was their ‘Why’? As I did this, I asked myself “How can I take my team to a place they won’t go on their own so they could get the results they want? How can I inspire them to be better and do better than me?”. Now, as I look back, perhaps that 19 years old me was onto something! Perhaps I understood then, what people pay me to teach them now. The key to closing sales is it to inspire your team to help and improve the lives of their customers, which inspires customers to buy from you!
There you have it my friends, in this 21st century of business, these three reason are why you should never be closing and always be helping, improving lives, and inspiring the people around you to buy! With this fundamental human behavior shift, we can transform sales people into Sales Professionals around to globe! In my world, helping, improving lives, and inspiring customers to buy is the NEW Selling!
I hope this article has served you, and has inspired you to share with the Sales Leaders in your life! If you enjoyed the post, please click the thumbs up icon and let me know your thoughts on Helping, Improving and Inspiring!
Live inspired,
Crystal D’Cunha
Chief Experience Officer
The INSIDE View Inc.
Learn how to Maximizing Sales, Profitability, and elevating your Customer Experience at the Leadership Excellence Forum www.gettheinsideview.com , June 20th-21st, Niagara Falls, Canada with Crystal D’Cunha of the INSIDE view Inc. If you are a leader who is passionate about driving a sales force to success and being an industry leader in customer experience, then we will see you at the Leadership Excellence Forum on June 20th- 21st!
