“There is no such thing as a “No Sales” call. A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client on buying your service or he sells you on a reason why he can’t. Either way, a sale is made. The only question is, who’s gunna close. You or him. Be relentless.”
Okay. So, Ben’s character was over the top, grade-A, Son-uv-a-Biscuit, but the principles of his froth still ring true: a sale is made with every engagement with clients and prospects. The question is, have you sold them on further engagement or did they sell you on why they won’t engage?
Here’s another allegory. You’re sitting at a bar, waiting for your friends to show up after work. The guy sitting next to you eagerly slaps the counter top as if it was a Reggae drum kit. He’s beyond stoked. He’s annoyingly giddy. You ask him a simple question, “You celebrating something special?” The guy blurts out, “I just got a promotion today!” You politely congratulate him by raising your beer to him and say, “Congrats to you and your promotion to…..?” Your new found bar friend beams back, “You’re looking at the new brand manager of a Town Branch Sister-Bourbon! I have to come up with a new campaign in 45 days. I’m scared, but excited. Scared because Town Branch just fired it’s old agency without a replacement. We’re scrambling to find help!”
So, a door of conversation was just flung open in your face by you asking, “What’s up, Bud?”.
Think about how often we ‘listen to learn’ versus ‘listen to hear’. When we listen to learn, we are active in the conversation. We listen. We respond. We learn. We cultivate.
When we ‘listen to hear’, we often are merely waiting for the other person to stop talking so we can say what we wanted to say.
Think about how you talk with your clients or your prospects. Are you hearing what they are needing, not just wanting? Do you understand their pain points enough to recommend a remedy?
HOW you listen is often more important to WHAT you are hearing.
It can make a difference between who is being closed, and by whom. In this case, I agree with Buddy Ben.
