In 1982, I sold my first mobile DJ business, Music Man. Midlife crisis at 29 years old.
Before returning to the DJ business in 1986 by launching Designer Music, I had a short, but highly productive stint selling real estate in San Francisco.
It became abundantly clear, very quickly, that my understanding of the ‘science of sales’ was at a beginner’s level. If I was going to prosper in commission sales, I needed a big time booster shot.
That quantum leap came from attending a Real Estate Sales Bootcamp, conducted by Tom Hopkins in Phoenix, Arizona. Hopkins had been a super salesman in the industry, so his credibility was huge.
As you would expect, attendees learned all the appropriate techniques in prospecting, proper communications, qualifying customers, technical skills and more. However, there was a single, overriding principle that has stuck with me, more than any other.
If you believe in your product or service, if you have qualified your customer and believe that they have the resources to buy from you, and your product or service is a good fit, then it is your responsibility to help them make a decision to buy from you.
That’s a mouthful, but an important one. It’s not simply about asking for the order. It’s not necessarily feeling that you are the only choice. It’s the knowledge that a large part of selling is helping feel comfortable in making a decision by answering their objections, addressing their fears, and ultimately reaching an agreement to move forward.
This past week, I had a particular selling situation that reminded me, consciously, of this outlook on selling. I was so certain that the service I could provide for a particular client was such an important fit, for many reasons, that I would not hang up the phone without having clarity in the mind of the client, and a new project to work on. And that’s the way it went.
If he could have observed this selling scenario, I think Tom Hopkins would have been particularly proud of me.
How do you view selling? Do you have the belief in your product or service to believe, absolutely, so that when you recognize the right match that all you can think about is serving that client?
Ask yourself these questions, and reexamine your sales perspective. When the stars are aligned, the process of selling becomes instinctive, for all the right reasons.
Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority
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