Let me tell you a quick story about SUPER LEVERAGE.
Recently, I was asked to go to Barbados and spent a few days with a time-share sales team. “Whoa!” I can hear you squirming. “Why would you spend time with that group…time share? Come on. You can do better than that!”
Well, not so quick.
You must not have heard me. I said BARBADOS! It was lovely and they were great. The interesting thing was the property owner committed to himself early-on that he was not going to SELL the way other time-shares sold. He hasn’t. And he has prospered. Greatly.
But even though he never hires other time-share sellers (he prefers to hire good communicators and good character), there still is a tendency to “back-slide” into the vulture strategy (that most time-share companies seem to teach).
What They Miss
Think about it. A potential prospect walks into a time-share sales office and what typically happens? The amateur seller pounces on them and takes them through that manipulative, secret, coercive sales process. Until finally the buyer escapes—vying never to be hooked into that again.
But They Didn’t Need To Do All Of That
It just doesn’t have to be like that. One piece of counsel I gave to my client last week was “Let them tell you why they’re there.” Relax. Don’t pounce. Just sit back and have a human-to-human conversation about their goals, their dreams, their preferences and what brought them into the office. Use the momentum of ‘coming into the office’ to your advantage.
Let them buy.
Stop getting ‘up in their stuff trying’ to sell them. Yes, you will have to inform them of the advantages. Yes, you may have to take them through some process. And yes, you will be asking them to make a decision. But no, you do not have to manipulate and coerce.
So what’s the lesson? The asset is a customer walks into your office. How much more of an asset do you want? So don’t blow it by getting in the way. Leverage that asset by being a human being with them. Be present. Give them freedom. Don’t take it away.
In our call, we’ll talk about a host of other mistakes sales organizations make in their effort to pursue business…and some ideas on SUPER LEVERAGE ideas.
