Do you have a Resistance to Selling?

“If you have resistance to someone who is selling something, then you will never have buyers because you cannot become someone who you  despise.  If you have issues about someone selling something you’re going to have issues with you being the seller of something.”

I heard this on one of Ray Higdon’s videos on cold marketing and it got me thinking. 

Ask yourself, do I have resistance?

1. Do I have resistance to someone who is selling them something?
2. What do I think of salesmen often ?
3. Why are people skeptical of marketers?
4. How do you make it in business if you don’t sell?
5. What can you do to not have a resistance to selling?
6. How can you sell without being despised or feeling like you’re the bad guy?

Take a deeper look 

 Nobody ever gets good at something that they hate, and if you can’t sell your ideas, yourself, and your products, you’ll fail in business.  The problem with the “I hate selling” belief is,  in my opinion, that it confuses the act of selling (which I don’t believe anyone really hates because people willingly buy things everyday) with acting like a salesperson (which everybody hates).

Think about it this way, the act of selling is basically helping people exchange something they want less for something that they want more, like a car.  The person selling the car would rather have money than the car.  Or the person buying your business product wants it more than the money they have to pay for that product.

Acting like a salesperson according to many, however, is attempting to manipulate people into buying something that they may not want. People don’t like being sold to for a number of reasons. We feel that the salesperson or marketer is only in it for the sale, they are not trustworthy, they may not honor their promises, they might not be selling the product or service for our needs, they don’t understand our need, and/or they are just too pushy. They have a high-pressure sales tactics.  They might even lie, cheat, and play games.  Some could be sleazy, annoying, not authentic, manipulative, sneaky, and have an ulterior motive.

If your only exposure to sales people are people like this, you tend to think that to be good at sales, you have to be a greasy, conceited slime ball. As long as the salesman/marketer approaches marketing and sales with a “closing the deal” attitude, they are missing the point.  This is the behavior that people hate. 

Advice for marketers

So how should a salesman/marketer behave so that s/he is not despised and be more likely to become successful? Here are some answers:

• Stop talking and start listening. The customer needs you to understand his/ her needs, problems, and wants.
• The customer needs to know you are helping them become a smarter consumer so they feel they made the best possible deal.
• Know your product inside out so that you can answer questions about it.
• Become the expert so that people seek you out
• Don’t use worlds like exciting or  innovative when describing the product. Instead find something exciting or innovative about the product that actually excites the customer.
• Don’t use the word “guarantee” because anyone who has an ounce of sense knows that a “guarantee” means absolutely nothing. “Guarantee” is just the word that people use when they’re too chicken to use a word that has some real legal muscle, like “warranty.”
• Don’t use the word “honestly” or “to tell the truth” because as soon as you do, it makes everything else you’ve said so far seem like you were probably lying.
• Rather than approaching your customer with the attitude, “I wonder how much money I can get out of them?” ask yourself “How can I give this person the greatest advantage, benefit, or value?”
• Make your customer feel special, valued and appreciated.

The bottom line

Act professionally. No more shenanigans, trickery, and hard sales. Treat the customer the way you would want a salesperson to treat with you. Be an authentic and caring person.  Give your customer what he needs and wants including offering the sale so that his needs are met. 

Here are a few articles on this topic that may give you more ideas to think about and carry out. 

• http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/what-to-do-if-you-hate-selling.html
• http://www.predictableprofits.com/6-reasons-why-we-hate-salespeople-marketers/#sthash.AhJQMDpr.dpbs
• http://www.b2bsalesboost.com/pdf/why-customers-hate-sales-people.pdf
• http://smallbusiness.chron.com/sell-people-hate-salesmen-33207.html

If this helped you and you got value, feel free to share with your teammates, on Facebook, and comment below.  

Sara Metzger’s Start an Online Business Blog
Skype: Sara.Metzger
Email: sarametzger@comcast.net
Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/sara26.metzger?fref=ts

P.S. If you are interested in what to say and do to get prospects and sales, this is the Course you Should Get – Click here and get started today