If you had an opportunity, what would be the three most critical questions to ask to build influence for you as a sales leader? My three come from my father who shared them with me many years ago:
Who do you know?
Who knows you?
Why would someone want to know you?
As a professional salesperson, Dad said this if the first question to ask yourself: Who do you know? Now this sounds almost intuitively obvious, but many in sales truly do not know those around them. For until you know them, your influence as a sales leader is greatly diminished to being almost none existent. Sales Training Coaching Tip: Leader is defined as someone who secures the results while demonstrating positive core values or what others define as business ethics.
Dad or Hoagie, as he was called by clients and friends, was a great relationship builder and sales leader. Over the course of his 40 years sales career he knew a lot of people. And he made sure to stay connected with a vast majority of them.
In sales, knowing someone and then "knowing someone" are two different animals. We all know a lot of people, but we truly know far fewer individuals. This is why it is important to not be selfish when meeting people, to remember to smile and to demonstrate authentic leadership at all times. Sure not everyone is a potential customer or center of influence. Yet sometimes in our hurry to meet those sales quotas or sales goals, we lose the opportunity to truly know someone.
Recently I reconnected with someone I have known for almost ten years. During that time, we never had the opportunity to sit down and break bread. Over lunch, I learned about her interests, her dogs, her husband and what she wanted to do in her new role.
There was some general business conversation as she wanted to meet with me. However, the focus of the lunch was 80% non-business and 20% business. I believe in sales, people buy from people they know and then trust. Both factors need to be met and exceeded for the sale to be earned not to mention increasing your influence as an authentic sales leader.
With the advent of social media within the Internet, knowing someone has become easier. There are many sales force tools or sales and marketing tools that can help you know someone just a little better. Again, you may need to know them below the surface instead of just above the surface where most of the gray suits (all those other sales folks) are.
Dad's second question was equally important "Who knows you?" The answer to this question goes beyond being recognized at first blush.
What I learned from Dad is the answer to this question is when someone meets you and shares an informal testimonial from someone else. Relationship selling is essentially about people interacting with other people for a mutual gain. Influence becomes the result from these interactions.
Since the sales world is a little different today than when Dad sold, the answer to "Who knows you" now extends into cyberspace. With the change from sales based marketing to education based marketing, who knows you is truly global due to sites such as Sales Gravy, Evan Carmichael, and even your own blog. Through these marketing efforts, you as a sales leader extend your influence because you are providing value through the sharing (not selling) of your expertise.
Now the third question "Why would someone want to know you?" is the kicker. In today's terms, this would be called value. What value do you bring to the relationship?
Are you all about you or what Jeb Blount calls "Pump and Dump" or what I coined as the 3Ps virus where sale people spew product, price or proposal in the first 5 minutes after meeting you? Value is uniquely determined by each potential customer (a.k.a. prospects). This determination begins at a very early age. Sales Training Coaching Tip: Read Why Choose This Book by Read Montaque to learn more about individual value creation.
Recently I tried out a new dentist because I was tired of driving 35 miles one way to see my dentist. I spent 90 minutes with this breakdown:
83 minutes with the dental technician
5 minutes with the administrative person
2 minutes were with the Dentist
Then after the X-Rays and learning their special offer would not cover the advertised cleaning, I received two proposals:
$1,500 for the cleaning and some antibiotic treatment
$3,500 for additional dental work, removing old fillings, etc.
Now given that I was being asked to invest $5,000 with someone I had only interacted with for just 2 minutes with did not inspire me nor positively influence me. My value calculation was telling me Why would I want to know you given you truly saw me as a money machine and not as a real person.
In all honesty, the technician had more influence however it was the dentist delivering the value. This dentist lost the sale because she did not understand relationship selling. Too bad she did not even take 5 minutes to get to know me. The outcome could have been far different.
What I did was to call my dentist as soon as I reached my car and scheduled an appointment. If I needed to invest $5,000, I was going to do with someone I knew and trusted.
These three questions are critical for those engaged in marketing and selling especially given the exponential expansion of marketing within the realm of social media. Today probably more than ever before, your influence extends further than you realize. Your challenge is to make sure that people know you; you know people and people want to know you.
