Three Ingredients of a Yes

Just as a good fire needs three ingredients to burn, so does a successful confirmation. Take away any one of the three ingredients and you have no fire, no sale. The three ingredients of a Yes are: rapport, trust, and the power of asking. Just as with the five rights of passage in our definition of selling, you can't take away or fail to establish any one of the three. Unfortunately, many salespeople create rapport and trust comfortably, but fail to ask a direct, honest, confirming question. Sometimes they do ask, but have failed to first create rapport or trust. Would a customer give you a bag of money if he trusted you but you failed to ask? Not likely. Would he say yes if he didn't like you or trust you? Not likely. It's all part of engineering commitment. You start confirming the sale the second you come in contact, by telephone or otherwise, with your potential customer.

I find it amusing to hear the different excuses as to why a customer didn't buy. Sales representatives are the best "fire-dancers" on the planet. Each probably has 50 excuses, all conveniently memorized, and of course none blame themselves. During my years as a sales manager, I could have written a book on. "The reasons why I didn't get the sale." No doubt it would have challenged David Chilton's book, The Wealthy Barber, as an international all-time best seller. I offer only one reason why a salesperson didn't get the sale and ended up in second place. My reason doesn't make me popular but it's inarguable: "You didn't get the business because you were outsold." Pure and simple. Strip away all the excuses and that's what's left. The customer had a need and a bag of money and decided to give it to your competitor. Why? Your competitor probably offered a better, value-added solution having asked, better, smarter questions.