After Networking comes Sales

Sales only take place when the purchaser is persuaded to buy a product or service. The art of persuasion is a skill that the connector must become proficient at. There are many ways of persuading a purchaser or contact to transact business with you. When this persuasion is subtle the contact is more easily convinced that the decision he is making is the right one. Now I am not advocating that you lie to your contact that, their decision to use your product fulfils a need of theirs and that the acquisition will be of benefit to them, if this is not the case. If it is the case, however, then it is your duty as a salesperson to persuade your contact to complete the transaction with you. You can complete this sale by confirming that their decision to consider buying the product or service from you is a good decision and by complimenting them with each correct decision that they make along the way until the purchase is finally concluded.

Putting pressure on a client to buy will seldom result in a sale. More often you'll turn the client off and lose him for life. There are however certain times that putting pressure on a client to buy can be justified. If you are applying pressure and you can see that the client is getting uncomfortable, this means your applied pressure is probably working and in appropriate instances this would be good. Once you have noticed this, you would advise him that your putting pressure on him to buy is not making you feel comfortable either, but that you have needed to put pressure on him otherwise he is likely to have continued procrastinating as he has done for the past ‘X’ number of months, years, etc. If it is true, you could inform him that to date he has been extremely lucky to not have needed the product in the past; but that this is a situation, he must agree, that he cannot allow to continue.

An example of the above strategy would be in the instance of an insurance broker marketing a life-insurance policy to a family man who for the past five years or so has been putting off increasing his life assurance needs with his constant procrastination and irrelevant excuses, despite the insurance broker’s carefully thought out financial plan. In this instance, his broker could end his hard sell sales pitch by genuinely commenting “…some day you or your family will thank me for putting this much pressure on you.” I emphasize here that the client MUST need the product – otherwise do not use this strategy. At all times be aware that sales is a process that we follow with a contact. It is not something we impose on or do to a contact.

If we are going to obtain the kind of long-term relationship we are looking for with our clients and we are expecting to get referrals from that client, we must provide him or her with a memorable experience. If you can follow this sales experience with a consistent and quality service, your clients will continue to feed you and your business with many referrals. All you have to do is to remember to ask for them.