A wise person once told me “The Sole of Money is Service to Others.” But it’s so hard to keep that in mind when you really need to make a sale. Nothing drives a sale away faster than your customers feeling like you need this more than they do because your creeping overhead is driving your decision making process.

How do you turn this around fast? Keep your employee’s attention on what you can give vs. what you can get.

Coach your sales staff in distinguishing what you have to offer that’s your “unique selling proposition,” and offer it to every new customer, every day. Coach every employee who interacts with a customer to focus on giving extraordinary customer service, attention, and support – and watch what happens to your cash flow.

Selling vs. Serving – Which has better cash flow? is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

Premise # 1:
Your Customers Buy Based on their Emotions
No one likes a big change. People tend to get upset when there is damage to their home. In an emergency, their emotions, (although hidden from both your view and theirs), can be as real for them as their circumstances. If your sales approach is purely logical, you’re missing 50% of the equation. And for many customers, that’s the dominant part of their equation.

If the above premise is true, and you’re relating to them merely from logic,
they won’t feel connected, and won’t feel like they can trust you. So they will talk and spend time going over the scope, then buy from someone else.

To be successful, make sure every step in your sales process connects with your prospect emotionally and logically.

When Logic Collides with Emotional Reality – You Lose the Sale is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

That’s where the money is, although it may appear to be solely in getting the work done.
Think about it: To do all the work then drop the ball when you’re right on the goal line, that last
10% of work can pay off more than the previous 90%.

But you have to ask. Survey research shows that by asking customers for a testimonial reinforces and expands their positive experiences of your hard work. Most people, when asked, will say yes (if you did your job right). So by you asking, you get a better fan, promotional material for your site, and the feedback that stokes your production teams.

Get a testimonial and video on every job!

Don’t forget the whole point is…Managing Your Customer’s Satisfaction is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

Customers don’t really buy you for the work you do-huge mistake if you don’t see that. There are dozens of companies to choose from, all selling exactly the same thing. They buy something “they need” that “they feel” they can’t get from just anyone. They think about it logically, but they buy based on emotion.

Your ability to discover that need, sell it, and deliver it keeps you in the chips. To be successful in selling, you have to do the hard work to see what you have that no one else can deliver-what’s rare and precious to your customer, and sell it.

Selling What’s Rare and Precious is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

If your customer’s only criteria for buying from you is your price,  along with several other contractors following suite, customers have no other choice. Then it’s a situation where everyone’s racing to the bottom.

The competition is intense at the low end, everyone and his cousin is there.

Then someone with some real sales skills comes along and asks the customer a lot of questions. The customer feels heard, like someone cares – he opens up and shares what’s important, and how he wants this deal to go; essentially telling the sales person everything he needs to know to close the deal.

Sales should more accurately be called “questions and listening.”

The Rat Race of Competing on Price vs. Real Salesmanship is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

From your customer’s point of view, what can set you apart more than anything else? What’s the one thing they want from you more than anything else?

It’s something rarely found and seemingly difficult to produce, which may make this the most valuable thing you have to offer.

Trust. That your customers can trust you. The question is: How do you produce trust?

What are you selling…really? is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

The average person tries a few times and stops.
The Emotionally Intelligent employee fails a few times and says
“I haven’t succeeded yet,” continuing with complete focus on the result.

Success goes to the persistent with a knowing they will not stop until they reach the goal. Edison said, ” I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Sales requires significant Emotional Intelligence to not buy into your own negative thoughts, habits, or behaviors.

80 % of all sales are made after the fifth call.
48 % of all salespeople give up after the first call.
25 % give up after the second call.
12 % make 3 calls and then stop.
5 % quit after the fourth call.

Only 10% keep on calling. This 10 % gets 80 % of all sales.

Emotional Intelligence and Accomplishment is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

When you make a commitment to a certain goal, you set the stage for several things to happen. Failure and disappointment will typically show up first.

Many people stop right there, finding it too painful to push beyond this. People in the “habit” of succeeding recognize and welcome that as merely the first step. And people really familiar with the work it takes to succeed, use this as a tool to support their continued accomplishment, such as, keep “pushing through” the resistance.

The bigger the challenge, often the more the resistance, which may show up as fear, frustration, anger, dissatisfaction, or annoyance in the pre-breakthrough state.

To quote a client that is having daily breakthroughs in his ability to make cold calls-”Why didn’t I start this years ago?” and “What was all the resistance about?” These are two questions clearly demonstrating a very common experience on the post-breakthrough side.

What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it now. “Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” – Goeth

Breaking through…a very good habit to have is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

Marketing is tough work. To do it well, cold calls, whether in person or on the phone, takes substantial skill in perseverance.

Skills in perseverance equate to the kind of emotional intelligence that offers self confidence, self esteem, self trust, and the ambition you need to make the next call when the last 5 or 10 didn’t go successfully.

Successful marketers don’t buy into the negative conversations circling through their mind – they stay focused and keep their eye on the goal. Marketers successful in their work have the above qualities plus the willingness to work hard knowing and trusting it will pay off.

This is the kind of person who knows to just be your self with potential customers. A marketer comfortable being themself makes others feel comfortable too. They’re easy to talk to, easy to get to know. And that’s very attractive to your customers.

Here’s the problem: When things start getting tough, some marketers and sales people start designing clever strategies to compensate. Now, instead of just showing up being your self, you have some tricky things you’re trying to do to “get your foot in the door.”

Customers hate this…and it costs you their trust. And because your strategies are based on a premise that it’s going to be difficult, (justified from past experience), you have now set up the expectation for more of the same….hoping for a different result. Phew, that’s exhausting to even think about.

Give your self and your customers a break. Be real, be sincere-be authentic.

Authenticity vs Strategy is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

I’ve heard the saying -”The soul of money is service to others.”
Anything you can do to serve your customers will likely have ROI, especially if you can do something no one else is.

Another way of serving is being a stand for something that contributes to your target market community. In doing so, you change the form and direction of the action from you being the pursuer, to working side by side your customer. Instead of you pursuing them, they find you. The thing is, you can’t do it just for the money!

Find something you really can care about-serve on a board, serve on a committee, start a badly needed initiative, and let your target customers come to you!

The Art of Marketing and Selling without Marketing and Selling is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates