Great lesson from a doctor
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
- Dale Carnegie
Replace friends with clients and the result is the same.
The truth is, for most, business is a game of survival.
In trying times, the conversation becomes less about how to deliver win-win scenarios to create the life I want, and more about...
“How can I make just enough to cover my expenses so I don’t have to work for someone else?”
I’m not just talking in terms of solo business owners either, this is across the board - the bigger the company, the bigger the overheads - it only takes a few months of steady decline to paint an entirely different picture.
As our mental capacity is slowly overtaken by frantic survival tactics, it’s easy to divert from a place of service that is focussed on the success of our clients,
More often than not, it’s a combination of complacency (not doing what we know we should), and lacking a strategy that is grounded with reality.
It’s in these times business owners can create a snowball effect of slower sales conversions that shatter their confidence.
They begin regurgitate all the features of their products or services in a sales presentation, failing to understand what the person on the other side of the phone or table really desires.
The most powerful example I can think of is that of a doctor.
If we think about the doctor - what is their responsibility?
To ask a series of great questions
To gather feedback
To understand where the pain is
To run tests, if necessary.
And ultimately use their knowledge to find a solution, or refer to someone that can (the latter is super important too).
As business owners, we have a responsibility to our clients.
Whatever the vessel of our business, it’s important to take this responsibility seriously.
We must think of the individual, and the trickle-down effect we can have in their lives, for better, or for worse.
If we are B2B - this is their livelihood, and that of their families.
If we’re in the B2C space - especially in health, wealth, fitness, or wellness spaces - we can be a catalyst in them floundering through life, or thriving.
This is why you can’t sit down with a prospect with a preconceived attachment on selling a particular service.
Would you trust a doctor that prescribed you medication before even asking what brought you in?
[ Btw - prescription without a diagnosis is malpractice ]
Become interested in creating their success, and your success will follow.
Simple, but often ignored.
Zac
Ps. I need to highlight I’m not preaching this from a holier than thou standpoint.
This is coming from someone that had 45-page sales presentations, with all of the pitching and offering tactics up my sleeve from the schools of Oren Klaff, and Grant Cardone.
While it was effective, and I truly believed I could help, my skew was solely on myself, and not that of my clients.
It eventually had diminishing returns.
Now I use one blank sheet of paper, and two ears over three meetings before I even make an offer.
If that sounds like a lot of work, it is.
But, it’s significantly less work than dealing with the misdiagnosis of their problem and having to frantically slap on band-aid solutions while course-correcting.
This has more than doubled my sales conversions, without having to resort to discounting tactics AND more importantly, it has drastically increased client retention, re-engagement, and referrals.