Welcome to the first and foremost activity that will determine your success. It’s not your product or service, knowledge, skill or talent in your given field. Nor is it your graduate degree, license or certification. It’s your ability to sell!
Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, said: “The ability to sell is the number one skill in business. If you don’t sell, don’t bother to think about becoming a business owner.”
If you are responsible for finding your own clients, you’re in sales. When you place the shingle that reads, “Open for Business”, if you don’t know how to acquire and retain clients readily, you’ll quickly close the doors. So learning some fundamental selling skills is essential for you to make a livelihood.
Is Selling Innate or Learned?
Is the ability to sell innate? For some, possibly, but most people have to learn it. Some individuals excel so much that they outsell the average by the astonishing margin of 57 to 1 (Word of Mouth Marketing Association). That’s a huge difference. If you ask them how they achieved this, most are unaware of doing something different. If you observe them, you probably won’t detect behavior out of the ordinary.
What makes these people into sales superstars is their ability to shift themselves to match their prospects. Like chameleons, when placed on the bark of a tree, they appear brown. When placed on a leaf, they morph ever so quickly and unperceptively to green. They practice the Platinum Rule. It often takes months, even years of trial and error for sales superstars to develop this talent, of adapting their personality style to match their prospect.
Buyers are well-educated and savvy. They often do lots of research online and come to the sales presentation with much more knowledge than buyers in the past. When they are interacting with you on the phone or in person, they expect good customer service and a positive experience. They expect to be treated in a manner that caters to them. In other words, they want you to employ the Platinum Rule. You must adjust to them!
The Platinum Rule
What is the Platinum Rule? Most people have heard of the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would want done unto yourself.” The Golden Rule positions the world as revolving around you. It makes you the center of the Universe, the standard of how to measure results. The Golden Rule has you seek what makes you satisfied and then provide it to the other person.
The Platinum Rule reverses this perspective. It sees the world through the lens of the other person. It makes your prospect the center of the Universe and the measure of all things. It takes an altruistic view. The Platinum Rule states: “Do unto others as they want done unto themselves.” It puts the focus on the other individual, his or her well-being and satisfaction. You have to learn what pleases the other person. When you implement the Platinum Rule in a sales situation, it results in AlikeAbility™, which increases exponentially the possibility of acquiring new clients.
The Basis for AlikeAbility™
AlikeAbility™ is defined as the ability to raise people’s perception of your being like them. AlikeAbility™ is based on the Platinum Rule. It teaches how to shift your approach to match your prospect’s personality style. When you do, a buyer senses that “You get me. You understand how I think and feel”. In a nutshell, the buyer exclaims: “We’re alike!” Consequently, trust goes up, resistance goes down, and a sweet spot emerges where you can communicate effectively. Now you have an opportunity to build a relationship and do business together.
The Goal of the AlikeAbility™ System is the application of personality theory to the arena of client acquisition. Its purpose is to enable you to detect and adjust to the differences by which prospects think and act when making buying decisions. At the heart of the AlikeAbility™ System is learning to employ the Platinum Rule by starting where the prospect is.
Developing AlikeAbility™ gives you an edge in communication. It provides you with the confidence to know exactly what to say that results in client acquisition. It curtails the numbers game, where you present your sales pitch to hundreds of people with the hope that a small percentage will buy.
Dr. Nancy Zare is the originator of the AlikeAbility™ System. Learn about her program here: https://rapportbuilderz.local/coaching/
