Maverick and Company

I read an article recently suggesting that the best way to sell a service is to become an EXPERT.  If you’re the EXPERT in your field, you’re going to reap customers…right?  Wrong.

Being an expert can be a good thing.  It makes sense that people want to go to the person who knows the most for their services and information. The problem is they probably don’t want to pay for an expert. If I’ve got a clogged drain, I’m not looking for the best damn plumber in the world with the most advanced degrees and fanciest blog and 7 billion drains unclogged.  Sure I’d like to have him, but he probably costs a fortune and isn’t available (off on a tropical island, blogging on his gold-plated blackberry no doubt.) What I want is a plumber who can unclog my drain.  I don’t really want the rookie.  I want a guy with enough experience to unclog the drain, even if a weird problem comes up.  OR enough intelligence and resources to call someone who can unclog it.

When it comes to selling services like insurance or marketing or real estate, people want the same things…it’s just harder to see the direct result.  You know if the drain is still clogged, harder to tell if you’ve got a good financial plan in place.  But the same thing is true about hiring…we want to hire the right amount of expertise but don’t want to pay for more than we need or can afford. We want the expertise it takes to unclog the drain.

So while I wouldn’t tell you to be afraid of being the expert, the effort required won’t necessarily produce new clients for you in YOUR industry and in some cases will drive them away. Follow the drain rule: WE WANT TO HIRE THE EXPERTISE REQUIRED TO UNCLOG THE DRAIN. Have that much, advertise that much and get the clients.

I’ve now worked for myself for 5 years. I’ve worked with a few hundred people on their selling strategies. And I can, with great certaintly, tell you that EVERYTHING you know about sales is wrong.

I started my selling career as a door-to-door salesman. Direct was never quite so direct. I made an average of 3,000 (yes, 3,000) calls each summer for 5 summers while I was in college. In between, I went to school and recruited and trained other students. (We sold educational books with the Southwestern Company.)

So I’ve seen all the training, read all the books and tried almost all the techniques.

And I was good at them.

The problem is that the old school, direct selling, PERSUASIVE model of selling is outdated and ineffective. It teaches that selling is a numbers game. Just see enough people, do a pretty enough song and dance, say just the right things in the right order and you too can be a master salesman.

These days I find that model typically only works for people who sell products and LOVE selling.

For everyone else, it feels…cheesy. A lot of the techniques that are taught under the old model are based on the prospect being your enemy, someone you must triumph over in order to succeed.

Sometimes you’ll find a slightly less horrific version where they preach RELATIONSHIP selling. As in, build a relationship with the person before you commence pressuring them.

If you think about the customers you’ve had the best relationships with however, the people you want more of, you probably didn’t get them by pressuring or persuading. It was probably a LOT easier.

Shortly after meeting them, you probably just sort of clicked with each other. You liked them and they liked you or easily understood what you had was what they were looking for. Then you gave it to them and they paid you.

THIS is what I call the New Model of Sales (because I haven’t found a better name…yet.)

It involves working hard to help the right people find you vs. badgering everyone and praying one of them signs and invoice.

It’s about getting the messaging right so they can understand that YOU are who they’ve been looking for vs. finding a magic word that makes them get out their checkbook.

It assumes that your potential customers are intelligent people, looking to buy solutions they need or services they want vs. idiots who can and should be manipulated into doing what you think is best for them.

It’s a lot more work on the front end but makes life a lot easier on the back-end.

I say that EVERYTHING you know about sales is wrong because the techniques and methods you probably learned are based on the old model of selling–what I also like to call the “Dealin’ Doug” method. (He’s a VERY cheesy car salesman who frequently dresses up iin a Superman-esque costume to film his shouting-at-the-tv-commercials.)

You might keep some of the methods, but it’s time to shift the model. The most successful sales people and business owners I know instinctively do many things right that look like the new model. The less successful get tripped up in the old models and methods.

When you shift fully over from the dark side, you can expect to keep better customers longer and get more referrals that actually become buisness.

More to follow in the future about how to get the new model into your brain.

I welcome your comments, applause and arguments. We would ALL be well served to think through re-inventing the selling process that dominates our culture currently…which is from the early 1800’s by the way. Time for an upgrade, yes?