Episode 41 – Sales Is NOT About Making Friends

Introduction    00:00:03    Marketing, explosive growth, and revolutionary secrets that can catapult your business to new heights. You’re now listening to The Underground Marketer Podcast with your host, Tudor Dumitrescu, the one podcast devoted to showing new businesses how to market themselves for high growth.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:00:25    Welcome to the underground marketer. This is the place where we deliver the real truth about marketing and explore big ideas that can help new businesses thrive and grow into big ones. I’m your host Tudor. And today I’d like to talk about something that’s related to sales and the topic is something that’s actually going to be important for a lot of you. And I see this mistake being made by a lot of beginners and a lot of people who are not professional salespeople and the mistake really is that they consider sales to be pretty much making friends and that’s not actually accurate. And when you make this mistake and when you think of sales as making friends, you’re going to make a lot of mistakes that are going to impact you negatively throughout the sales process. The biggest mistake in the most common one that I see is that people start chatting with their customers on sales calls and they chat to them.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:01:24    Oh, what about your dog? Oh, what about your family? Oh, you’re from there. Oh, that’s cool. I know somebody else who’s from there and on and on it goes, and that has nothing to do with selling and it’s actually counterproductive to selling. It makes you look unprofessional. It makes you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about and it doesn’t make a good impression on the person you’re talking to. So that’s not the right way to approach it. And it’s literally the number one mistake I see in most beginners who are trying to do sales, they think that they should somehow leak up, well, I don’t have a better word, but they should somehow leak up to their customer and get their customer to like them. And that’s completely wrong. You don’t need your customer to like you to sell them something. They don’t need to be your friends to buy from you.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:02:15    And în fact, most people who are going to buy from you. If you’re going to build a business at any sort of scale, they’re not going to be your friends at all. That’s not the reason why people buy it. Liking someone can lead to some sort of influence over them, of course, but that’s not the main reason why people buy. I mean, somebody has to be stupid to buy from you because they like you. And just because they like you, even though your product or service is actually useless for them, right? So there is no correspondence between the buyer liking you and you succeeding in the sale. The most important factor to succeed in the sale is to make sure that your product or services are tailored to the needs of the buyer and can fulfil those needs in a way that’s easy for the buyer and straightforward for them so that they actually take action on it.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:03:07    That’s what you’re looking for. You don’t need a sort of sales process where you have to get the guy to become your friend and somehow trick him into buying. That’s not what this is about and professional salespeople. They never do that. It’s true. That building rapport is very important in the sale. And all you have to do to do that is exchange a few words in the beginning and basically show that person that you are a human being. But the moment where you drag this throughout the sales Corps, and you start talking about your family and what you like doing and your hobby, and the guy maybe mentioned that he likes to go hunting and you tell him, oh yeah, going hunting is so cool. You know, I love it. I do the same as you. That’s bullshit. You know, and you shouldn’t be doing that.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:03:54    You should stop right away. And most people who complain actually about not being able to make sales, this is the number one thing that I see that I identify with them. They’re getting on calls with prospects and they start trying to become friends with them and their discussions. They don’t have a goal, or if they do have a goal, then the goal is quickly forgotten. And here’s the number one thing you need to learn about sales. Sales is a goal directed conversation, goal directed conversation. And what that means is that you always have a goal in sales and that goal isn’t necessarily to close somebody. And we’re going to talk about what your goal should be, but you should always have a goal. And whenever you interact with a prospect, you should always be moving towards your goal. And if you veer off in any other direction, then you’ve lost.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:04:52    You’ve lost first of all, control over the sale. And if you’ve lost control over the sale, you’ve lost everything. I can tell you now that the moment you lose control over the sale, or if the buyer doesn’t let you have control over the sale, then you should stop speaking with them. There’s no reason for you to talk with them in the first place. There’s nothing that you can get out of it. You’ll just waste your time and you’ll waste their time and you’re going to get nothing out of it. So don’t do that. You know, don’t think that what you actually need in order to make more money and actually sell people because it’s not, you just need to be very clear about your goal and then with everything that you say and everything that you ask you, driving the conversation forward towards that goal.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:05:39    Now, what should the goal be? It really depends on what you’re selling and how your sales process looks like. In some cases, especially for higher ticket items, more than one call is necessary to close the person. First of all, because you may not understand all the needs that the person has to start with, right? So you need to spend time to investigate what those needs are, figure them out, and then actually start telling them about how your product can address those needs. So if that’s the case and if you’re going for a higher ticket and it’s a complex sale, the product that you’re selling is complex, then you are likely to encounter a situation like this. So maybe the goal for the first sales conversation is simply to figure out if your product can even help the prospect. You know, if he has the needs that your product can actually solve.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:06:31    And that’s the goal, you know, if you figure out the moment you figured out that his fit for your product, then you move to the next step. And the next step may be to schedule a call with them, to actually do a demonstration of the product or whatever it is. And if that’s the goal, that’s what you’re after, right? In everything that you do, everything that you say in that call is moving you towards this direction. It’s true that in the beginning you do have sales calls where you need to build rapport, right? And building rapport doesn’t have to be complex. You know, I think that a lot of you make a mistake when it comes to building rapport because you’re making it basically harder than it is. All it takes is to show the guy that you are a human being, that you basically say, hello, that you’re friendly and that you ask them how they are.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:07:21    You maybe ask them how things are going with them. And then you just move into the sales call. You don’t waste your time with the talking about and flying off to Mars or whatever other planet and talking about bullshit with them, right? There’s no need for you to do that. And it doesn’t actually help. They need to see from the moment they step on the call with you, they need to see that you’re a professional. You know what you’re doing? You take charge of the sales conversation and you can drive it forward in a way that’s meaningful for them. And that’s going to get them results. That’s what they want. You know, if your product can help them, what they want is you to tell them my product isn’t going to help you. And it’s not right for you. And that’s it. The objective is met if you do that.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:08:08    And the reason why actually I think a lot of people don’t approach sales in this systematic way is number one, they don’t prepare to do it, right? So what most people do is they work really hard to get people to come on a conversation with them. And then they step into the conversation with no plan at all. They don’t even have a goal. They have no clue what they’re going to ask, how they’re going to ask it, what they’re aiming to do. They have no idea. You know, they say, oh, I’ll just hop on the core to find out more about this guy. There’s no point in finding out more about him. If you can’t sell him anything, there’s no point in finding out more about him. If it’s not going to move you closer to a sale, just don’t do the sales call at all.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:08:53    It’s going to be much better for you if you don’t do it rather than doing it and wasting your own time and even worse wasting your prospect’s time. Right? So instead of doing that, you need to have a plan. And the plan really in sales means a script. And they know what many of you are thinking. Now you’re thinking that if I have a script, you know, I can’t react to different situations and the prospect can see this and that, and he can do this and that, and the conversation can go into a million different directions. How can I predict all of these? And if that’s what you’re thinking, then you are showing a symptom of the problem that I’ve been talking about. You can’t control the conversation because if you can control the conversation, then there’s nothing that the buyer can do to move you off track.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:09:42    There’s not a million possible conversations that you can have. There’s just one, the one in your script, because if you have a prospect, for example, let’s say that your approach is that after you do the introduction and the chit chat for one to two minutes, then you move into getting the right to ask your buyer questions. Let’s say that this is your approach. And let’s say that you ask your buyer, Mr. Prospect, I love to see what I have here is actually a fit for your needs. So it would be great. If I can ask you a few questions and they say, well, I don’t think so. I’d rather ask you questions. Let’s say that that’s their response. Then your response should not be to follow them. Not at all. Your response should be. I am very sorry, Mr. Prospect, if that’s what you intend to do, then this is probably not the right format to do it in.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:10:36    I have a process here to identify very quickly. If this product is actually a fit for you, and if it can actually help you and doing that saves both of us the most amount of time. So shall we dive into it? And then if they say yes, of course, then you’re going to continue with your script. If they don’t say yes and they still insist on doing it their way, then the only choice that you have really is to tell them, sorry, Mr. Prospect, this conversation is probably over. Then. I have a process that I am following here that I know delivers me consistent results and helps people learn. If this is for them in the quickest way possible. If this doesn’t feed your needs, then I apologize. And I prefer not to waste any more of your time and off you go, you’re off the court.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:11:26    All right? So that’s what you have to do. You have to follow the goal like a bull follows the flag, the red flag, right? Remember those bulls in Spain, the tortilla door shows them the red flag. And then they go in, they chase that red flag. They blind completely to anything else. That’s how you need to be. When you’re doing sales, you have your goal and you have your script, which is written out. It’s written out. Step-by-step what you do, where you have to take the conversation. Next, what questions to ask, what questions not to ask, when to ask questions, everything is structured and available in your script. And if you start to do sales this way, and you have goal directed conversations, you’re going to see that your results increased significantly. You’re going to, for the very first time in your life, start to sell property, have a goal, have a plan, have a script and move prospects through it.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:12:27    You are the expert, you know, the right process for buying your product, your prospect doesn’t, right? You have to educate them and you have to do this nicely. Of course, I’m not saying educate them in a way that you’re going to put them off, but you need to be adamant that your process is followed. And it’s essential that you do this. I literally know no successful salesperson, no successful salesperson and I can repeat this, who doesn’t follow an exact step by step process, no matter how natural his conversations look, because I tell you now, if you do this right, and if you plan, if you have a goal for the conversation you plan in advance, you have a script and you execute well on it. It’s going to look to your prospect as a completely natural conversation. He will not feel that you’re controlling the conversation.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:13:24    He will not feel that you’re interrogating them. He will not feel that you are putting him on the spot. The only time he, I can actually feel those things is if you either have a bad script or number two, you’re not executing the script the right way. That’s when he can start feeling things like that. But if you do have the right script, and if you’re executing it properly, there is literally no chance that that’s going to happen. So remember what I said in the beginning, when you’re selling, you’re not making friends. Don’t try to get people to like you to build some report initially, but don’t focus on it. That’s not the main goal. The main goal is to either close that person or advance them in the sales process. That’s your only two possible goals in sales. And if you’re not doing either of those, if you become friends with a person, then you’re not doing the right thing.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:14:18    Because the right thing for you is to make money. It’s not to be liked by people, okay? You’re not in sales because you want other people to like you and to become your friend and to like who you are, into like hanging around with and talking about meaningless stuff and whatever. You’ve got your friends for that. That’s what they’re for. But your prospect, he’s there for you to close him and you have to close him. You have to move the sale forward no matter what, and the way you do that, the biggest thing is to have a goal, know what you’re trying to get out of that conversation. That’s number one, number two, you need to have a script and you need to make sure that your prospect follows that script, the script and the plan that you have. That’s how you control the conversation.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:15:12    And you make sure that your goals are met. And remember that you are the expert here, you know, the right way for your product to be bought by someone, your prospect doesn’t. They have no idea. That’s why they’re meeting with you in the first place so that you can guide them to making that purchase or to deciding if it’s right for them. That’s literally why they’re meeting with you. Because if they already knew, if it was right for them and how the buying process should go, like if they knew that, why would they need you? Why would they hop on a call with you to listen to you to answer your questions? Why couldn’t they just go ahead and buy the product? Right? I mean, that’s the only reason why somebody needs a sales person. If they know everything already, they don’t need a salesperson.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:16:00    They just say, here’s the money. Give me the service or give me the product, whatever it is. So that’s what you need to realize. And it’s very important because it’s literally, I would say in the top three, for sure, but mistakes that people make, maybe to actually the number one mistake that people make when they start to do sales, they’re not clear about their priorities. They don’t have a process. They don’t have a script and they don’t have a goal for the conversation that they’re having. So it’s very important that you do this. It’s very important also that you have a plan for the questions that you’re going to ask and think about the steps that you need to take a buyer through in the sales process, you’ve got to qualify them, right? Are they right for your product? You’ve got to irritate their pain points and ask them questions that are going to get them to think about their problems or to discover new problems that they aren’t even aware of.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:16:54    You have to get them to think about the consequences of those problems. So those problems become more immediate for them and they demand action for them. And then you have to get them to realize what it would take to solve those problems, right? So you have to do all of that. And that comes after qualifying them. And before you actually demonstrate and start pitching to them, because this is the other mistake that people make, they jump straight into pitching the guy, and they have no idea who they are, why they’re there, what sort of needs they have, and they just start pitching them. And then they go on and on and on for like 30, 40 minutes. And by the time he’s over the guy, he’s like, I’m not interested, sorry, bye-bye when it’s game over. And they’re not interested because they didn’t realize they have any of those problems or those problems were not strong enough to demand that they take action on them.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:17:50    Right? And they didn’t develop the consequences of those problems, the seller didn’t, and didn’t present the solution in light of the specific problems that the buyer has. Right. And because he didn’t do this, he lost the sale. So it’s very important that you understand the sales process, judge your calls in terms of it and move forward like that. So remember qualifying, then you get into a process of discovering their needs and irritating them and getting them to understand what the solution would involve. Then you present your solution and you demonstrate that it’s right for them, for their specific needs. You present the benefits that are relevant to them, not just any benefits. And then you close, right? So those are the steps of the selling process. And if you follow these steps and you combine it with planning and you combine it with having a goal for every conversation that you have, maybe in one conversation, you go just through one part of this process.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:18:53    Maybe you just qualify them. Maybe you’ve qualified them already. And you are just going to ask them a few questions and get them to think about the problems that they have. And with a goal that by the end, you’re going to change all the time to demonstrate the solution for them, right? So whatever it is, you’re going to go through this process. No matter if you do it in 10 calls, or you do it in one call, right, you still need to plan for it. You need to have a goal for each cold call. You need to know what you’re doing, and you need to control the conversation and you do that by having a script. So that’s pretty much what I wanted to share with you today. Remember to stay tuned for the next episode. And until next time, keep growing your business and providing massive value to the world. You are the reason why we’re all growing richer. Our freedoms are expanding and we’re all living in greater prosperity. Thank you.