Every business needs a steady stream of new customers to grow. But many businesses are doing it tough. 
Money isn’t flowing as freely. Customers aren’t flocking to their doors with open wallets.
So when you’re in front of a qualified prospect you need to do everything in your power to engender trust, reduce buyer resistance and close the business as efficiently as possible.
I’m giving a series of talks to various business groups on how you can do this.
Here’s a synopsis of what I tell them.
Every prospect is thinking.
- Do I like you?
- Can you solve my problem?
- Why should I do business with you?
- Can I trust you to deliver?
They may not voice the thoughts. But they’re there.
So how do you overcome these inherent objections?
Let’s start with first principles.
People buy from people that they know, like and trust.
But to get to that point of knowing you, liking you and trusting you, they first have to listen to you.
You need to EARN THE RIGHT to be listened to by establishing your credibility and authority.
This is a dictionary definition of credibility: “The quality of being believable or worthy of trust”
So how do you quickly become relatable and establish credibility? I’m going to go through a number of ways, starting with your background.
You may have heard of the hero’s journey.
If not, it’s one of the major archetypes we all innately understand. The story of how the protagonist battles the odds and some major handicap to finally triumph. If you’re a fan of Star Wars you’ll know exactly what I mean with Luke Skywalker and his battle and ultimate triumph over the Empire.
Every one of you has overcome some adversity to get where you are. But you probably think it’s not interesting. But it is.
Telling your personal hero’s journey can have a very powerful effect on your audience because it allows others to peek behind the curtain and get a feeling for who you really are.
So, here’s ours…
I’d spent 20 years in IT at the big end of town. Starting with highly technical roles, then sales, sales and senior management.
In 2000 after the dot com bust, found myself without a job. My last act with my employer was to close the division down and fire 25 of my staff. If you’ve ever been in this position you’ll know just how gut wrenching this is.
Looking around for another position in IT I kept being told I was either too senior, too general or too old – at 40. So I decided to become a consultant! I had no clients and no track record.
Barbara had recently moved here from Switzerland and while she had managed large teams and travel budgets of over $20M, had to start at the bottom of the travel game.
Money was tight and we were going backwards, fast.
The solution? Get part time jobs while we built up the business.
The thought of stacking supermarket shelves left me cold. Barbara saw an ad looking for house cleaners and said she was willing, but only if I was too.
One day I’m cleaning a home and chatting with the owner – an expatriate MD for a multi-national. I mentioned we were starting a business consultancy and cleaning while we built it up.
A week later I was in his office talking to him about business. I put him on our newsletter list – the same one you’re on if you’re reading this.
A year went by and the constant drip feed of articles worked. I got a call from his national sales manager needing help with sales issues.
We ended up working very closely with the MD for about a year. At the time they were doing around $3M in sales and wanted to get to the $10M mark.
A few years went by and I suddenly got a call out of the blue from the MD who told me they’d broken the $11.5M mark and credited a lot of their success to the foundational work we’d done with them all those years ago.
Since then we’ve worked with 100’s of businesses in 35 industries. Businesses who range from solo professionals to multi-nationals. Many of whom have become market leaders in their fields.
How else can you build up credibility and authority?
We’ll cover that next week. But here’s a snapshot.
You can use:
- Media
- Awards
- Published Articles
- Write a book
- And of course – speaking
In the meantime come up with your own Hero’s Journey story. I assure you you’ll have one. You just have to dig for it.
And if you’re still having trouble and want an outside perspective, book yourself in for a consulting session where we’ll delve into your story and pull out the gems.
In short order, we’ll help you craft it into a compelling narrative which will engage your audience.
Call us on (02) 9499-7958 to book in.
Rashid & Barbara.
