My selling career started in automotive sales at the ripe age of 21 when my soon-to-be wife and I found out we were expecting sooner than we had expected to be expecting…if you catch my drift.
At 21 years of age, there were two things I knew absolutely NOTHING about:
- Selling
- Parenting
Fortunately, there were a number of things I learned about selling which helped me with parenting and vice versa.
The 4 Things Parenting Taught Me About Selling (And Vice Versa)
1. Give Them Options And They Will Choose Something
I notice this with my son most during two times of the day: meal time(s) and bed time(s).
Getting him to eat or go to bed feels like an impossible task most times. But, when he is given options, he always chooses something and your customers aren’t any different!
If I want him to eat something I present a couple (or a few) options and ask him, “Do you want an apple or an orange?” If I want him to go to bed I ask him, “Do you want me to rock you to sleep or do you want to go to bed on your own like a big boy?”
Now, I’m not recommending you talk to your clients like little children, but I am highly recommending you get in the habit of presenting them options to choose from.
Example: “Would you like me to repair your water heater? Replace it? Or upgrade it?”
2. Commit Them First
I’m sure we’ve all heard this line from our parent(s) at some point in our lives: “If you’re good and you do your chores, you can have that big toy you want.”
Notice who gets committed first in this example? If you’re the parent (or salesperson) you need to be committing the other person FIRST.
If you’ve ever bought a car, or have had a recent experience with buying a vehicle, you might have heard some version of this line, “If I could get your payment down to $300/month, would you agree to take it home today?”
Notice who is getting committed first? The sales person.
This is BAD for sales!!
This would be like telling your child you’ll go ahead and get them that toy they want now if they agree to do their chores later. I remember my mom offering me that deal when I was young. I also remember those chores not getting done later.
Instead we need to be commit the customer first!
Example: “If you give us your signed authorization, (and/or the 30% down payment) we can get started on relieving this situation for you right away.”
3. Fear Of Loss Motivates
It’s important (and motivating) to inform people what they might stand to lose if they do not take a desired action.
In parenting we’re using the fear of loss to motivate a desired behavior when we tell our children, “If you’re naughty, Santa Claus won’t come bring you any toys on Christmas.” Or…”If you don’t do your chores, we won’t be able to go to Disney World.”
In automotive sales it was common to remind people the cost of “waiting to think it over” by reminding them about the expiration date of the manufacturer discounts or “rebates.”
Note: Fear of loss can be applied both ethically and unethically. Our sales coaching ALWAYS emphasizes ETHICAL applications of selling skills.
Example: You’ve offered do to one service today for full price or two services today for discounted prices.
If the customer chooses to do both services today they will spend more money in total than just doing one service, but would be saving over $100 when compared to doing each service at full price separately.
You’ve asked the customer what they would like you to do and they say, “Just the one service today, thank you.”
Your response: “Okay. We can just do the one service today if that’s what you really want. But, I would like to point out that for us to do both services separately, it would cost you over $100 more in the long run. We offer discounts for doing multiple repairs while we’re already here because it saves us the costs associated with making multiple trips. Did you want to go ahead and take advantage of the $100 savings and have me do both repairs while I’m here today then?“
4. Speak In Positive Terms
Have you ever told a child “NO” and by doing so turned them into a bawling, screaming, shrieking, mess?
I remember first learning this lesson when I told my toddler he needed to eat before he could play his iPad.
His Reaction:
The next time he asked for that iPad at the dinner table I was more careful with my response. Instead of saying, “No. You’re not getting the iPad until you eat your dinner” I rephrased the statement in a positive way and said, “Okay. You can have the iPad after you eat your food.”
This works in selling too. I remember asking an HVAC sales professional if I could get the install done in a particular way and after a thoughtful pause, his response was, “Hmm…I don’t see any reason why not.”
This response left me feeling mostly uncertain about their ability to perform the service the way I wanted it done. Couldn’t they have just said, “We can figure out a way to make that work?” That sure would have made me feel more confident about the situation.
Speak in terms of what you CAN do, not what you CAN’T do.
Instead of telling a customer, “We can’t get to this until Friday” tell them “We can get started as early as Friday.”
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About The Author:
Patrick is a Husband, a Father, a Modern Entrepreneur, the Founder of BizPAL.org, and the Creator of BizPAL’s Automated Recruiting Program.
He holds certifications in Social Media Marketing, Facebook Advertising, Inbound Marketing, Business Automation, and more!
Fun Fact:
Patrick was born and raised in a predominantly Amish community in Northern Indiana.
Got questions about the Amish? Ask Patrick!
Patrick is the son of a Career Tradesman and is extremely passionate about helping the Contracting industry grow and advance.
He has over 10+ years of experience in Customer Service, B2C Sales, Social Media Marketing, Sales Training and Coaching, Business Consulting, etc.
He has spent the past 7+ years working with Service Contractors from coast to coast to increase their Sales, boost their Profits, increase Customer Satisfaction and Brand Loyalty, and improve their Operational efficiency by Building Creative Solutions and Implementing Innovative Ideas!
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