Intention And Sales Success

I’m a big fan of much of what international marketing and trends guru Seth Godin has to say – I highly recommend his book Meatball Sundae.
In a recent blog he titled “The Pan Handlers Secret” he discusses how a guy approached him and asked for a dollar in exchange for four quarters.

He agreed and gave the guy a dollar and took the four quarters.  The guy then asked Seth if he could spare a quarter?

Seth’s punch line or moral to the story is to interact first, then sell second.
Now Seth doesn’t tell us whether he gave the guy the quarter or not……what would you have done I wonder?

Seth goes on to say that because the guy now knows that Seth has a quarter that his next request would be much more difficult to turn down.

While I do agree with Seth when he says that ‘too often we close the sale before we even open it’, I struggle with the example because it is basically a con – albeit a cheeky one.

Now, I’m not trying to take this seriously, as many of Seth’s examples are meant to be controversial, and I know that Seth argues he personally gained value because of the cheeky ‘fair trade’.  Fair enough.

My caveat on his story is around the importance of our intention to interact or engage with our clients.  The intention of the panhandler (I’m pretty sure that means a beggar…..years ago where I come from in the bush, that’s what we called the guys who used to come to our places in the wee hours of the morning to take away the outdoor dunny bins).  Sorry about that, back to the point…..the intention of the panhandler was to get an extra quarter – not to give any value in any way, and it was all about him, and not about the giver.

Of course for those of us in sales our intention or aim is to seek opportunities to do business, however, an even more powerful intention is when we genuinely want to understand each and every client’s specific situation, their needs and wants, their concerns, problems and issues that we might be able to solve for them.

Seth says that too often we close the sale before we even open it.  What I know to be true, is that before we even open the sale, our intentions create the path along which the buyer and seller will either travel well together toward the destination of a purchase and sale, or a path along which a series of exit ramps will appear, beckoning for the buyer to get off the path, before it is too late.

Check your intentions first, then open the sale by creating value early and often, and more often than not, clients will want to travel the path of purchase with us through to mutual exchange of value.
Click here to go to Seth’s blog