The best way to turn OFF potential clients and get a “uh, no thanks” is to sell them… your process.
I got to see this firsthand again yesterday when I called a naturopath to ask if she could help me with my rosacea.
Now, I have money to spend and I’m committed to finding a solution. I was a client READY to buy, but here’s what happened instead:
→ She kept talking on and on about her method, never asking me questions about what I had done and tried so far, what had worked, what didn’t work. She had no clue about my journey into healing and because she didn’t ASK she missed the fact that I had already tried what she was proposing.
→ She was more interested in showing off her expertise than LISTENING to my needs.
→ She kept telling me about her process — her concoctions and macerated herbs — totally oblivious to the fact that I DON’T CARE about her process, I care about the OUTCOME.
And because her process was complicated and quite frankly unappealing — drinking macerated herbs sounds disgusting, thank you very much — she lost a potential client.
(To be fair, I would probably drink the disgusting herbal potions if she had FIRST sold me on the outcome.)
It was such a good reminder that…
… LISTENING is key to building trust
… Asking questions is more powerful than showing off
… A “sales” conversation is soooooo not about me, my work or my services, it’s about my clients and being in service to THEM
… No one cares about transformation, we want the outcome, the result. PERIOD.
Show me that you understand, that you GET IT — that you have a vision for me, that my dream is POSSIBLE — then show me that you’re the one to help and IT’S A DONE DEAL.
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