Amy Cuddy, a Professor at the Harvard Business School, has been studying first impressions for fifteen years and has discovered some patterns, which correlate to professional selling. In her new book, "Presence", she notes that people quickly answer two questions when they first meet you;
Can I trust this person?
Can I respect this person?
Cuddy says people believe competence and respect, especially in a professional context, is the more important factor. After all, they want to prove how smart and talented they are, thinking that will help them influence you, and ultimately, win your business. But in fact, trust is proven to be the most important factor in how people evaluate you. From an evolutionary standpoint, our brains are designed to help us survive and that survival instinct is more powerful than respect or competence.
So, if we know this to be true, how do we adjust our selling motions in a way that, first, increases trust with our buyers, then focuses on showing competency, because both are important? Well, the first step is awareness that "trust" trumps competence, especially early in our sales cycles where relationships are just beginning to form and develop between buyers and sellers. The second step is to do things that drive "trustworthiness". Our personal presence is very important. As I teach during my trainings, body language and tone of voice is 93% of effective communication. It's not what you say, but how you say it. Be aware of your body language. Do you come across as warm, friendly, open, and an active listener, or are you more the prototypical self-serving, overly assertive sales rep that talks too much and just wants to get the deal done? Obviously the former is the way you want to be. Third, stop trying to pretend you, your company, and your products are perfect. People don't believe perfection and when you act this way you actually erode trust. Again, this has to do with our reptilian brain and how's it wired to distrust perfection. By showing vulnerability you will actually gain trust instead of erode it. This takes emotional intelligence and the good news is, if this does not come naturally to you, it can be taught and learned relatively easily.
Now once you have established a certain level of trust, then you can start to demonstrate your value through your competence and expertise. In "Selling the Sage Way", our goal is to become our customer's "Trusted Advisor". To move towards that status we must be first, be trustworthy. Secondly, we must demonstrate our unique value add by unlocking new insights and ways our customers can move their business forward leveraging our solutions. The best example of the latter is when Steve Jobs reframed what a mobile phone is. Prior to the iPhone a mobile phone was used to make and receive calls only. It's almost unimaginable today, right? Most people rarely use their mobile phones for that purpose. Today, our mobile phones allow us to shop on Amazon, make restaurant reservations via OpenTable, follow directions with Waze, order up an Uber or Lyft, watch our favorite shows on Netflix, and of course, connect and share pictures with friends and family on all of our social networks like Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook.
So, let's follow Professor Cuddy's advice - first focus on establishing trust with your buying audience, then move on to competence. By doing this, you will be on the road to "trusted advisorship", and have a 20% greater chance of hitting and exceeding quota.
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