Locate His Need
When I meet someone, I listen carefully to establish what pain he or she is suffering. It’s usually in one or all of three areas: Finances, Time, and Freedom. I then get the prospective customer to elaborate on his pain, using open-ended questions. I turn the knife in the wound, as it were.
- How does this situation affect him, personally?
- What impact does it have on his family?
- How will it affect his future?
- In fact, if he doesn’t solve the problem, what will his life look like in two years?
- What are the consequences of NOT solving his problem?
Help Him Realize Change is Possible
Now that he realizes he has a problem, and having dwelt on it, he is acutely aware of his need to solve it, I have him tell me what his life could be like should he be able to solve his problem:
- How will he personally feel once this problem has been resolved?
- What effect will it have on his family and profits?
- How will it change his future?
Give him a glimpse of the rewards he will reap by solving the problem.
Offer Him a Solution
Next, I become the solution, or the bridge to his better life, by connecting him with whatever product or service is necessary to solve his problem. When I connect him with the business that solves his problem, I receive an on-going (yes, I said on-going) commission from that business. That income is 100% margin to me, if it is not my own product or service, so I can’t lose. I create value and get paid for it, and I have a happy customer. Whether he buys from me or not doesn’t matter - he is happy and I made money. I solved his problem and was paid for the service.
Link supply and demand and get paid.
- It’s not about you or your business - it’s about value.
- Be a good listener, help people to get what they want, and you get rich.
- Stop telling people about your products and services - they don’t care. They care about their problems and goals, and you need to shut up and listen to them so that you can solve their problems and make money.
Selling is old hat, as out of date as a Commodore 64 computer, boring, childish, and naïve. Solving is the way things work these days, and the ideal vehicle is Joint Ventures.
