Periodically, someone will suggest at a workshop I'm running, or post on Alan's Forums, or write me an email, telling me that I'm missing a great "sales technique" which they learned about from some guru who sends out direct mail and runs "boot camps" or some such thing.

The problem for them all is that consulting is about relationships with high level buyers, not commodity sales to random individuals or, worse, training departments.

The Credibility Test

If you're going to listen to someone's "sales techniques," find out if they've ever been successful, well, selling what you wish to sell. Most of the people I've seen, and certainly the loudest, hype all kinds of "guaranteed" and "fool proof" methods, yet I've never, ever heard of them as consultants, or speakers, or facilitators, or coaches, or anything vaguely related. Do you really want to buy a book and video on skiing, and sit in a "strategic skiing weekend" with someone who has never skied well?

There is an entire self-help industry around sales largely comprising people who haven't sold anything except self-help! (Help!!) There are more people today coaching consultants than there are good consultants.

Also, ask yourself, even if they have sold, if they've sold what you're trying to sell. Selling commodities such as books or computers or Bass-0-Matics is a lot different from selling services such as developing strategy, leadership, teamwork, and so forth. I heard one person advise, "Tell your buyer that the price is only good if they purchase today!"

I can't wait to try that on my next strategy prospect.

Marketing And Sales

I'm sure there will be an insurrection because this is so simple, but to me, marketing is the creation of need, and selling is the providing of an alternative to meet the need. If your marketing is strong enough in professional services--in other words, you create strong brands--selling is unnecessary because the buyer already wants you. He or she is convinced that you fill the need. That's true brand equity.

In commodities, price will always be a factor, since there are hundreds of alternatives to fill the perceived need, though a strong brand there, too, can make a difference (Mercedes, or Bulgari, or Armani).

The ultimate brand is your name, which should never be a commodity (though Tom Clancy has come perilously close to losing his identity in a commodity, crying all the way to the bank, I guess).

If you're trying to forge relationships which lead to trust and conceptual agreement where value is everything and price doesn't matter, then techniques to manipulate the buyer are ineffective, becuase they are the antithesis of trust. That's why I've always felt that superficial applications of body language, or NLP (neuro-linguistic programming), or the laughable "right brain/left brain" stuff, are disingenuous and dangerous. On an amateur level, they are attempts to manipulate, not understand. ("Hey, ignore him what do you expect from an INTJ?")

Relax And Don’t Worry

I've found that buyer and prospect interactions can have a Pinteresque quality about them: They are often relaxed, marked by thoughtful silences, and involve mutual examination of issues. The typical commodity sales processes are hell-bent on action and movement, however, and seek to urge the buyer into a "close."

The next time you receive still another direct mail piece, or blast email, or cold call from one of these sales gurus or their marketing minions, ask yourself if your own buyers would ever respond positively to such impersonal, affected promotion. If you actually emulated the approach being applied to you, would you improve your success rate acquiring business?

I don't think so. I think "get rich quick books" only make the authors rich quick, and "guaranteed success strategies" only guarantee the workshop originator success.

But most of all, ask yourself if the expert in question has ever done what you aspire to do, and I'm not talking about simply making money, which is a by-product of value and passion, not the goal. If they've written a best-seller, the odds are that they can teach you their formula, techniques, and discipline. If they haven't, then don't believe a thing that you're told.

In that case, close the book.