Before Recommending Anything . . .

July 18, 2015
After you’ve completed your diagnostic and inspection, and written up your list of suggestions, before you approach your customer to go over them, stop and ask yourself what the sense of urgency is on each and every line.  

Before recommending anything, first establish:

  • The NEED
  • The SENSE OF URGENCY
  • The LOGICAL REASON
  • The EMOTIONAL REASON.

First, I establish these things in my own mind, then I establish them in the customer’s mind.

One way of knowing whether or not you established the need, is to ask the customer, “Would you agree with me that sooner or later you’re going to have to do something about this?”

If they agree, you’ve established the need.  It’s not too difficult to get people to agree that sooner or later they’re going to have to do something about some situation.  The more difficult part is establishing the sense of urgency – the reason to take action right now; this very minute.

In the past, whenever you made a sale, whether you did it intentionally or not, you did establish the sense of urgency.

The sense of urgency can be as simple as getting a discount for doing it while you're already doing other things, to health concerns, to potential for property damage.

After you’ve completed your diagnostic and inspection, and written up your list of suggestions, before you approach your customer to go over them, stop and ask yourself what the sense of urgency is on each and every line.  This may take more thought than you want it to, but without a sense of urgency, they are way more likely to put off doing things.

From now on, when you don’t make the sale, as you’re driving to your next call, think about the one you just ran, and ask yourself, “What was the sense of urgency?”  I’ll bet you can’t pinpoint it … and that’s THE reason you didn’t make the sale.

The logical reason:

Before making any recommendations or offering any advice, you’re going to establish, first in your own mind, then in your customer’s, the LOGICAL reason to take action.  That should be fairly easy.

The trickier part may be bringing the EMOTIONS into the picture.

Logic provokes thought.  Emotions provoke action.

When I say to get the emotions involved, I don’t mean they need to go all manic, or cry or anything, I just mean they have to WANT what you’re selling.  Sometimes they’ll tell you they don’t want what you’re recommending when you know they do.  Try asking them, “If it were free would you want it?”  When they say yes, ask them, “Why would you want it if it were free?”

They’ll say, “Because it’s free.”

You’ll say, “Lots of things are free that you wouldn’t want.  What would you hope to gain by owning one of these?”  Let them sell themselves.

Remember when I told you last month that if you’re a good listener, people will tell you what to say or do to close them?  This is where that could occur.

Touchy feely:

People tend to base their actions more on emotions, let’s call them feelings, than they do logic.

Think about the decisions you've made in your own life.  How many times have you bought something, moved, taken a new job, gotten married, etc., and said to yourself and to others, “I feel good about this”?

How many times have you done something that was the wrong thing to do, but you did it anyway because you felt like it?  That’s a decision based on feelings.

My job as a salesman is to make people feel good about buying from me.  When you talk to people, make them feel good about accepting your recommendations.  In fact, don’t say anything that’s not going to make them feel good about buying from you.

The "tell":

There is a way to know when people feel good about what you’re offering, but it requires you to be observant, make excellent eye contact, and have good eyesight.

When people see things they really like, their pupils widen (dilate), just like they do when they’re on drugs.  In fact, it’s the same chemical reaction.

When poker players get a good hand, whether they want it to happen or not, their pupils dilate.  In Las Vegas, that’s called a “tell,” and top poker players look for it.  That’s why professional poker players often wear dark glasses and/or a hat.

When I’m making my recommendations, I make good eye contact.  When I see pupil dilation, I shut up and start closing, and that’s no joke.

CHARLIE GREER was just named as one of the most influential people in HVAC.  Charlie has a new program that can make your phone ring on demand with his new Lead Ninja program.  For more info, call 1-800-963-4822, or visit www.hvacprofitboosters.com.  Email Charlie at [email protected].