Make a Friend, Not a Sale
Vin Diesel closing a sale in Boiler Room
When I used to visit my dad at work, I never once witnessed a customer leaving his office unhappy or angry. No matter the personality or mood of the person who entered, minutes later… BOOM! A happy customer emerges shaking my Dad’s hand “thanks for all your help Barry!” It was like a magic trick. Now I’m sure there were times that this didn’t happen and someone walked out disgruntled, but I never saw it.
One day after seeing another 180 degree customer walk out, I finally asked my dad: “How’d you do that? How did you make that sale?”
He looked at me and said, “It’s easy, I made a friend; I didn’t make a sale.”
We suck at selling
Ever see Vin Diesel in the movie Boiler Room? He’s hurdling over desks, racing to a sales rep yelling “RECKO!” all because a big lead is on the phone waiting to be closed by a sweet talking sales rep. Great scene. Not us.
We don’t have fancy pitches explaining how we are the best at anything and everything the customer needs and we don’t throw out fake figures or percentages to prove our credibility.
To be honest, neither of us were born with a silver tongue or the gift of the gab and according to the few sales books we’ve read, we both suck at selling.
As far as sales and convincing potential clients we are worthy, we simply tell them what we ACTUALLY do. To clarify, we don’t oversell. We tell it how it is and don’t throw out fake figures or percentages to prove our credibility. It might sound crazy, but it works.
Bottom Line; Don’t “Act as if”
Don’t claim to be something when you’re not, and don’t claim to be great at something when you know you aren’t. Our best clients didn’t come from us having glamorized our business or services; they came from us having made a friend.
A few Concepts & Ideas we live by
This is the second installment in a series of posts called: How We Started a Company in College with $400, No Experience, & No Clue What We Were Doing.
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