3 Sweet Tips on Why You Shouldn't "Sell"

Selling is tough, many entrepreneurs say."I'm not the gung-ho type." "I can't hype my product as well." "You could never picture me in Boiler Room." That's what I had thought when we first started Trizzy back in the day. I knew I loved helping people, but I also knew I couldn't sell if my life had depended on it. Well, luckily I made my first sell by doing what I love: helping people. Adding value. Solving their problems. Providing solutions. It's the whole "me-second" attitude we talked about this week. As it turns out, the best salespeople aren't the aggressive, stereotypical Type-A personalities; the highest performers in any business are the sincere, introverted, solution providers. So, the best salespeople love helping others? Karma at its finest, no? With that in mind, here's why you shouldn't hard-sell somebody.

1. You eliminate people's attraction to "buying."

   People love to make choices. When you make choices for them, they hate that. When you're "selling" somebody, they put their guard up. Yet, when you provide them with a choice to buy, usually you'll open them up to doing business with you.

2. You lose credibility.

   Try lying to a customer. Sure, let's say Bob generates 9 consecutive orders based on deceit (which, or course, never will happen in real life). On his tenth order, the customer finds out. His business is screwed. Instead of deceit, go for sincerity. If you can't provide a solution to their needs, tell them. That builds your credibility. And, if you can't help them now, that act of sincerity will build you a stream of customers through word of mouth.

3. You lose morale.

   Ever been around car salesman? Yeah, some of them were the most depressed people I've ever been around. They're good people, placed in an environment that encourages deceit. That's why the turnover rate in the car industry is astronomically high. If you want long-term success, start being honest.

So what's the result of hard-selling?

• You lose 10,000 customers. (Actually, more.)

  Let's be conservative for a moment: Christine has 10 business associates. 10 of those business associates has 10 each. Then 100 of those associates has 10 more. And of those, each has 10 more. That's a sweet 10,000 potential targets. You lose one, you lose ten-thousand.

Hard-selling sucks. It kills your business, your profits, and your morale. The solution? Start adding value to people's lives. Even an ounce will go a long way toward boosting your sales efforts.

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