Who Are You Serving?

Good sales is just good service.

When you boil away any slick suits and used-car-salesman tactics, what you’re left with is simply serving people what they need and desire.

If we want to influence someone to say “yes” to us, we first need to convince them that our offering serves them well – better than any alternative.

The problem with sales is – everybody’s needs are different.

So before you can sell to someone, you need to work out how you can serve them.

If you want to make more product sales, you need to serve your prospects.

If you want to make repeat sales, you need to serve your customers.

If you want to sell through others, you need to serve your partners and affiliates.

Again, each group has distinct needs. The way you serve affiliates will be different to the way you serve prospects.

If we try to serve everyone the same, nobody really gets what they need, or even want.

If you’re building a product right now, and you’re expecting to get a foothold in a market by selling through affiliates, take a moment to ask them what they want and need from your product in order to promote your product most effectively. (Think about partnerships and synergies – how can your offering, together with your partners offering, broaden a market or create more sales for everyone involved?)

If you want to build relationships and secure life long sales from your current customers, ask what they want and need. (Listen to your customers. Do what you can to avoid ever disappointing them or letting them down – while working to pleasantly surprise them over and over – like their own personal fairy godmother.)

If you want to turn prospects into customers, find out about their needs. (What problems do they want you to solve? What do they need to see and hear before they trust you? What can you do to make your sales process easier to understand?)