Are there days you ask yourself why you do what you do?
I know many of the professionals I coach will stop and ask themselves this question. Especially if they are experiencing not so great results from a lot of hard work. We spend 1/3rd of our days at work, sometimes more. And that’s ½ of our waking hours. We enter the workforce when we are 20 (sometimes sooner), and we exit at 70+ (remember the ‘new normal’ with retirement planning and social security?). That’s 50+ years you devote to a professional career. God promises us 3 score and 10 (translates to 70 years in non-Bible math) in our life. If we are promised a lifespan of 70 years and more than 2/3rds of that is devoted to our profession, shouldn’t it be something worthwhile?
I ask you these questions to get you thinking about what you do in sales. I was visiting with a group of sales professionals who thought by expanding their relationship with their clients it would appear as if they were ‘just selling more stuff’. Is that really what you consider a career of sales?
People buy solutions from people they know, like and trust. I don’t know about you, but if someone is ‘just selling something’ they don’t fit into the ‘know, like and trust’ category. There are a few really smart people I know that are always seeking innovation. They adopt new habits, buy new technology and hire the best service providers. I call them when I am looking for a solution. I do this because I – like most business owners – recognize the value in a referral over just Googling someone or something. If I am looking for a product that I can’t find out about through these smart people, then I hit the internet and go straight to product reviews by real people.
Your goal: become that smart person.
How?
We must learn more, ask more, absorb more. Curiosity is your friend. Seek out what else your client is working on besides the project you are assisting them with. Ask them who impresses them in the professionals they work with. Meet more smart people. Intelligence, like success, happens by osmosis. You hang around smart people and you become smart, just like hanging around successful people brings you success. Hang around with ordinary people and remain ordinary. If you do not bring innovative solutions to your clients, they will not think of you when they need problems solved. If they aren’t telling you what they need from you for extraordinary value, you will simply get mixed in with ordinary group. You will remain merely a vendor, not a trusted business advisor.
Why does this matter? Why should you care if you get called with a problem needing a solution? You want to be in the role of being able to GIVE. To be referable, you need to also refer. You must first give – then get. Gaining referrals means we must be placing ‘emotional deposits’ into the referral bank account FIRST through referring others. If you are not giving referrals, you will not receive referrals. Period. It’s very much like an ‘insufficient funds’ rating on your referral bank balance.
That’s why you care. Without being able to give first, you will not be in a position to receive. And, to be able to refer first, you must be the smart person that provides solutions. Ordinary people don’t get referred. Extraordinary people do.