Repisode 950: Who's Believing Who? (SALES Edition)

Who’s believing who? In sales, customers don’t always leave because of facts—they leave because of fear and doubt. Your job isn’t to argue. It’s to build a case, present evidence, and plant a reasonable doubt that walking away is their best choice.

In this episode, I’ll show you how to stay engaged, keep the ball bouncing, and steer the conversation so the customer feels empowered to choose you.

👉 Grab the free worksheet at the end to put this into practice and sharpen your skills. (if no link https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iF1hZVAfTZHXPlMDVZezv3gXG7-qlGN7/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114215176850004969751&rtpof=true&sd=true)

Transcript

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All right. 3, 2, 1. Let's get it. As I adjust myself in the chair today, welcome to What's Your Problem, the podcast. If we have not met, I'm your host, Marsh Buice If we have met a time or two, but you forgot my name, I am Marsh Buice episode nine 50, man. We're gonna rock on with this. This episode is dedicated to my salespeople out there. And the question I have for you, man, is who's believing who? And that's a question that you have to ask yourself in sales, like, because you can rationalize everything away, okay? You really can, you can justify why every customer's not buying from you, why you can't make a month. I mean, you, you, the, the, the list goes on and on and on, but too often. As salespeople, we take what the customer is saying at face value. We believe them. We believe the words that they're saying. But sometimes the customer isn't leaving because of what they're saying is true. It's not necessarily the facts. They're leaving out of fear, out of doubt, and your job isn't to argue with a customer. Your job is to build your case beyond a reasonable doubt. You gotta think of yourself like a defense attorney. A defense attorney doesn't have to prove a hundred percent of the case. They don't have to prove innocence a hundred percent. Do you ever think that any defense attorney ever takes on a client that doesn't think, dude, I, that dude's guilty. It's not their job to provide guilt. They take on the case because they see. There's some evidence that could be argued with, and they present the argument in front of the court. All a defense attorney has to do is raise a reasonable doubt. And they do that with evidence, with facts, with perspective, and with angles that the jury may not have considered. And that's exactly what you have to do in sales. You have to weave together your customer's words, your product, your service, and your follow through, and you present that evidence. basically, you gotta build a case that makes staying with you. The most logical choice. The smarter choice. Now, sometimes when you're working with customers, your job, you have to provide clarity, and the clarity comes from helping the customer see the long-term value of what you have to offer. Other times, your job as a salesperson is to provide confusion. Yes, you need to confuse your customer, and I'm not saying confusion in the trickery, it's confusion and their logic. you're shaking up their assumption that them leaving looking at other alternatives, you're dispelling that. You're providing confusion to that saying. Wait a minute. I, I was kinda sure that I needed to leave, but I'm not so sure. Now you gotta put a little salt in the game and it's not bashing someone else. It's providing confusion in the sense that this is the logic that they had, but you know what? You didn't consider other options. Here's your other options. Here's the service I provide. Here's the long-term value that right now you're just looking at a, at a purchase. But we gotta talk about ownership, and that's the long-term value that you provide. But this takes persistence, and this is what most salespeople lack. You have to push yourself to be persistent with the customer. Persistence means that you stay mentally engaged, physically engaged, emotionally engaged. The whole time with your customers, bro, you're hanging on to every word that they're saying, their thoughts, their body language, so that way you can steer the direction of your next step. So many salespeople, when they feel like they don't have anything, they pull up, they mentally and they physically disengage. You can see it all on their faces. I mean, I can walk by and they're talking to the customer and the customer's sitting there telling them, all right, well, we need to leave. We're gonna go shop around. And the, and the sales person's like,'cause they're so focused on the result, instead of staying mentally, physically, and emotionally engaged to every word. Because see, you're missing out on all these opportunities that the customer is not only saying with their mouth, but also saying with their eyes. With their body language. And so if you will say per, if you will push yourself to stay persistent with the customer, you're staying with them, you're guiding them in the right direction. You're listening for places of fear, of doubt, of uncertainty. Sometimes the know they're saying is a k and OW. It's not the know that you're hearing, and so you're guiding that with persistence. You're staying engaged because you are deeply convicted that you have the best possible product and service, and no one can beat you at that. You gotta be convicted of that. You gotta figure out how to keep the ball balanced. Like that's the image that I have at all times when I'm working with customers. How can I keep the ball bouncing? How can I stay engaged? Where, where can I go with this? What can I offer? And steer that conversation where it needs to go. Gotta think of yourself like my, my friend Catherine Brown says in her book How Good Humans Sell. You gotta think of yourself as a tour guide, and I'll even go further than this. I will tell you something controversial. You don't even have to believe the words that you're actually saying. Especially in the beginning, don't turn me off. Let me unpack this. You don't, because sometimes, think about it, when you're new in sales, you don't have, you haven't built a body of evidence. You don't have a belief system earned yet. That's, that belief system has to be earned. So sometimes the words I may tell you to go say you're like logically. From my vantage point, 'cause I was a customer two hours before I got the job that I, I don't think that's gonna work. It's not for you to determine whether you're not the judge. All I need you to do is I need you to state the evidence. These are the things that I'm hearing. This is what you came back and told me. This is what I need you to go back and say and, and, and with conviction, you just lay those words on the line. Yeah, and we'll steer it where it needs to go from there based on what they're saying with their mouth and what they're saying with their body language. I got you. So that's why I'm saying you don't have to believe the words that you're saying sometimes, bro. When you're on a 0-11 streak you're not gonna believe the words that you're saying because you've been looking at your past results. Your most recent results, I should say. And so you're thinking, oh, uh, you know, here we go again. No, just state the evidence. Give me new ways as a customer. Give me other ways to consider. That's what we are. We're options traders. So based on what they came here for. What's my options? What's multiple ways I can have them look at it and based on the, it's kind of like you're a fisherman. You, you, you throw something out there, the fish ain't biting. You put, you reel it back in. You don't throw the pole in the water. You change the lure. You change the bait and you throw something else back in. Sometimes just one word can say something and all of a sudden out of thin air, something gets said or revealed. And you're like, boom, here we go. Because your job is to get the conversation outta their head and onto the table so that way you can address it.'cause they have a whole nother conversation going on. So let me ask you this. Who's believing? Who are you believing what the customer is saying? Because a majority of what they're saying. Is laced with fear and doubt. Are you believing that? Or can you break that fear and doubt, that uncertainty? Can you break it apart? Are you like every other salesperson and like, oh, I ain't got nothing. I'm outta here. Lemme send you a brochure. I'll follow up with you. No, stay with the customer. They need your help. They're not gonna tell you, Hey, help me, but that's what they're saying. They came here for a reason. Did you unpack all of the reasons? Did you unpack their fear? Did you address their uncertainty? Do you believe in your product and your service? Bro? Are you a good person? If you're a good person and you got into this business, why did you get in this business? You got in this business to help people. That's what every sales person who applies for a job, I, I just wanna help people. Well then help 'em. And you will not help them if you let them leave and you have not addressed their concerns, their fears, their uncertainties, their regrets from the past. If you haven't helped them with that, bro, you haven't done your job. Your job, plain and simple, is to present the evidence and raise a reasonable doubt in an alternative. This requires that you keep the ball bouncing. This requires that you gotta stay engaged. This takes a lot of mental resources. This takes a lot of emotional maturity. Stay in there. The more you do this, the better that you're gonna get. Just think in your head, how can I keep this ball bouncing? How can I keep this thing alive? All right, so based on your most recent results right now, who's believing who. Hmm. So, if you're not doing so good. You gotta check yourself who's believing who. But also I will, I will add this. If you're doing good, complacency is just sitting on the back of your neck. You are the second coming and you think you can't do no wrong. And what happens is you lose your persistence 'cause things are going so good. You start believing your own bullshit and you become the judge and you say, oh, I ain't got nothing. They ain't ready. They're not worth my time. And before you know it, your well is dried up. Press yourself. Who's believing? Who don't believe everything at face value? What's the customer saying outta their mouth? What are they implying? Why are they here? And what service can I provide? How can I help? Alright, lemme know if I can help you. Remember, keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough, and you can believe that. Peace.