How Harley-Davidson got started, what led to their success, and what you can learn from them to help you grow!
Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details.
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
It is understandable that most prospects have been conditioned to be somewhat skeptical about the claims made by most sales people today. You can't really blame them either. Fact is, some sales people do make exaggerated, unsubstantiated claims about their product, their company, their service etc.
So when you make a claim about what you're offering, be very aware that your prospect is probably going to take it with a "grain of salt". In other words, they may not believe you.
So what can you do about this?
Tell them and SHOW them what your other happy, satisfied customers have to say about the point you are making. Make it a habit to always back up your claims with "SOCIAL PROOF" in the form of;
1. A "Real Life" success Story
Tell them about how your product or service has changed for the better, the life of one or more of your other clients. Tell them that they have given you permission to relate this story. Give them the specifics of what this customer was doing or using before they adopted your recommendation, and then tell them what happened after they went ahead with your recommendation. The more specific you can be about the details, the more credible you will be. Then (if possible) show them a...
2. Testimonial letter
If it's in writing, it's much more believable than something which is verbal. If you don't have a collection of testimonial letters, get some. How? Just ask! If you've looked after your customers they will be a happy to give you a note in writing. Handwritten on a piece of letter head or typewritten, either will do. If you tell your customer the points you'd like them to make, this will often make it easier for them and they'll appreciate the help. Then ask the customer if it would be OK if people who read their letter phone them. Most will say fine.
Testimonial letters are very powerful form of "Social Proof". Become a collector.
3. A photograph
Get into the habit of taking photographs of your happy clients using your product or service. It's easy and cheap with digital cameras these days. Most will be quite happy for you to do so. Tell them that you like to keep a collection of your happy customers in an album. Show them. Make sure you tell them that you'll send them a copy. Also tell them that you show these to people considering doing business with you and seek their permission to put their name and business telephone number in your album with the photograph.
A business card beside the photo is good too. Ask them if they could write a one sentence statement about their satisfaction to put next to the photo. Again most will be happy to.
By the way, it's the phone number and address that makes these photographs so credible. When you show off your album, invite your prospects to phone anyone they like to check that what you've told them is true.
4. A video
Video is a powerful tool and it doesn't need to be professionally shot or edited. In fact if it's too "slick" it will lose credibility. Simply ask your customer, two questions and record their answers. "Why did you decide to do business with me?" and "Have you been happy with your decision and why?" Video allows your prospects to see and hear what your customers have to say. The only disadvantage is that you may not be able show a video on the spot as readily as you can a photograph. However these days it’s easy to up load a video to your company’s web site and then you can show it to your customer on their own computer screen.
5. An audio CD
Similar to my suggestion with respect to video, except you simply use a little hand held tape recorder to record their answers to those two questions. You can even collect these by telephone. Be sure your customer knows you are recording and what you intend doing with the recording.
6. A newspaper or magazine article
For some reason, people tend to believe newspaper and magazine articles. Most seem to think if it's in a publication, it must be true. Even though the information may have simply been an interview with you, it still more believable in an article, probably because the reader feels that the interviewer must have checked the validity of the claims being made. How to you get magazine articles? You get them by approaching these publications with success stories. Show them the testimonial letters too, show them the video and give them photographs to include in the story. Make it easy for publication. They are always looking for interesting stories.
A final note about Social Proof
When you use these items of "Social Proof", do so selectively by showing your prospect letters, photographs etc of people to whom your prospect can relate. For example if you are speaking with an accountant and you have a letter from an accountant, use that one rather the one you have from the truck driver, and vice versa. Build more "Social Proof" into your sales presentations and watch your credibility soar. Let me know how this works for you. I'm always pleased to hear success stories from clients (I put them in my collection and use them in my presentations and books. Wouldn't you?!)
If you’ve been on the Internet for even a short period of time you have likely heard that Social Networking is the latest and greatest hot thing on the Internet. In many ways it is. However, as much as Social Netwo...
Show them what others have to say
It is understandable that most prospects have been conditioned to be somewhat skeptical about the claims made by most sales people today. You can't really blame them either. Fact...
If you say something good about your product or service, yor prospect may believe you...or not. If however you can show them what your other clients have to say, or let them speak with one or more happy clients, th...
Today there are more and more people who are beginning to use social media outlets to help promote and market products. There are many ways that you can learn how to use these social media outlets to increase sales ...
Leanne Hoagland-Smith
Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales success or one of the many who have failed to change? So what are you doing to change those results? Let’s be honest, with companies moving globally and at lightening speeds, the traditional business solutions are outdated and dead. My approach moves your business out of its comfort zone and secures your competitive advantage now. If you are seeking to increase sales, build customer loyalty, create a culture of great attitudes or just achieve some sleep filled nights, then we should talk because my clients have experienced exactly those types of results. Learn more about customer loyalty at http://www.processspecialist.com/customer-loyalty.htm Give me a call at 219.759.5601 for a free strategy session. P.S. If you are seeking a motivational speaker, sales trainer or small business expert that will leave your audience smiling and remembering, please feel free to contact me at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website
Dianne Crampton
Dianne Crampton is an Executive Leadership Coach and Team Building Consultant and creator of the TIGERS team development model. For the past twenty years she has helped leaders and teams achieve goals with high levels of collaboration and teamwork.
Crampton is a published author. Her contribution to Working Together: Diversity As Opportunity was endorsed by Stephen Covey. She has written for trade magazines. Merrill Lynch nominated her business for Inc. Magazine’s regional small business and entrepreneurial awards. Her work with Native Americans was recognized at a United Nations sponsored conference in 1994.
The TIGERS model passed two rigorous validation studies in 1992 and 1994. The TIGERS Survey is able to measure and track team development over time.
Dianne is also the creator and distributor of the TIGERS Team Wheel game. This game helps groups identify behaviors that build collaborative groups and behaviors that cause conflict, morale problems, production failures, and misunderstandings.
For more information, or to subscribe to TigerTracks, a free monthly leadership and team newsletter go to http://www.corevalues.com - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website
The Evan Elite Authors program is currently in beta phase. For details please contact us.
Wayne Berry
(Visit Wayne's Website)
Wayne Berry CSP* is Australia's own TOP
GUN Sales Coach and most in-demand speaker
on sales, negotiating and sales
management. He is ranked in the top 7% of
professional speakers in the world by the
USA based National Speakers Association.
He is a best selling author and one of
Australia's best known speakers. His four
books, “Negotiating In The Age of
Integrity”, “How To Get The Best Deal
Every Time”, “How To Get The Best Sale
Every Time” and “How To Lead and Motivate
A TOP GUN Sales Team” are now sold in 13
countries.
He speaks more than 200 times each year at
conferences around Australia, New Zealand,
Asia, and at programs arranged by his TOP
GUN® Business Academy. This year his
seminars and workshops will be attended by
more than 20,000 sales and business
people.
He has also recorded more than 40 audio
and DVD video programs on selling, sales
management and negotiating.
He has shared the platform with Tom
Hopkins, Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, Earl
Nightingale, Dr Norman Vincent Peale, Dr
Denis Waitley, James Rohn, and many, many
other internationally renown speakers.
Wayne Berry Video - Successful selling today requires the skills of being able to build successful relationships. This video explains how to do that by Wayne Berry.
Wayne Berry's
Complete
List Of
Sales Articles
If you enjoyed this article, get Wayne Berry's Complete List of Sales Articles For FREE!
![[Get Copyright Permissions]](http://license.icopyright.net/images/icopy-w.gif){kind=small}
