WHEN #SELLING, DON'T ANNOY PEOPLE!

* we're pushy
* we call too much
* we're "just checking in"
* we're unprepared
* we're disrespectful of their time
* we keep calling if they say they're not interested
* we don't respond fast enough
* we appear not to understand them, their business, their situations, and their challenges
* we don't work in their interest
* we don't listen
* we don't know about our own products
* we're rude, arrogant, or inattentive
* we're vague or unclear
* they're made to feel like they're interrupting us
* we seem like we're "just trying to sell them something"

And, they can't stand it when we won't take no for an answer.

To do that successfully one must be able to connect with them in many ways.

First, one must connect with them logically! What people don't believe, they don't buy into, so one needs to gain credibility - if one doesn't have credibility, one will not be able to proceed!
How does one do that?..
By communicating a realistic understanding of the present situation. Whenever one shares a vision, people ask 'But what about...?' If they don't ask it aloud, they say it to themselves, and will keep asking it until one has addressed all their concerns. One needs to be extremely thorough when sharing one's dream - not just dwelling on its positive benefits to the exclusion of the challenges.

Secondly, one must then provide a sound believable strategy that people can buy into. If a dream seems too large and unattainable, people will become discouraged and quickly lose interest. When big dreams are broken down into smaller pieces and different pieces are given to talented individuals, the task seems more attainable and each person involved has an increased sense of personal ownership and involvement.
There is an art to communicating this effectively, without getting bogged down in details and boring people. One has to give enough information to satisfy people, but not so much that one looses them - this takes skill and practice - to share one's dream with others, one must learn to do it.

Thirdly, one must share one's dream emotionally. Allow people to get excited about the rewards - show them the dream from their perspective, get them to feel it! Pushing and prodding people does not work - if you help them to feel that they will benefit personally, they're likely to go along with you (partner with you)! People do things for their own reasons, not yours; their reasons are almost always tied to their emotions. One shouldn't be afraid to show one's heart. People buy into the dreamer before they buy into the dream. One may be able to communicate the idea of a dream in a few minutes, but it will take a lot longer to convince people of where one's heart is, which requires patience. Of course one must be enthusiastic, but one must adapt one's stride to the slower pace of others - if one runs too far ahead, one will lose one's power to influence others. It is said that 'people have to hear an idea at least seven times before they embrace it and call it their own'. We are also told that, ten percent of people are pioneers, seventy percent are settlers and twenty percent are antagonists. So, one should make it one's goal to win over the pioneers, to wait for the settlers and to leave the antagonists behind.

Lastly, one must share one's dream visually - only when people actually SEE IT, will they buy into it. Mainly, people look for and want significance, they want to feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves!
When a dream is truly great, it has benefits for everyone - one's job, as a 'seller', is to help people see what benefits they can obtain and enjoy. Those 'sharing' a dream, need to particularly connect people with the opportunities for achieving personal growth, finding fulfilment, and increasing their self-esteem. One needs to provide them with every reason one has for them joining - if one can't offer people plenty of legitimate reasons for others to join them, then one has no business trying to recruit them in the first place.

Is it easy to recruit or persuade? No, it never is - even people who say they desire a dream often don't want it; they see before and after pictures and they want the 'after', what they want is the result, but are not prepared to 'pay the price' required to achieve it. Leadership by example is a great way of 'showing'; if one lives one's dream, practices integrity and achieves a degree of success, people will see what the dream has done for them and that will make them want it too.
How will you know when you've successfully shared your dream with someone else? They will own it and add to it and want to make it bigger and bigger - when that happens, one's dream becomes bigger than usually one or one's team can ever have imagined.

"To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to communicate with others." ~ Anthony Robbins

Note: About me - click on the picture.

A return on their investment (to get more, to be more, to look good, to feel good, to be loved).

That's it!

Anything else and we're wasting their time (and ours).