The Magic and Power
of Dialogue
Natural and Effective Selling
from the Soul
As businesswomen, having found our niche, developed our business or discovered the profession of our choice, the toughest aspect of running a business for many of us, is the act of selling. Yet sales are necessary for without them we have no business.
Selling for many has a tendency to conjure up a myriad of images and feelings that cause us to shudder. Throughout the past century, a salesperson has typically been seen as manipulative and persuasive presenter, who asks leading questions that elicit the 'right responses' from the customer, and then steam rolls us into the 'close.'
This method of selling has been a product of recent times since the "art and science of persuasion' became popular. However, it is an art and a science that has worked however, at a great cost in terms of money and emotional toil both on the part of the potential customer and the salesperson. By virtue of its systematic approach through the use of techniques, its very nature can be adversarial.
Many of us have experienced being aggressively SOLD in the conventional manner. How many of us have paid a different price for the same product or service from the same salesperson! It is little wonder that selling scares many of us, for we do not want to be perceived in that same manner or convey that same message. Yet selling is what we do. And what if these negative perceptions, fears, and dislikes about selling as we understand it can prevent us from increasing our business?
How do we sell effectively while not compromising our inner values and come from a place of trust.
Trust
We know that in the business world today, the most valuable asset your company can develop and maintain is a 'trust relationship' with its customers. When a customer trusts and likes you, they're more likely to continue to do business with you, refer others to you, and stick with you even when new competition enter the market. Trust, or lack of it, comes from every interaction a customer has with your business and it usually starts with the sale!
However, if each interaction comes with a sales pitch, it can slowly erode that trust relationship.
As an entrepreneur, I have experienced the fear of sales. To me the conventional paradigm of selling could be reflected in this quote ... "Women are from Marketing and Men are from Sales." Now, consider for a moment what this means. Women can instinctively create the theme for their product and service for their particular niche and Men are naturally good at sales, as they know 'the game'.
That is what I believed up until being introduced to a man by the name of Michael Oliver and a different paradigm in sales called Natural Selling®. Michael Oliver brings with him over 22 years experience in sales and training and is also a certified trainer of the Chopra Center for "The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success in the Workplace."
Michael uses and teaches a way of selling effectively that is as natural as having a conversation with someone you want to get to know. It is a balance of yin and yang, which involves the potential customer from the start. It is an energetic heart based way to create sales and maintain customers. Why? Because the very energy it creates automatically draws people as opposed to putting them on the defensive, they begin to trust you.
Natural Selling® is selling from the soul, using ancient wisdoms and modern practices. Based on Universal Principles, (there are 4 of them) and not on techniques, the principles are timeless, and the process of Natural Selling is adaptable to any area of business you are in. As Michael stated to me recently, ‘If you understand the philosophy of something, the mechanics of doing it and why you’re doing it becomes crystal clear.”
The essence of what he means can be defined, in the following poem:
'Techniques are many, Principles are few.
Techniques will vary, Principles never do!"
How do these universal principles of Natural Selling® help us to grow a successful, sustainable enterprise? Well let's start at the beginning of why you embarked on your entrepreneurial venture and reason for business.
The question he challenges us with is, “What is the ‘purpose’ of being in business or selling?”
If your answer was to make money, or a ‘self focused’ response’,’ would it be reasonable to assume that the energy of that comes through when talking with potential customers? Could it imply to your potential customer that you are coming from an energy of ‘need’ to satisfy your requirements, and not of ‘abundance’ coming from a real desire to serve and satisfy their needs?
Michael responds with, “The real ’ purpose’ of a business is simply to help other people to solve their problems. If your product or service cannot solve someone's problems, is there any reason for them to do business with you?”
Helping People Solve Their Problems
Selling naturally and being in business is a problem solving exercise, identifying and helping others to get what they want, and here’s the irony, by letting go of what you want! By letting go you let go the energy of your need, which is an energy of lack. ‘Helping People Solve their Problems’ and coming from a place of service, is also the first and cornerstone principle of Natural Selling®
In Natural Selling® the focus is not on getting the sale, it’s focusing on the ‘process’ of discovering what the problem is and how to most efficiently solve it, whether it’s with your product or service or someone else’s! If there is a sale to be made, you will make it every time, because it’s the process that creates the relationship, not the closing or objection handling techniques! The process will also eliminate the need to know objection and rejection handling techniques because your potential customers eliminate these themselves during the process. The end result is a result of the integrity of the process. The result also for you is, that if you have any fear about rejections, you don’t have to learn techniques to overcome it, you’ve just eliminated it!
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By letting go of the ‘making the sale mentality’ and focusing 100% on the customer by discovering first what the problem is, and what the history is behind that before proposing a solution, is how we earn the immediate trust of a potential customer. Why? Because we’re involving and enrolling them. They feel understood and that we are truly interested in finding out what they want and why they want it - not what we think we have for them! People buy for their own reasons not ours, and if we ask and listen, they will tell us. Usually the reason is not what we think it is.
The process is one of abundance thinking. Show a sense of genuine care and it gets returned tenfold. In ‘seeking to serve, we ultimately serve ourselves.’
So how do you do this? How do you make this work in a real world practical sense? Through the Magic and Power of Dialogue. Dialogue forms the next 3 principles of Natural Selling®
The Mechanics of Dialogue and Natural Selling
What is dialogue? Dialogue is an open form of communication that will allow you to receive all the answers you need to find out the core essence of most people - what makes them tick, and whether you can help them. Your complete openness in communication tells the other person a lot about you and what you represent without you having to say very much. By having an open dialogue, you create a field of energy that makes people compelled to listen to you and your ideas.
Unlike Telling or Open Discussion, Dialogue requires you to detach from your expectations. By suspending your own assumptions, judgments and prejudices and not allowing yourself to be drawn into arguing, debating or defending your point of view, and just simply listening without prejudice, you will find others will suspend their own defensive positions and be open to other beliefs and possibilities.
The sense of openness that dialogue has is an energy that is subconsciously picked up and conveyed right back to you. Focusing on the present moment and getting to understand the present situation of the person with whom you are talking will draw people to you as you are showing a genuine interest in them.
In contrast to discussion, "We are not trying to win in a dialogue. We all win in a dialogue if we are doing it right."
The ability to have an open dialogue with someone and listen without judgment is listening with your heart as well as your mind. It’s a gift that you give, and you’ll find it abundantly returned.
Listening to What is Being Meant Not Just What is Being Said
As Michael states based on his experience,' More than anything else I know the mere act of open listening will draw people to you like a magnet. Remove your ego and the necessity to randomly talk about you and your solutions in your sales conversations, and you will achieve more than you can ever imagine.
Hearing and listening requires you to do something that is alien for most people, because they are never taught it. It requires you to let go of your need to clutter your mind with needless thoughts of working out what to say next, and to let the inner self take over. It requires you to listen and tap into the essence of the other person. It requires you to listen 100%.'
How do you do this? One simple way is to understand that most things you are going to ask or say are in the answers to your previous questions. It’s all there! Except most of us don’t listen. We’re too busy working spending time and energy working out what we want to say and not on what they are saying. People have the answers to what they want. You might be an expert about your products or services. They are the experts of their lives and what they want. It’s just a matter of matching the two! Apart from listening, all we need are the right questions
Asking the Right Questions and the Right Time
The true essence of selling, contrary to what you might have been previously taught, is not about presenting, convincing, persuading, manipulating or pushing someone to buy something. It’s the telling, presenting and techniques that create the barriers of rejection and objections! You then have to learn more techniques to get over them!'
Instead of telling, Michael demonstrates, through the "Magic and Power of Dialogue", how you can ask proven questions that allows the other person to talk about what they want and why. In doing so they listen to themselves as they talk to you and in the process persuade themselves to make the change. Want to create value in you and what you represent? Listen and ask non-manipulative questions.
Feeding Back What You Think You Heard They Want
Natural Selling questions reveal the inner truth, they are principled questions intended to bring out each person's inner and external truth and values, in a non-intrusive mutually comfortable way. It is a 'Mutual Journey of Discovery'.
When you have a clear picture of what your potential customer wants and whether they are prepared to make a change to get it, you now make the transition from focusing on asking questions and listening, to demonstrating how you can help. By feeding back to the client what you think you heard they want. It's a soft statement of invitation. The potential partner will experience what it is like to have actually been listened to and it will open the doors to the potential of your solution being the exact one they want and you are the person that they trust to enter into this business with. Why?
Because you are selling you! YOU are the unique feature of your product, service or business opportunity. If a person buys you as a feature - do you think they will have a peek at the rest of what you're about? Of course, states Michael. "Sell the relationship first and the solution second".
You sold YOU by asking and coming from a place of intent. You interacted and let your own personal agenda guide you and not manipulate you. You cared about them and not the sale.
Now how does that make you feel about selling.
Michael Oliver will be in New Zealand in November and Australia in December of this year. He will be doing a series of evening seminars and dialogues on, how to effectively sell from the soul using "The Magic and Power of Dialogue", and "Manifesting The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success through Natural Selling®. He will also be conducting 2-Day weekend workshops on "Natural Selling". For further information please check out his website at www.naturalselling.com
Contact information:
www.naturalselling.com
Phone: 775.886.0777
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