And, always in that order.
A potential client will only make a decision to buy, when they are good and ready – and that means, they need to *see* themselves enjoying the benefit of having bought your solution.
That’s the vision element of a sales process: getting to the point where they too see the vision that you have for them.
But before they’ll buy in to that vision, they need to trust you.
Unless there’s trust, they’re not going to have that vision.
And, in order to gain trust, you need to gain permission first.
Permission to explain, permission to ask questions, and, yes: Permission to ultimately ask for the sale.
And so selling in an ethical way, where you have sales conversations that people enjoy, works like this:
First, you gain permission – to explore their situation, to address objections, to discover what they need.
Do that right, and you’ll earn their trust. Trust that you’re looking out for them, that you’re not just in it for the money, and – very importantly – that your product or service is what they need, and that it’ll solve their problem.
That trust causes people to get curious, to ask you question – and that is what builds a vision in their minds.
And once that vision is ready, and they’ve sold themselves on wanting your thing – that’s when you get to ask for the sale, and that’s when they make the decision to buy (or not).
And if they don’t, you graciously accept their no, and you continue the conversation (i.e. you follow up in a pleasant way) until such time that they are ready.
Ethical selling isn’t that hard – you just need to make sure that you have permission, and that they have the trust and vision they need to make an informed decision.
On another note:
I’m building an app that coaches you on working your pipeline, moving your deals forward – and closing them faster and at better rates.
It’s called SalesFlow Coach, and we’re scheduled for beta-release in June 2022.
Register here to be notified when it goes live.
