Are you looking to build a business on short-term successes or do you want guaranteed future success that you can feel good about?
Feeling good about how you make your money and having long-term success in sales are two sides of the same coin.
They’re both about selling with integrity.
Outcome-based selling is not about focusing on the transactions that make you a profit. It’s about selling an outcome.
And this is where the secret to the longevity of your business lies.
The Ugly Reality Of Sales
For a lot of people, ‘salesperson’ is an ugly word for an ugly type of person. When you ask a room full of average folk how they would describe a stereotypical salesperson, they’re most likely to use words like, “pushy”, “obnoxious”, “self-centered” and “uncaring”.
We’ve all met salespeople that fit this description and it’s never an experience that makes us feel good. You might be unlucky enough to have been overpromised by a salesperson that fits the category of ‘grade-A jerk’. You weren’t a factor in your sale – your money was.
On the flip side, if you ask a room full of people to describe a professional salesperson, you’re likely to hear a completely different set of words, such as, “honest”, “caring”, “knowledgable”, and “empathetic”.
In today’s market, a good salesperson is more important than ever. Because consumers now have choice, they’re confused about choice, decision-making is hard and they’re looking for people to help navigate those complex decision-making processes, and that sales responsibility is serious.
So which kind of sales is your business bringing to the table?
Lead In The Right Direction
People want to feel like they’re being educated and guided in a direction that benefits them. If they feel like you’re trying to manipulate them into purchasing something because it benefits you, they’ll get flashbacks of that slimy, pushy, obnoxious salesperson that duped them in the past and they’ll run a mile.
The difference between influence and manipulation is based entirely on integrity.
So how do you bring more integrity to your salesmanship?
We’re all selling something. Whether it’s a product or service, an idea or an outcome, changes in behavior, or even just a feeling. What creates the integrity within your sales is where you set your goalpost.
Build The Right Kind Of Business
For a lot of businesses, the celebration of the sale is the cash reward. These businesses might be making a lot of money, but if the sales are all geared towards the transaction being the goalpost, they’re unlikely to be making many fans.
Fans and followers drive long-term sales success with their loyalty and recommendations. Either online or through word-of-mouth.
You can build the right kind of business by shifting your focus from the credit card swipe or the PayPal transaction to your customer’s satisfaction long after they make the purchase.
This redefining of the finish line will transform every element of your business to create an integral sales process through robust outcome-based selling.
Where To Move Your Goalpost
The point that you should be celebrating is where you overdeliver on the promise that somebody parted with their cash for.
‘The promise’, often talked about by top keynote speaker, Jason Hewlett, is what we’re selling in every environment. The promise to do something, to deliver, to create.
If the promises that your business is making are not the same as the experience that your clients receive… you’re going to get caught out.
If the consumer is not happy, they’re going to let others know. Whether that’s in a Yelp review, Google review, in a TikTok video, or over the garden fence.
Moving your goalpost to post-purchase satisfaction ensures that you’ll build a sales experience that will be talked about for all the right reasons.
Moments That Matter Most
The moments that should matter the most to you are the ones that matter most to the client. And for them, it’s not going to be the point where they paid for the promise.
Your clients care more about the continued fulfillment of the promise after the purchase.
A good example of this is a wedding dress boutique.
When a bride goes into a store to buy a wedding dress, which moment of the purchase will matter the most?
The moment they find the right dress? The wedding day? Both of these moments matter, but the moments that matter the most come after the commitment of buying and wearing the dress.
It’s when the bride gets to see herself looking incredible in the wedding photos and when she glances at her wedding picture on the wall every day.
This is when she can answer the question, “was it the right dress?” and know if the wedding dress shop delivered the promise.
Sales: The Only Department in Your Business
Sales is the only necessary department in every business.
The sales department, customer success department, customer retention department… It’s all sales and should all be working on the same thing.
When you shift the finish line out to where the promise matters the most, the sale will run all the way through and everybody in your business will understand that they have a part to play in sales.
If your whole team is working towards delivering the promise, then you’re all working on the same page. This is how you can build true congruence in your business.
Within your business, you only really have two departments; the sales department and the sales support department.
What Do You Want?
So now you can ask yourself: Do you want to sell things to make more money or do you want to fulfill the promises you’re making so you can build a strong, congruent and honest business that makes you money with integrity?
