Got asked an interesting sales question recently.
The guy who asked it is trying to land a potentially very lucrative client (he’s in the marketing coaching business) but can’t seem to close the deal. He’s tried everything he can think of — calling the client, sending stuff through the mail, stopping buy (as well as using all the popular sales “tips and tricks” from the best-selling books) but is getting nowhere fast.
He doesn’t want to lose this one, though.
As it could mean MEGA green stuff in his piggy bank.
My advice?
Put the phone down and watch Seinfeld, instead.
Specifically, the episode where George is obsessed when Jerry’s girlfriend doesn’t like him, and so tries extra hard to get her to like him, which only makes her hate him even more.
Why watch this?
Because it perfectly illustrates the power of indifference.
And of what happens when you slobber all over someone to get their attention. (Such as when George says, “Jerry… this woman hates me so much I’m starting to like her…She just dislikes me so much… It’s irresistable.”)
That happens all the time in business.
ALL the time.
People want the sale so bad, they drive the customer away and obsess over why they said no.
Why does this happen?
It’s the law of the jungle:
When you hunt something down, the hunted prey tends to get scared and run away (his survival depends on it, after all). And so the advice to him was nothing more than:
Ease up.
Quit hovering over the would-be client.
And don’t act so needy.
Otherwise you’ll scare the customer away.
And end up with nothing.
Ben Settle
P.S. Best way to be “indifferent” like this (so you can attract instead of repel) is to simply know how to sell. That’s it. Doesn’t matter if you’re a copywriter, a coach, consultant, an MLM distributor or direct marketer — learn to sell and you simply won’t come off as eager or make the blunders that turn customers away like this.
You can learn 101 different ways to sell over yonder at:
