Recently, I had to go shopping for cars. Now, I usually don’t trust dealerships, but I saw an ad for this specific car that I was interested in and gave them an opportunity to change my mind. I contacted the dealership before driving down to look at the car. I sat in the office of this salesman for an hour discussing my options. After an hour, they tried to sell me a completely different car, because, after that hour, they had apparently lost the car that I had come to see. They called back after I drove away and told me they had found the car I was interested in, and they have called back every day since. This type of marketing/behavior might have been acceptable when marketing was invented, but times have definitely changed. We have been programmed to sell things in a certain way for so long, but the old ways of marketing are dead. Here are a few reasons why:

The fear factor is dead.

People are smarter than you think. We’ve seen people try to scare other people into throwing their money at their problems for so long. Guess what? People are over it. They’ve caught on. They know all the tricks. People can be educated instantly through the use of the internet, and every person is a different person. Our job as salesmen and women now really is to help our customers along in their process. It’s their journey. You are not their one and only until you win their hearts in a unique way. If you use fear as a tactic, you will lose trust in so many ways, but if those customers – those people – trust you, they will keep coming back again and again. They will feel like you have something unique to offer them. People are creatures of habit. If people know a certain place was safe and trusted before, that business will keep that place of trust in their minds until they’ve strongly proven that they are not to be trusted. Make them feel at home with your company, and you win. But so do they.

People know what they want.

Understanding a customer’s needs and fulfilling them will truly help you in today’s market. They already know what they want, and if they don’t, they will tell you that. Trying to sell a customer something they have explicitly told you they are not interested in will be an instant turn-off. Put something in front of them that is not what they asked for, and you will immediately be deemed a snake. It just makes sense to give the customer what they want or something comparable. Don’t give a customer an off-road vehicle when they requested comfort and luxury.

Trust will be your ally, or it will be your worst enemy.

We as the customer are blessed in the current market. We have options, and we are extremely aware of that fact. We have options, and we take them. Treat people the way you yourself would want to be treated in the buying process, because the buying process should not be just a process – it should be a journey. If you do not delight your customer, make them feel at home, make them feel secure, and give them what they are looking for, someone else will. And that someone else will get their returning business.
Delight your customer, know what they actually want, and be humble knowing the person you are trying to sell to has more knowledge and options than ever before, and you will win their trust – and with that trust, you will win their hearts.

Delight your customer, know what they actually want, and be humble knowing the person you are trying to sell to has more knowledge and options than ever before, and you will win their trust – and with that trust, you will win their hearts.
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