It’s no secret that consumers have a negative overall opinion of salespeople. In fact, according to a Grass Roots study, just 18% of consumers have a positive view of the sales profession. The sad truth is that people perceive sales as a negative, pushy, or deceptive profession. Why? Because many salespeople aren’t focusing on what’s most important.
Think about the last big purchase you made. Now, think about how it changed your life. Forget the physical product. What did it do for you? Maybe you purchased a bigger car or SUV to make room for a baby on the way. Perhaps you purchased a new house, closer to your job, to shorten your commute and spend more time with your family. On a root level, we don’t buy things for the sake of spending money. We buy things with one goal in mind—to make our lives better.
Every honest salesperson knows this and tries to sell in a way that improves the lives of others. If more salespeople did this, customer trust in salespeople, overall, would increase exponentially. That’s why it’s time to bring the pride, purpose, and respect back to professional selling. How do you do that? Try thinking like a samurai.
Just a few decades after Japan’s warrior class was abolished, U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt raved about a newly released book entitled Bushido: The Soul of Japan. Author Nitobe Inazo interprets the samurai code of behavior: how chivalrous people should act in their personal and professional lives. Within this code, there are seven virtues that people followed to unleash a better version of themselves, both professionally and personally.
Every great empire has a code, and every great leader believes in these virtues that helped them grow their empire. One important virtue is sincerity, because sincerity is the key to evolving your LBM company into a time-honored empire. Sincerity shows itself in the way you sell. Sincere salespeople genuinely care about each sale and how it will benefit their customer. They aren’t selling a customer building materials for their sake, right? Of course not. It’s all about the client. Sincere salepeople focus on making their clients’ lives better.
A sale should do something for your customers, not to them. Think of a doctor giving out a certain prescription to address a patient’s problem. Just the same, selling is about prescribing life-improving services and products to address a customer’s problem.
Selling this way not only benefits customers, it benefits the organization, as well. The desire to improve one’s life has more influence over a person’s buying decision than any other factor. Additionally, people always pay extra for life improvement.
Your goal should never be to sell LBM products, it should be to sell a better life for your customer. So hold your head up with the knowledge that you embody honesty and sincerity every day. Be proud of your profession. Let your customers know you love what you do, because at the core of it is life improvement. And what’s more honest and sincere than that?
