This morning at my church, we had a guest speaker. Our pastor is out of town, and we have known this for several weeks. Last week, we even got a little video preview of who the speaker is and what he preaches about.
After our singing time, the Worship Pastor introduced the guest speaker and mentioned what his area of focus is. I thought that our church did a very good job of prepping us of what he was going to speak on.
The guest speaker came up to the platform with his Bible and 3 other books in his hand. When some of the ushers went to move a pulpit to the platform for him to use, he declined and said he would rather not use it. The ushers sat down.
The first thing the speaker did was show us some of the books he was holding. He had either authored or co-authored them all. He said they would be available after the service in the back at $10 each or 3 for $25. Then his assistant exchanged those 3 books for 3 other books. Again, he explained what the books were about and said they would be available after the service in the back at the same cost.
The message the speaker gave was very good. He was a gifted, experienced speaker. He had been a pastor previously for 25 years or so, and I anticipated a very good message.
On the drive home, I asked my fiancee’, Carrie, what she though of the guest speaker. She said she was COMPLETELY turned off by him, and that she didn’t listen to at all, except for a few moments. I asked her why, and she explained that she was turned off by the fact that the first thing the speaker did when he got on the platform, was to give a sales pitch about his books!
He could have given his presentation and made mention of his books during his sermon. Yes, he was given a very good introduction by the church, both last week and this week. We understood that he had a great background in his area of expertise. But when he gave a sales pitch as the introduction to his sermon, he lost credibility.
All of it.
This reminded me of a principle in influencing other people. Most people make judgements of others based on first impressions. You have about 7 seconds to make that impression on people.
You can have a great resume and cover letter for a job, but if you mess up that first 7 seconds of an interview, you lose!
In sales, you have to build a relationship if you expect to make sales long-term. We all know that it is easier to make a sale with people that you have a relationship with rather than cold-calling all the time. Repeat sales are the life-blood of a business.
Starting with the very first encounter…the very first handshake…the very first contact of any kind, you need to work on building a relationship. And in building a relationship, always remember:
It’s Not About YOU!
If you are trying to build a relationship, don’t talk about yourself in the beginning like that speaker did. Talk about the OTHER person. ASK them questions about themself. Keep the focus on them.
People will like you more if you ask them about themselves and get them talking about themselves. If you are in sales, find out what your customer’s interests are. Get to know them personally. Ask them what they need. They probably already know that you are in sales and at SOME point you will be able to talk to them about your product.
If you start out talking about yourself, you severely limit your ability to influence others. So don’t do it.
After all…It’s Not About YOU!
More another time,
Tim
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