You Are Your Own First Customer
It is impossible to present compelling value if you are not sold your-
self. Do you believe in what you are selling? The people you talk with
are not fools. They can detect a phony as easily as you can. Are you
truly interested in providing something of value, or are you just in it
for the money? If you are motivated only by the money, you may be
shocked to learn that you are far more transparent than you thought.
Selling is a form of self-expression. For most people, their inher-
ited purpose creates guilt, anxiety, or fear about self-expression. If
your desire for money is the sole motivation strong enough to sub-
due your reservations about expressing yourself, then you are in
trouble. The customer hears your need for money, becomes justifi-
ably suspicious, and won’t buy.
Do you come from service or greed? The answer to this matters
more than how polished your presentation is. Although it hurts to
be rejected by people you are trying to help, you have to accept that
rejection will occur. No one is rejecting you, unless you perceive it
so. Instead, they are rejecting your offer.
To serve your customers best, you want to find out how they
think and hear not only what is said, but also what is meant.
Prospective customers must perceive your product or service as of-
fering compelling value. Because each prospective customer is dif-
ferent, presenting from a fixed script can produce only very limited
results. If your customers do not buy how you sell, they are less
likely to buy what you sell.
Emotional Dynamics of Selling
Selling makes people nervous. Emotions are the most troubling
part, especially for beginners. In our Training sessions, we used to
discuss fear about selling, but we have since discovered that terror is
a more accurate description of many people’s feelings. Yet selling is
easier than you think, especially when you understand moving-away
and moving-toward motivation and predominant representational
systems. Our purpose here is to make your transition to a winning
salesperson as quick as possible.
Why Selling Is Uncomfortable
In almost all cases, these uncomfortable feelings have nothing to do
with any danger or risk in the sales situation. Selling violates almost
Why Selling Is Uncomfortable 211