Article contributed by TR Garland.
In today’s marketplace, you either need to be the cheapest or the best.
You need to decide for yourself where you want to be.
I believe I know where you don’t want to be.
You don’t want to be the cheapest.
Why?
Because price is the single easiest thing for competition to duplicate!
The second reason why you shouldn’t be the cheapest is because most people don’t want to buy only on price.
They want a vendor or business person who will be their expert, their advisor, and their resource.
The internet is an awe inspiring invention. Isn’t it?
Some say it’s probably to this date the single most important invention of the 20th century. However, when you dig deeper…all it really does is throw information at you.
Now think about this….as a customer or client I can buy almost anything I want off the internet and I don’t even need to talk to a sales person.
The PROBLEM is that most sales people just throw information at their prospects. If you’re just going to throw information at the prospect, they might as well just stay home and use their computer.
If you’re in BNI, and you’re a selling something, PLEASE make an effort to be the BEST.
(1) Provide value to your fellow BNI Members in your own chapter (Don’t know how to? Please feel free to email me at TR@BNI.com. I’m the Chapter Growth & Retention Coordinator of a Southern California Chapter that boasts of almost 70 members).
(2) Listen during One-to-One’s instead of going into “selling mode” – you’re not supposed to sell your chapter members anyway. I’d rather have 10-30 referrals from someone in my chapter over time rather than selling them ‘once’….wouldn’t you?
(3) Don’t pull out your laptop with a presentation on it or your 3-ring binder with your sales materials. Use the GAINS PROFILE instead! Truly learn something about the person on the other side of the table. It’ll be much more rewarding a relationship for you in the long run.
(4) Provide value to their referrals.
(5) When you do make contact with their referrals, don’t immediately look at them as if they’re going to help you hit your quota. This is not a quality of someone who believes in “Givers Gain”.
(6) Every time someone gives you a referral, try not to hear the noise “Cha-ching”. This is THEIR relationship and they TRUSTED you enough to refer you. Don’t mess it up by being greedy. If you need to do some work up front for free in order to earn the business, do so.
