invisible forcesThe most powerful forces on Earth are invisible. Forces like gravity, magnetism, and radiation cannot be seen with the naked eye. But that does nothing to diminish their power.

The most powerful forces in sales–and business–are also invisible.

I can see your product, and you can share with me its features, its benefits, and its advantages. You can show me how it is going to make my life better. You can explain to me in great detail the importance of each of its technical specs. But the invisible forces in sales and human relationships still rule.

Do you care about me?

Demonstrating your product doesn’t do anything to show your dream client that you care about them or their desired outcome. In fact, the more you focus on what is visible, the less likely it is that you are making an impact on what is invisible.

Taking time to ask powerful questions to understand your dream client helps to demonstrate that you care. Having an “other-focus” is what influences this force.

Can I trust you?

No one wants to buy something from someone that they don’t trust. Marketers focus on developing a brand that represents trust. But salespeople would do well to avoid relying on the brand alone.

Understand that you are a large part of the value proposition, and that trust is the currency in which salespeople trade. Keeping your word and acting in your dream client’s interest are what builds trust.

These invisible forces have more of an impact on your deal than most of the things we focus on when we sell. And there are other forces at work that you can’t see.

Authority: Someone’s title is no longer a sign of their real authority. The authority to make a buying decision may be spread across all kinds of stakeholders, many of whom don’t have a title that indicates that they have any real authority.

Influence: You can’t see who inside your dream client’s company has influence. You can’t see who is influenced by whom, even though this invisible force is always at work.

Politics: You can’t easily see what kind of internal politics are at work in a complex deal, but in every organization, these invisible conflicts are always in the background. Until something happens that moves them to the foreground.

How much of your effort is directed towards influencing the invisible forces? How do you measure the impact that you are making–or not making–when it comes to the things that you can’t easily see?

Do good work this week, and I’ll see you back here next week.

Anthony Iannarino

www.iannarino.com

 

P.S. I am always hustling my man, Gerhard, from Selling Power to give you a discount to attend the Sales 2.0 conferences. He is always generous when I ask, and this time is no different. If you want to go to the 2.0 conference in Philly on March 16th, click here and use the code s2cai50 to get 50% off admission.

I am working very hard to arrange my schedule to be at the San Francisco 2.0 conference on April 27th and 28th. If I can make it, it will be one of the few public events I do each year. Click here and use the code s2cai50 to get 50% off admission to that event.

P.P.S. Thanks of the notes about missing this newsletter last week. I had a problem with the service I use to send this newsletter each week.

P.P.P.S. I really want you to read this post I wrote about what you need more than you need training in social selling.

 

Contributor Anthony Lannarino is an entrepreneur, speaker, author, and consultant. He writes daily at www.thesalesblog.com and you can subscribe to his newsletter at www.thesalesblog.com/newsletter.