The best way to start selling? Don’t sell. By Timothy B. Miller SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 PRINT / REPRINTS / SHARE ON FACEBOOKSHARE ON TWITTERSHARE ON LINKEDIN | Share MORE PLEASE GO TO; http://www.janiservu.com/ for similar articles!! Advantage Cleaning Services Does Office Cleaning In Alfred, N.Y. 14802!! People change for their own reasons, not yours. No amount of “selling” is going to make a target want to make the change to work with your restoration company. They need good reasons to make that change, and you need to find out what those reasons are before doing anything else. That’s why the sales process for restorers should always begin by taking a non-selling posture. This means that you literally say to your prospects that you don’t know enough about their company’s unique situation to know if you can help them. And that you won’t know until you can have a conversation with them about it. When you say this, you’re making it clear that there is the possibility for a mutually beneficial business relationship, but you’re just not sure yet. You’re not pushing them, and you’re not committing yourself either. Once they realize you’re not going to “sell” them, they let their defenses down and start talking openly. As you continue this non-selling posture, you can ask the target questions about their business and drill down through the answers to find what we like to call “motive”. A lot of times, motive is obvious to the target. They have a particular business obstacle and they know they need to find a solution. Sometimes, though, motive is not clear. Even when it is, your non-selling posture lets you ask questions that uncover more important motives that the target didn’t even know they had. When you uncover those hidden motives, you not only are demonstrating to the prospect that you can be a resource for them, but you’re giving yourself a solid edge over your competition. Remember, they’re too busy “selling” to listen! There is, of course, a time to sell, but doing so too early greatly reduces any chance you might have of building a long term relationship with a target. The time to sell doesn’t come until after both parties have agreed to have a discussion, motive is discovered, investigated and understood, and the target has made a decision to change the way they operate if you can offer a solution. Tim Miller is the president of Business Development Associates, Inc., a marketing consulting firm that works exclusively in the cleaning and restoration industry. He can be reached at tim@gobda.com or (773)777-9956.