Every so often, there’s a news story about a husband or wife getting shot by their spouse because they mistook them for a burglar sneaking in. While I agree it does seem to be a questionable mistake, I am certain that most people who truly believed a real intruder was in their home wouldn’t hesitate to at least attempt to defend themselves in some way – particularly if the intruder showed up unexpectedly and without announcing themselves before entering.
In business, salespeople are considered unwelcome intruders too and are often “shot on sight” upon entering, either by being blocked, yelled at, lied to or simply ignored – so if you want to give yourself the BEST advantage in sales, you need to do everything within your power to NOT appear to be in sales at all.
Yet, what do most sales training books, seminars and videos teach you? How to be a better SALESPERSON. And despite the fact that all MSPs walking around FEEL they CAN be trusted, they do very little to create trust in their sales and marketing. Most of it is still features and benefits, what we do and (if they are even slightly advanced) why we’re better than everyone else.
While all of that is fine to a certain degree, the way to give yourself a significant advantage over all of your competition and make selling and closing infinitely easier is to implement marketing strategies that don’t position you as a salesperson at all, but instead a trusted advisor, a “slightly famous” expert who can be relied upon to do the right thing. But HOW?
For starters, you need to stop acting like, talking like and marketing like a typical salesperson. Here’s a short list of sales signals you’re giving off:
- You have no authority marketing pieces. Salespeople have business cards and brochures. Trusted authorities have white papers, research and reports. They author books and deliver educational presentations. If they are a TRUE “celebrity” expert, they are interviewed on TV and radio, and are quoted by trade publications and news outlets.
- You have no diagnostic process. Salespeople show up and just start selling whatever wares they have in their wagon. They deliver proposals and quotes. They have product expertise, but not PROBLEM-solving expertise. Advisors always take prospects through a diagnostic process BEFORE they distill any advice. They ask a lot of diagnostic questions and prescribe custom solutions to problems rather than pushing whatever goods they have to sell. Now, you might think you have a diagnostic process, but from my experience, better than 80% of the MSPs out there selling ask NO diagnostic questions and do NOT deliver full assessments of a prospect’s situation before they start pitching.
- You have no specialization. Experts have one thing in common – they specialize. If you want to be an authority, you need to pick a lane. Generalists in every category of business get paid the least. The general “doc in the box” at the MinuteClinic might get a salary of $200K. The neurosurgeon commands $750,000 to $850,000 – nearly 4 times as much – and sees far fewer patients. Most MSPs are generalists and struggle to choose one area of expertise, and because of that, they lose a lot of power they would otherwise have in being a true specialist in either a particular niche or in solving a specific problem.
Of course, these are just a few of the ways MSPs destroy trust and end up labeling themselves as just another salesperson. Others include being the “best-kept secret” in their market area, being too eager and willing to cave on their advice and using “salesperson”-type marketing and advertising that positions them as just another vendor rather than a trusted advisor, a specialist.
If you want to know how to change the game of selling to ensure you are positioned properly to prospects, then I suggest you take action TODAY and get registered for the IT Sales and Marketing Boot Camp, virtually or in person.
During this event I will be delivering a deep dive presentation on how to take a more powerful and sophisticated approach to marketing so you can put yourself in a more trusted and authoritative light, which will deliver you better qualified prospects that are presold and ready to take your advice at any cost. You can get the full details here: www.RobinsBigSeminar.com.
