Recently, the news media, and even some of our government officials, have been agog about what they call “Fake News.”  In the current, working definition, “Fake News” is a story that has no basis in reality, but is designed to play into political beliefs; for instance, “(Candidate X) smells like old cabbage.”  What these media sources are saying is that one should only pay attention to media sources with CREDIBILITY.  Interesting concept, and I’ll get back to it in a moment.  The problem comes in when you fact-check some stories from a “Credible” media outlet, and they too come up wanting.

You see, the most desirable characteristic in news media is the same as the most desirable characteristic in selling.  I’m often asked what the #1 characteristic a salesperson needed to possess to succeed with his or her customers.  Most people expect me to say, “Trust,” but I didn’t.  I said, “Credibility.”

My definition of credibility is this:  Credibility means that people believe what you are saying because it is you that says it.  They don’t feel the need to check your sources, research your facts and claims, etc.  Credibility means that, in the customer’s mind, “Troy said it.  That’s good enough for me.”  You might be wondering, “Isn’t that just another word for trust?”  My reply would be, “No, not at all.  Credibility works at a higher level than trust.  Trust is simply one of the prerequisites for credibility.”

In professional selling, trust means that the customer believes that you would not intentionally steer them wrong, and that you have their best interests at heart. That word, “intentionally,” is a big deal.  “Trust” means that the customer allows for you to make mistakes in your verbiage, in your claims, in your references, and in your recommendations – and if the customer allows for these mistakes, that means that they will back-check at least some of those potential mistakes.  You cannot have credibility without trust, but you can have trust without credibility.

See the difference?  Credibility means that they don’t back-check you.  This is desirable not just for you, but for the customer.  Just as it’s a lot of work to back-check a suspect news story, it can be a lot of work to back-check the claims of a salesperson.  Many customers will solve this time crunch by opting out of both the salesperson and the transaction. Can we agree, then, that credibility is a much higher level of dialogue with the customer?  Let’s talk about how to achieve it.

First, achieving credibility means taking something of a sales Hippocratic oath:  “First, do no harm.”  In sales, that could mean, “First, make no false statements.”  This is a big problem for salespeople for a couple of reasons.  The first reason is that salespeople want to be seen as experts – even if they’re not.  Now, I’ve said before that becoming an expertise provider should be the goal of every salesperson; part of expertise, however, is realizing what you don’t know.  The salesperson who decides to “wing it” and gives a false answer forever calls his claims into question.

The second reason is that salespeople fear giving the “I’ll get you that answer” answer to a question because it can slow down the selling process.  Well….maybe it does, and maybe it doesn’t.  The advent of technology means that we can be far more prepared with resources to answer questions than we used to be.  I once sold for a distributor of bearings and power transmission products that represented and stocked over 150 product lines.  If I needed technical information on all of them, my car wouldn’t have been able to store all the catalogs and technical documents I needed!

Today, however, we can carry all those documents – or access to them – on a smartphone.  Think about it for a minute.  What if you carried all your technical information on micro-SD cards (or whatever memory source your phone takes), labeled, so that if you had a particularly tough question to answer, you could simply load the proper document on your phone and give the CORRECT answer?  That wouldn’t slow the process and your customer would respect your efforts.  This, by the way, is one way that even rookie salespeople can generate credibility very quickly.

Another way of generating credibility is getting in front of particular problems.  If there is going to be a problem such as a delayed delivery, incorrect product spec, etc., the credible salesperson finds out about it before the customer, and communicates with the customer as soon as possible – rather than just letting the delivery happen incorrectly and letting everything hit the fan.

A third way of generating credibility is never throwing your team members under the bus to the customer.  This is difficult, but it’s the most common way I see that salespeople blow any potential for credibility.  You win as a team, and you lose as a team – and when you lose, the credible salesperson says, “we messed up,” not “they messed up.”  Take the lumps for everyone else – and then, fix problems in-house and behind closed doors.

Finally – and I know that this will hit some of you hard – credible salespeople stay at their jobs for a reasonable period of time.  I talk to a lot of salespeople who change jobs on a frequent basis, and it hurts your credibility, both in the interview process and in the selling process.  If you’re going back to your customers on an annual basis and saying, “Guess what – I’m selling something different now!”, you’re not going to have any credibility whatsoever.

Gaining credibility requires more than sales skills.  It requires discipline in your actions and your conversations.  It is, however, worth the effort, because it’s the highest level of business relationship you can achieve.

What will your 2017 look like?  Right now, I’m willing to bet that everyone reading this has projected that 2017 will be your best year ever.  Me too.  I’m also willing to bet that by April 1 – if not sooner – most of you will be saying, “Well, I can still hit my projections, if I have a solid last part of the year.”  Then by October, you’ll be saying, “Well, things will get better in 2018.”  I’m not saying this to put you down.  I’m saying this as the result of something I discovered recently.  More about that in a moment.

You see, most business owners – and salespeople, and sales managers – depend on EXTERNAL factors to lift their boats.  I just got back from a big trade show in Las Vegas, and the common theme that I heard was that “2017 was going to be a great year.”  When I asked why, they’d say, “Because the economy is going to be very strong.”  I happen to agree with that sentiment – but I always wonder what we can do to make our OWN economy.  This leads back to my discovery.

I’m going to step outside my normal mode here of ‘how to’ articles, and talk about my own business and something I’ve done recently.  I’ve had a lot of discussions with potential clients in the last two years, and I’ve done pretty well in winnning new projects with new customers.  My closing percentage on proposals is well over 50%, and I suppose it ought to be, if I’m trying to teach you how to sell, don’t you think?

Still, “well over 50%” isn’t 100%.  As much as I wish I didn’t, I lose sales, too.  We’re all living in the real world here.  When I counted my losses over the last two years, I found that I had 33 proposals that did not result in a ‘yes’ answer.  That bothers me; that means there were 33 business owners that didn’t see the value in working with me.  And these were business owners who had needs.

Some (most) needed to turn around an underperforming sales force.  These were comprehensive projects that included consulting, coaching, and training.

Some wanted training for salespeople or sales managers.

Some wanted individual coaching and consulting for themselves.

Some wanted help in hiring people.

ALL of them had unmet needs and goals.

Whether they were trying to build value in their business to sell and have a comfortable retirement, or whether they wanted to maximize profit to enjoy a better lifestyle, or perhaps they wanted to set the business up for success for the next generation of their family, they all had needs.

I decided to do some follow-up.  I decided to call each of the 33 to see if, and how, they met those needs, if they didn’t invest in work with me.  The results were pretty depressing.

I got ahold of 26 of the 33, which I figure is a good ratio.  Two of the companies were – unfortunately – out of business, so that answered every question I had for those owners.  Out of the 26 that I called, I reminded them of the goals they had when we talked, and I asked them how they achieved those goals.

The answer shocked me.  ONLY ONE of those 26 had hit their goals, and they did so by choosing a different coach.  That’s fair enough.  I’m not for everyone, and everyone isn’t for me.  To be honest, this was the least upsetting answer that I received.

More common was an answer that, “Oh, well, we didn’t hit our numbers because, you know, the economy.”  In other words, these business owners decided to play it safe, do nothing different, and defer their dreams and goals for a day when some undefined outside source would carry them to prosperity. How mediocre.  There’s nothing worse than just settling for being blown along with the wind.

That, however, wasn’t as bad as the answer I received from four of my contacts.  Four of these business owners confessed that they wished mightily that they’d worked with me back then, WHEN THEY HAD THE MONEY (I’m not cheap but I generate ROI).  Now, no matter how much they wanted to, they simply didn’t have the cash in the bank.  I suspect that in another year these phone numbers will be disconnected as well.

I’ve been reviewing those sales, examining my own efforts, and wondering what I did wrong.  Should I have closed harder?  Should I have presented more aggressively, or maybe asked a question that I neglected to ask?  At this point, it’s hard to say, and it won’t make much difference.  I will say that two of the 26 have engaged me now, so there was a profit to the exercise (and that, too, should be a lesson to you – don’t neglect past prospects as a source of future business).

So now that I’ve given you a peek behind the curtain, I have some questions for YOU.

How confident are you that your 2017 will be what you want it to be?

What are you going to do differently to help you get there?  Don’t give me bilge about ‘the economy.’  MAKE the year be what you want it to be!

If you need outside help, are you going to engage that help?  If not, why not?  In fact, let me say this:  If you need outside help to achieve your goals and your dreams, there is no excuse for not getting it.  If I’m not too proud to use outside help (and I’m not), you shouldn’t be either.  Get the help you need.

More to the point:

If you’re a business owner, have we talked?  If not, why not?  Contact me today.  I’m a nice guy – really – and I’ll be happy to give you a free phone consultation to see if I can help.

If you’re a salesperson, have you looked at my products to help you sell more and build better relationships?  You can buy them here – and I’ve even extended my New Year’s sale to help you afford them.

My pledge to you is this – I’ve learned many things from these 26 calls, including identifying service offerings that might have made the difference.  Look for these new service offerings in the first quarter of 2017.  There’s nothing I hate more than calling past lost sales and hearing about goals unreached, dreams deferred, and battles unwon.  I want to help you reach, achieve, and win.  That’s my theme for 2017.