What Attracts More Clients - Selling Or Helping?

 

 

What Attracts More - Selling Or Helping?

 

It’s been said that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care, and it’s true. The interesting consequence is that when you take your focus off of selling and place it on helping, you’ll attract more clients, generate more referrals, and sell more services.

 

 

 

There are many distinctions related to taking a professional, helping approach over a selling approach, and they have significant implications. Professionals help rather than sell. They have clients instead of customers. They build relationships instead of conducting transactions. They offer solutions instead of sales. They attract clients instead of pursuing customers. People buy from them instead in being sold. They find cooperative opportunities instead of competitive obstacles.

 

Think of the implications from these distinctions. We’ve always heard that people do business with people they like, and people like people who help. You’ve heard the term "trusted advisor"? This is what we’re talking about. It occurs when you shift from selling to helping. Imagine having clients who are eager to refer others to you.

 

When you adopt the attitude of a professional and take the focus off the products, guess who the focus falls on? You! You become the service that clients buy. You become valuable. You become a resource.

You become an expert. Clients don’t look to just products for answers, they look to you! One of the greatest challenges in arriving at this mindset is becoming clear as to what makes you unique so you can communicate it effectively to your prospects and clients. I often work with my clients on clarifying their purpose and identifying their unique strengths so that their marketing and leadership is effective.

 

An interesting challenge we face is that we tend to downplay our strengths, especially if they come easily to us. We tend to take them for granted and we tend to assume that everyone has the same (or better) abilities.

 

A very revealing exercise I often ask clients to do is to ask five people they know for five traits that make them excellent at what they do. (My suggestion is to ask people who aren’t family. Ask clients, friends, and associates.) You may be surprised at the results. I find that the responses fall into three categories:

 

1) You’ll hear things about you that you and everyone else already knew and will thereby get confirmation,

 

2) You’ll hear things that you already knew but didn’t think anyone else noticed, giving you new insights as to what people notice and value, and

 

3) You’ll hear things that you never knew about yourself; things that never occurred to you to be a trait that others would value.

 

These traits and insights are the things that set you apart from all the others out there. These are the things that cause people to do business with you. These unique traits will help you be more effective as you contact new prospects, present your ideas, and generate referrals.

 

I find that when people aren’t clear about what sets them apart and aren’t clear about their purpose (In other words, why they do what they do) they end up leading with their products and their company.

 

They rely on the strength and credibility of others instead of leading with themselves. The goal of every professional should be to become credible in their own right. That doesn’t necessarily becoming the foremost expert in their field, but it does mean becoming excellent at what they do as a professional – helping others. It means finding new ways to help. It may even mean helping in ways other than with your profession.

 

The whole point of this is to stop selling  and start helping people. It’s been said that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care, and it’s true. The interesting consequence is that when you take your focus off of selling and place it on helping, you’ll attract more clients, generate more referrals, and sell more services.  Life is good…

 

By Michael Beck

Written by Michael Beck, "Head Zookeeper" at http://www.ClientMonkey.com , a marketing strategies website dedicated to getting more clients, making more money, and having more fun! Receive a FREE program on recruiting & prospecting success at: http://www.PowerRecruitingandProspecting.com

Mr. Beck's credentials include an MBA from the Wharton School of Business along with degrees in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Michael has held a variety of executive positions including CEO, COO, CFO, EVP, VP of Finance, and VP of Business Development. In addition, he worked several years overseas as a Business Advisor to a member of the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia. He is a Founding Member of the International Association of Coaches and a Past-President of the Denver Coach Federation.