There are steps involved with making prospects and clients comfortable with you. You can’t go from, “I have no idea who you are,” to “I’m completely comfortable with you and I trust you implicitly” without steps. It just doesn’t happen.
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David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Bianca Istvan and I will be discussing the topic of making prospects and clients comfortable with you. Welcome back, Bianca.
Bianca: Thank you so much, David.
Definitely one of my favorite topics. And please tell us, what does it take to make prospects comfortable with us?
David: Yeah, that’s sort of a magic key, isn’t it? What does it take? Well, I think it takes desire, certainly starts with the desire to want to do it, because a lot of times we’re just so focused on selling what it is that we want to sell that we don’t really think about that too much.
We just think in terms of introducing ourselves and letting them know what we do and hoping that they’re going to want to buy it. But so much of that, can never really happen until and unless we get to the point where they’re comfortable enough to even want to hear what it is that we have to offer.
Bianca: Well, that’s absolutely great. And yeah, I definitely agree with you. So who do we need to do this with?
David: Pretty much everyone, pretty much every prospect, every client we ever interact with, we need to create a level of comfort.
In some of my early training, I talked about sort of four levels, if you picture a target with archery practice it’s a series of rings and outside the rings, there’s this area outside the target. That I think of as total obscurity. They don’t know who you are. They don’t know what you do.
They have no idea why they should do business with you at all. So that’s sort of outside the target. And then the first level inside the target is recognition. They recognize that you’re alive. They recognize that you’re taking in air on the planet, but they don’t know exactly what you do or how you do it, or if they should use you at all.
They just recognize you. Okay, I recognize you. So you move from obscurity to recognition. That’s sort of the first step. And then after they recognize you, then you can start to move to comfort. Because until I even know who you are, there’s no way I’m going to feel comfortable with you. So there’s that next level.
So you move from obscurity to recognition, and then recognition to comfort. And then from Comfort, you can eventually, if you do your job well and consistently, you can get to loyalty, right? We didn’t even talk about loyalty in the topic today, but ultimately that’s kind of the goal.
And Comfort is one of the steps we need to get through in order to get to any sort of level of customer loyalty. But when we talk about making prospects and clients feel comfortable with us, it really is a process.
And in our total market domination training, we talk about different methods of interaction. In other words, we have entry level awareness.
So entry level awareness is designed to make someone aware of the fact that we exist and we do what we do. From there, we can then move on to that comfort level awareness, which is designed to expand the relationship a little more.
Okay, I know who you are, I know what you do, and now I feel comfortable enough with you to place that first time order with you.
And then once that happens, if I deliver well and consistently, and then you order again, and I deliver well and consistently, then eventually that can lead to loyalty. But I think a lot of it goes to recognizing that there are steps involved here. You can’t go from, I have no idea who you are, to I’m completely comfortable with you and I trust you implicitly.
It just doesn’t happen.
Bianca: Wow. And that’s a great answer, but I know for some people it may be like a lot. So how do we really do it?
David: How do we create that level of comfort?
Bianca: Yes.
David: A lot of it comes from our interactions and asking ourselves, how can we create value in our communications with people? If all we’re talking about is what we do and how we do it and why people should buy from us, we’re going to lose them.
It’s like, you’ve lost me at hello. So creating that level of comfort is about finding out about them, finding out what they need, what they like, what they’re looking to accomplish, and then not even trying to sell them anything until we’ve determined that they have some sort of a need. I That gets into a whole qualification procedure and things like that, which is the subject of another podcast.
But that level of comfort, it requires interaction, requires having conversations with people that let them know that you’re a human being and you’re there to help. And if you can help them, you will. And if you can’t help them, you’ll let them know that too. So that if they feel like your only purpose for interacting with them is to sell them something, you’re not going to create that level of comfort.
Bianca: And this is so true. So thanks again, David . But you know, what about people who just feel like they can’t do it? Like people who actually struggle with this.
David: If you’re struggling to interact with people in a way that allows them to be comfortable and allows you to be comfortable, You want to start by asking yourself, why is that the case?
Am I not confident enough in the products and services that I’m offering? Am I not confident enough in my knowledge about those products and services? Am I not confident or comfortable enough in the questions that I’m asking people to try to get to the heart of what it is that they really need and what they’re looking to accomplish?
Normally. It’s about your relationship with the other person. One of the first live training sessions that I ever did, it was at an ASI show in Las Vegas, a lot of years ago, and I was doing the full day new distributor training for that show. And I got up there and I was so excited to be able to present the topic that I just went at it, And it was basically six hours.
It was four 90 minute sessions that took place over the period of the day from nine to noon, and then from like one till four, whatever it was. And at the end of the presentation, somebody came up to me and they said, wow, I really enjoyed that presentation, but weren’t you nervous when you were doing that?
And I wasn’t nervous. And the reason I wasn’t nervous is because it was all about them. I wasn’t thinking about, Oh, am I going to say the wrong thing? Or, Oh, what if this happens? Or what if that happens? I was thinking, I wish that someone would have told me this when I was starting out in the business.
And so I think if you’re able to keep it about them and not yourself, you’re going to make them a lot more comfortable.
Bianca: Wow. Thank you so much for providing so much value, David. And what would you recommend for the next steps?
David: Well, for your next steps, if you’re just looking to allow people to feel more comfortable with you, ask yourself, what do I need to be doing better and differently to focus on my prospects, focus on them to try to find out what they need and how you can help them.
And be honest enough to be able to say to them, if you can’t help them, let them know that so they don’t feel like you’re just in it for the money. So, so much of that is really about creating relationships, which is probably another subject for another podcast, but it has to start with that. The only way that you create comfort with people is being open enough and being honest enough with them to let them know that if you can help them, you want to do that.
And if you can’t. that’s okay too.
Bianca: Well, thank you so much, David. And one more question for you. What’s the best way for people to reach out to us?
David: Well, you can go to TopSecrets.com/call, schedule a call with us to find out, if you’re in a situation where you need to be able to bring new customers through the door like clockwork.
And if you’re not comfortable or confident enough to be able to do that, we can certainly walk you through a series of questions to try to figure out If what we have to offer is of value to you, and once again, if it is, we’ll be happy to tell you that. If it’s not, we’ll tell you that too, because we’re not trying to bang a square peg into a round hole here.
If what we can do for you will allow you to achieve the results you’re looking for, we’d be happy to do it. So once again, it’s TopSecrets.com/call.
Bianca: Thank you so much, David.
David: Thank you, Bianca.
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