Salespeople Come Across As Greedy - Here's How To Avoid That Problem

Yes, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re being GREEDY – and it’s HURTING you!

This really hit home over the past year as I’ve been attending lots of networking events in order to meet other like-minded people since relocating to a new city.

Inevitably, at these events, everyone WANTS something. Few people are GIVING. Most are GREEDY.

Yesterday though, an appointment cancelled, so to fill in the time slot, I jumped on Meetup and found a nearby lunch group and dropped in. This one surprised me. It wasn’t about TAKING.

The focus of the group was on GIVING.

Sure, it started out with the old lame routine of going around the room and having everyone give their “30-second commercials.”

But once that was completed, the focus shifted to to see who could GIVE the most referrals!

I thought to myself, “Now this is a group I can get on board with!” In fact, even though I showed up unannounced and it was my first time, I walked out with three solid referrals: One for sales coaching, one for speaking, and one for business lead generation.

(In all fairness, half the people there know knew I am, have my books, and so on, but still, this has NEVER happened at another networking function.)

And therein lies the problem with cold calling.

When you make a cold call, what you’re REALLY sub-communicating to the prospect is, “I need a sale!” Or, “I want a sale!” And that makes you look greedy – and even worse, needy! Desperate!

The successful salesperson never tries to GET. Instead, the successful salesperson GIVES VALUE FIRST even before thinking about what they might “get” in return. In the real world, if you give value first, there is no “taking” at all. The prospect willingly buys from you because they see that there’s something in it for them.

Let me repeat: The ONLY reason people buy is because there’s something in it for them!

You can bet your life that those three people who so generously gave me hot referrals will get many more in return from me. That’s because they willingly gave me something of value, without expecting nor requesting anything in return from me.

When you’re cold calling, however, the exact opposite happens. It’s completely obvious to the prospect that you’re out to “get” rather than to give value.

They know full well that if you were a person who gives value first, you’d be out servicing your existing customers. Or you’d be at a networking group, giving out referrals like those generous people gave me yesterday.

Cold calling removes all value from the equation and sends a message that you’re there only for YOUR benefit, not theirs. They won’t see value, they won’t trust you, and they won’t buy.

No one will ever buy because you want or need a sale. They’ll only buy because they see a gain in buying from you. So always strive to give value first. And remember that no matter how much value you can offer a prospect, if your approach is via a typical cold call, the context of your delivery will kill your chances every time.

So stop cold calling, start giving value first, and watch the sales start rolling in!

To your success,

Frank Rumbauskas