Sales are mostly contingent on the attitude of the salesman, not the attitude of the buyer. How many times have you seen a pushy salesman that only wanted one thing? To make a commission on you. There is an internal radar in most of us that doesn’t like this. In sales the most important attitude is that of the salesman. Integrity selling is doing what is right and honest for the buyer even if it is not in the salesman’s best interest.
Some of the greatest salesman I have ever encountered were always more about letting the buyer make the decision on his or her own schedule versus trying to push the sale through. Integrity selling is also about getting to know the buyer before selling him something. Getting to know his or her story and about their family and how they got started. I have yet to see someone that will not open up when they asked about the most important things in their lives.
At Hotel AG we have sold a lot of hotels. For me personally, I have sold a lot of hotels but the statistic I am most proud of is the low number of failures of people that have bought hotels through me. There are many of my current clients that have been clients for 15-25 years. I got a call the other day from a client in Nashville that I met in 1992 when we first worked together and he wanted to talk to me about selling his hotels. These are the things that mean the most to me in our line of work.
That client from 1992 worked with me when I was flat broke and needed so desperately to make a sale but I still let the decision be about what was best for him. As you get older like I am, it’s the repeat customers that mean the most because you know you handled it the right way years ago.
The salesman should never take his cue from the buyer, meaning he should never let the buyer set the attitude climate of the meeting. This should always be the salesman and his attitude should always be transparent, open, forthcoming and honest. People can usually tell if they are being mismanaged or lied to and it is the salesman that sets the tempo and mood of the meeting.
Selling is not about the attitude of the buyer, it is about the attitude of the salesman. Just like you, people like to be treated honestly and fairly and they usually respond favorably when they are. KT