You Need ME...I DON'T Need YOU!

"You need me, I DON'T need you", is the attitude top sales pro's need to convey to themselves when negotiating and dealing with prospects. Desparation and "dropping your pants" on price and ccncessions is what 95% of all others do in their sales and entrepreneurial careers and that is why they will always struggle.

Don't believe me? I am a perfect example. As a BUYER.


TRUE STORY:

My wife Paula and I were at Patong Beach (Phuket, Thailand) last week, walking down the street that was directly across the beach, and dreaded every second of it. Why? Because we knew that the minute we made that trek that EVERY store owner, taxi driver and anyone else that looked Thai was going to try an sell us something. Like every other person walking the "gauntlet", we had blinders on and looked forward, never making eye contact and when necessary, exploding in saracasm and anger when they got too close to me or asked me the same stupid question like

"Yo man, where you from?" Like they cared. So I would bellow back, "I am from %&$% Cambodia, why?!"

These folks were masters at what I called Sales Prevention. So desparate to make a buck that they would do anything or say anything to get your business or get your attention and in doing so only pushed you that much further away.

Well, we had walked the Gauntlet numerous times and understood just what we were getting ourselves into but this day we had a purpose. We wanted to get a price quote for a taxi to the boat pier (where we would catch our speed boat to Kho Phi Phi Island). Now mind you, the street was littered with 4 taxi's for every tourist and we had 5-6 people at a time yelling in our direction "Taxi...Taxi...Taxi...Taxi...." to the point I wanted to yell "SHUT THE %$#$ UP!!!" So guess what? We ignored them, due to their pushyness, desparation and our inability to even begin a conversation with them on price. That is until we got a little further and there sitting on a stone wall was a man without a care in the world. He just looked at us, then calmly looked passed us without saying a word. INVITING us to ask a question. So Paula asked him for the price quote and if he was available at 12 to take us to the pier. He gave us a fair price, locked down the time and that was that. He showed up on time and got us to the boat on time and closed the sale with us without having to say a thing. Why? Simple. He gave off the persona that "you need me, I don't need you. You want what I got? Let's talk."

After we "closed the deal" with him, Paula said to me; "you know why I went with him? Because he didn't get in my face. He wasn't so damn pushy."


Let that be a lesson. The harder you push a prospect and the harder you push your product and service on them, the more they will push back. That is why the Ritz Carlton, Mercedes Benz, Bentley, Rolex and other premimum brands succeed over and above their competitors. They put together a solid USP backed by a message that resonates with their target audience. "If you want the best, you can get it here. Take your time."

As a sales and marketing speaker I take that same approach, that is why I am consistently booked all over the world and my so called "competition" beg, grovel and plead for business through pathetic speaker bureaus and The National Speakers Association. I separate from this so-called "competition" with a far better product but more importantly, far better marketing. You need to start thinking the same way. Make your prospect WANT YOU more than YOU WANT THEM and you will be swimming in $$$$.