Position Yourself as a Real Professional
The self image is the key
to human personality and human behavior.
Change the self image and you change
the personality and the behavior.
— MAXWELL MALTZ
Top salespeople see themselves as consultants rather than as salespeople. They see themselves as advisors, helpers, counselors, and friends to their clients and customers. They see themselves as problem solvers more than anything else.
Perhaps the most important single determinant of whether or not someone buys from you is how that person thinks and feels about you. In marketing, this is called “positioning.” The position you have in the heart and mind of your customer is determined by the words that your customer uses when he or she thinks about you and describes you to others when you are not there.
Many tens of thousands of customers have been asked how they think and feel about the top salespeople who sell to them. The most common answer that customers give is that they see the best salespeople more as consultants than as salespeople. They see them as valuable knowledge resources in their personal and business lives.
They trust these top professionals to give them good advice in their areas of product or service specialization. Once a customer views you as a consultant and as a friend, he or she will never buy from anyone else, no matter what the small differences might be in price or product/service features.
Early in my career I discovered an amazing psychological principle. I found that people largely accept you, at least initially, at your own evaluation of yourself. In other words, whatever you say about yourself, however you describe yourself, people will usually accept without argument. They will then watch your behavior to make sure that what you say about yourself and the way you behave are consistent with each other.
For example, if you tell me that you are always punctual, I will believe you. I have no reason not to. I will then observe your actual behavior to see how punctual you are. If your behavior is consistent with your claim, I then will accept this as a true statement about you.
When I first learned this principle with regard to being a consultant, I decided to practice it immediately. Up to that time, I had been introducing myself as a salesman, with mixed results and reactions from my prospects. At my very next appointment, I said to my prospect, “Thank you for your time. Please relax. I’m not really here to sell you anything. I see myself more as a consultant than as a salesperson, and all I really want to do is ask you a couple of questions and see if my company can help you in a cost-effective way. But I see myself more as a consultant than as a salesperson.”
From the very first time I described myself as a consultant, my customers treated me differently. They invited me in for coffee and invited me out for lunch. They listened to me far more attentively and were far more open with me when I asked them questions about their needs. They bought from me far more readily and recommended me to their friends. They invited me home to have dinner with their families and placed me in an entirely new category in their minds. And I was only twenty-four years old!
From now on, think of yourself as a consultant. Walk, talk, and behave like a consultant. Dress, groom, and prepare for every sales meeting as if you were a highly paid and competent consultant and advisor in your field—because you are. When people ask you what you do, tell them proudly “I’m a consultant.”
I taught this principle not long ago to the manager of a company that sold roofing and shingles. He liked the idea so much, he went back to the office, gathered up all the salespeople’s business cards and replaced them with new cards that had the words “Exterior Cladding Consultant” on them. He told me that within thirty days, the atmosphere in his whole company changed. The salespeople began treating each other differently. They behaved differently toward their customers as well when they saw themselves as consultants. In the first month after this change, their sales increased 32 percent.
Remember the first rule of self-image psychology: The person you see is the person you will be. Your self-image, the person you see yourself as on the inside, will determine how you behave on the outside.
The best positioning you can have among your prospects and customers is that of an expert, an authority in your area of expertise. Your customers look to you, as a consultant, to give them valuable advice they can use to improve their work or life in a cost-effective way. When you walk, talk, and act like a consultant, you set yourself apart from people who see themselves as salespeople. You begin moving into the top 10 percent in your field.
ACTION EXERCISES
From this moment forward, see yourself as a consultant in your profession and for your company. Instead of trying to sell your products or services, ask good questions about what your prospects are doing today and look for ways to help them achieve their goals with what you sell.
Position yourself as a consultant, working for and with a prospect to advise him or her on the right course of action. Use words like “we” and “us” and “our.” Make suggestions and recommendations such as “What I would recommend that we do now is the following.” Be a helper and a counselor rather than a salesperson.
Above all, position yourself as a problem solver. Focus on identifying a problem of the prospect for which your product or service is the ideal solution. Then show the prospect how much better off he or she can be by using what you sell.
