THE 10 LAWS OF TRUSTED AUTHORITY SELLING

Success in selling as a trusted authority comes down to attracting customers who come to you already predisposed to want to buy your service.  It is much easier to sell to people who already want what you have to offer, than to try to convince people to buy something they aren’t sure about or don’t really want.  How much easier would it be to engage a new client if you could attract an abundant supply of potential who are already convinced about the value your service offers and that it is a perfect fit for their needs.  There are 10 laws that will help you achieve success in selling by attraction.  Each one creates a positive movement towards success.  Combining all the laws into your selling approach will lead to the highest pinnacle of success.

Law 1 – The Law of Courtship

The authority attraction selling process is about creating clients for the long term, not about making quick transactional sales.  You must promise a long-term benefit from working with you and focus on their needs.  It’s not about you, it’s about them.  Any attempt at self-promotion and telling them how great you are will be an automatic turn-off and push them away.  Don’t expect too much on first date.

You’ve got to pursue enough to win the hand but not to the point of creating unwanted pressure.  Know when your pursuits are not wanted and back off.  Discover the power of multiple contacts and spaced repetition.  Recognition and trust come from regular, positive contact.  Trust comes from predictable, consistent attempts to give someone what they want and need. 

Success will come when you take the time to find out what your prospect wants and you provide exactly what they want, then a bit more than what they expect.  You will start to win their trust when they are convinced you care about their needs more than your own need to make a sale.  To establish this trust at the point of your sales conversation, you need to build a marketing attraction system that educates your potential clients and establishes you as the authority they can trust before they take the step to have that conversation.

Image courtesy of: perpetualplum

Law 2 – The Law of Averages

Selling is a process that involves a number of steps that attract your prospects closer to the sale with each step.  In any group of potential prospects, you will succeed in getting sales opportunities with a regular percentage of those prospects if you consistently follow the right steps.  Once you learn the average conversion rate from each step you can then set your activity level to use the averages to your advantage – eg if you make 2 appointments from 5 calls and you want 4 appointments a week, make sure you make 10 calls a week, every week.

Law 3 – The Law of Repetition – Repetition is the Mother of Skill

The more you perform an activity, the more natural it becomes.  Practice makes perfect.  In selling, the more natural you can be the less concerned you are about what you need to do and the more able you are to be concerned about the needs of your prospect.  Keep practicing your sales scripts and presentations until you have complete mastery of them.  Yes, you should have sales scripts to ensure you are always following the same process.  It’s just like having standard operating procedures for your work processes.  The alternative is “winging it” and you know what happens when you do that.  It takes discipline to get started and keep going, but eventually the rewards pay off and the process becomes self-sustaining.

Law 4 – The Law of Diminishing Returns.

At some point it will be no longer worth chasing any particular prospect or group of suspects. In any group of prospects there are at any one time, only a limited number who are both reachable and receptive.   Part of the process of attracting your ideal clients is to eliminate the potential clients you don’t want.  You’ve probably made the mistake in the past, when trying to grow your client numbers, to think that every client is a good client because they all add to the revenue.  You may still be suffering the legacy of having to work with too many low level clients who waste your time and make your life more difficult than it needs to be.  Allocate your time to get the greatest leverage.  At some point, we need to add more prospects to the pool, so that we don’t waste time attracting low return prospects again and again. Keep your eyes open for new, fresh leads to add to the database.

Law 5 – The Law of Scarcity

Desperation is the killer of sales.  You sell most easily when you do not need a sale.  On the other hand, when you need a sale, success seems to become more elusive. Your need to sell creates pressure that repels sales.  Your indifference to making a particular sale creates a force of attraction that makes prospects want what you have to offer.  In selling, as in courting, playing hard to get makes you more attractive.  Value highly what you supply.  Don’t give it away easily. If you value what you have to offer, your attitude will cause others to perceive a higher value for your product or service than if you are desperate to make a sale.  There will be sufficient demand if you offer what people want at the right price.  If there are enough benefits, enough reasons, enough WIIFMs, people will demand you sell to them.  Scarcity is the most powerful buying motivation. Focus your sales approach on value and scarcity and you will have a sure winner.

Law 6 – The Law of Leverage

Some groups of prospects respond better than others.  Leverage is about using your time and approach to maximise your results.  Identify your ideal prospect groups who respond more readily to your offer to give you greater leverage.   Identify which approach attracts higher quality leads and more conversions.  Then spend your time working with these groups with the best approach instead of just trying to sell to anybody. 

Law 7 – The Law of Power

Authority has power – the power of respect and trust.  You need to position yourself as an authority figure.  The prospect is usually in a state of inertia, unless there is a desperate reason to change.  You must provide a powerful reason to break your prospect free of the inertia.  You have several areas where you can develop power: the power of superior knowledge and expertise, the power of reasons, the power of your voice, the power of positive energy, the power of image, the power of expectation and the power of trust.

Law 8 – The Law of Control

The one who controls the process wins.  As the sales person, you will only win when you maintain authority and control.  There are many ways to maintain control in the marketing and selling process: controlling the education, controlling the conversation, controlling the timing, controlling the relationship.  When you control, you can lead the prospect where you want them to go.  Without control, you lose when they treat you like a servant instead of an authority.

Law 9 – The Law of Abundance

How many prospects are there in your market?  There are normally plenty of fish in the sea.  Most sales people waste valuable time trying to sell to the first prospect who comes along, or to anyone who will listen to them.  Don’t waste time over the ones who aren’t right.  If they aren’t receptive, it could be because they’re not right or because you aren’t using the right bait or tackle.  Use the right offer to attract the right prospects.  Use a qualification process to disqualify prospects who are likely to be unresponsive or not a good fit, so you can spend your time on the most valuable prospects.

Law 10 – The Law of Attraction

Sales are won most effectively through attraction.  You must be careful that everything you do attracts rather than repels.  Use attraction as your mantra.  Avoid repulsion triggers (anything that sounds like a telemarketer or sales person – e.g. How are you today?  Do you have a minute to talk right now? Would you be interested?)  Use attraction methods to draw your prospect’s interest.  Deliver words that attract those who need your services.  Avoid pressure tactics that repel.  Use expressions which show the degree of your care and concern for your customer.  These will attract a positive response and build trust.

Conclusion

By following these ten laws in your sales and marketing systems, you will have a greater chance of attracting your premium clients who will engage you in helping them at the highest level.  You will suffer less price shopping and pressure to lower your prices.  You will find the sales process more enjoyable, comfortable and authentic, where you will never feel like you need to pressure your client into making a decision before they are ready.  If you are struggling to get sufficient numbers of the high level  sales and clients you really want, work on applying these laws.