Today on The Bigg Success Show, we continued our conversation with Bob Burg, the co-author of the great new book Go Givers Sell More. Last time, Bob dispelled the common perception that selling is a bad thing (See Part 1). He said sales isn’t about getting; it’s about giving – giving time, attention and value. Now let’s get back to the conversation …

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 Hear Bob Burg talk with George & Mary-Lynn on The Bigg Success Show! Click the player to listen while you read [5:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Bob, let me throw this real world obstacle at you. I have a friend who’s a hair stylist. She worked at a company where she built great relationships and always had a full book. But she also had some upsell quotas that she had to meet. If she didn’t meet those quotas, they would write her up. I think a lot of people in sales face these behind-the-scenes pressures.

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If it’s a quota in terms of upselling, the challenge is with the leadership. An upsell is a great thing when it’s of value to the consumer. When you walk into a McDonald’s and you order a hamburger, hopefully the person will say, “Would you like fries with that?” If that sounds like a good idea – great. That’s something you didn’t think of before. If they then say, “Oh by the way, our hot apple pies are just wonderful today. Would you like one?” If that’s something you would like – great. But I would hope that the person at McDonald’s wouldn’t be docked because the person said “no”. An upsell is there for the benefit of the customer and, of course, it benefits the company because it’s a great profit center without any additional expenditure. It works for both. Unfortunately when you have a quota for that – which means that you have to force that into the situation – now we’re talking about a negative thing. When you’re offering it because it’s genuinely of help to the consumer – and they have a right to say “yes” or “no” but it’s about them, not about you – now we’re talking about a positive.

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Short-term and long-term

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Is this more of a long-term rather than a short-term strategy?

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I would challenge that. By the way, you’re not the only one who has said that; many people say it. There’s a premise there that using these Go-Giver strategies means it’s not going to be as bigg a payoff in the short-term because you’re focused on the other person. I don’t agree with that. You’re focusing on adding value to the other person. Salespeople don’t do well when they’re totally focused on themselves. The prospect can sense it. You can pressure some people into buying but you’re not going to do business with them for long and they’ll probably rescind the second they walk out the door. In the book, we take a realtor who’s trying to sell a home and look at a negative and a positive process. In the negative one, the realtor is argumentative. The client says, “I think the house is too far from town.” The realtor says, “Actually it’s only ten miles away; not very far at all.” The client responds: “We like to feel really close to where everything is.” The realtor comes back: “Not a problem. You’re only twenty minutes away.” That’s not effective.

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Right, they aren’t listening.

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So that’s not even good in the short term. That was arm wrestling, not questioning. Let’s say the client says, “I think the house is too far from town.” The realtor says, “How so? What are you thinking?” The client responds: “We love the home but we like to feel really close to where everything is.” The realtor comes back: “Sounds like that’s really important to you. So when you say ‘where everything is’, are there some specific things you’re thinking of?” Now that’s a whole different thing. Who’s that person going to be more likely to buy from? In my opinion, they’re going to buy from the person who seems genuinely interested in them, not the person who’s trying to argue them into a sale.

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We highly recommend Bob’s book but why take our word for it? You can download a free chapter of Go Givers Sell More and test drive it for yourself!

Next time, we’ll wrap up our conservation with Bob (see Part 3). He’ll tell us what a Go-Giver is not and explain what a McGuffin is.

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