I have a stunning admission to make: I sing in the shower.
There. I said it. I'm a shower singer: Billie Jean; Fly Me to the Moon; The second movement of Brahms' German Requiem; Single Ladies; Birthday Sex; Macarena...they're all in my shower repertoire. Our dog LuLu loves it. My wife? Not so much.
One thing I enjoy about singing in my shower is the standing waves you hit on certain pitches that double or triple the volume of that pitch. If you start with a low pitch and gradually sing to a higher pitch (like a siren going from low to high), you'll discover one note that seems to boom forth within the room. This pitch resonates because of the acoustic properties of the room relative to the wavelength of the actual tone you are singing. We'll call this a resonance point.
But enough about acoustics. How does this apply to selling?
As salespeople, we love to talk. Some would say salespeople talk too much. Much of what we have to say, though, passes in one ear of our customers and out the other ear.
Customers are like diners at a buffet restaurant: they can't eat everything, so they ignore the dishes that don't inspire them and seek out those that do. There's just too much food to focus on everything, so they use selective sight. They allow only the important food (to them) to register in their brain. That's why the bowl with 3 bean salad in it is always full - nobody ever takes any of it. That 3 bean salad is probably a couple years old.
Customers ignore most of what we have to say because many of us simply say too much. There are too many words for the customer to mindfully perceive everything we say, so they use selective hearing, allowing only the important things (to them) to register in their brain's hard drive. The rest of it is like the spam folder in our email's inbox.
But when a customer hears something that's important to them, their attention is inspired, and we've experienced a resonance point within our customer. Resonance points are always filed in the front of the consciousness, along with our social security number, our spouse's birthday (but never the anniversary), and our Twitter login informationn. This is the information that really matters to the customer.
Sales training is fantastic, but sometimes it doesn't focus on creating these resonance points within our prospects and customers, but it should. We need to create and identify these resonance points if we have any hope of having a customer pay mindful attention to what we have to say.
With this in mind, this sales trainer hereby offers six ways to create and identify resonance points in your customers:
1. Look for heightened emotional energy.
A prospect's emotional energy gets revved up when things resonate with them. Look for signs of heightened emotional energy: excitement, faster talking, louder talking, verbosity, smiles, touching your product, touching you, asking questions, paying attention...these are all signs that what you're saying is resonating with the customer.
By the same token, look for signs of no resonance: boredom, fingers over mouth, crossed arms, distractions being allowed to dominate over your conversation (checking cell phone, emails, taking other phone calls, etc.).
2. Use the language of the customer.
I can't stress this enough: customer's word choices exist because of their experience and preference. If you want your words to resonate within your customer, then use the same words your customer uses. If your customer is looking for a "couch", then you are a couch salesperson, not a sofa salesperson. If your customer calls his wife "the wife," then you call her "the wife" when you're speaking to him about her. If your prospect says "I'm supposively going to get a raise next week at my review at work," then you use "supposively" in a sentence, too, even though supposively isn't a word (but many people say "supposively" or "supposebly" when they mean "supposedly").
3. Match the customer's speaking pace and speaking volume.
Fast talkers love other fast talkers. Slow talkers love other slow talkers. Loud talkers love other loud talkers. Soft talkers love other soft talkers. Match them and you're more likely to create resonation points.
4. Make the prospect's needs the foundation of everything you say.
Selling is not about you, your company, or your product nearly as much as it is about your prospect and what they need and desire.
I went into the clothing store this week and bought some much needed new additions to my closet. The sales guy "helping" me has "helped" me before. But the next time I go shopping there, I'm going to call ahead and find out a time when he is not working and make sure I go to the store at one of those times. He is not helpful. He talks about himself. And his merchandise. And never about me. He thinks the way to create sell, and supposedly create resonation points with me, is to talk about himself and his products.
I don't give a rat's ass about him or his products. I care about finding clothes that help me cover my extended stomach and make me look 20 pounds thinner. If he can do that, I'll spend any amount of money I have at his store. If he tells me about how popular his XYZ brand of clothing is, I want to vomit. And one thing is for sure: you're not creating resonation points within your shopper if he's vomiting while you're talking to him.
5. Don't underestimate the value of rapport.
As human beings, we like it when we feel comfortable around other human beings. We like it when we like him or her, when we feel good with him or her, when we trust him or her. When the customer is comfortable, having fun, and engaged, she's more likely to have a resonation point.
Let your prospect see you as being likable, as being worthy of trust, as being fun and worthwhile. When you do, your prospect is more likely to have a resonation point.
6. Don't just act like you understand the customer. Understand the customer.
It's one thing to nod your head in agreement with your prospect, but yet another thing to agree. It's one thing to hear their words, and another thing to understand them. Genuine understanding helps fuel resonation points. Faux understanding helps stamp them out.
If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training.
He works with companies that sell to consumers in
all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.
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