Growing Your Business: You are Your Unique Selling Point

There are good opportunities every single day to grow your business, and there will be a lot of twists and turns in your journey to be the best.

We’ve all heard it before: network, network, network. In a professional environment, it’s necessary to make connections to get your name into the public consciousness, but there’s a more organic way to create the growth you need.

We hunt for networking opportunities so much that we sometimes forget that the most basic and efficient way to connect is a simple “hello”.

Life is sales, but it’s not just about you.

Everyone has a story. People have jobs, dreams, connections, friends, and family. Every person you meet on the street has the potential to help your business in some way. Everywhere you go you have the opportunity to promote yourself and your service or product.

But people don’t like being “sold”, so what else can you do? How else can you go about attracting a customer without offending people?

People like to shop and they like to buy, but they don’t like being coerced or pressured. That’s why a pushy sales person can have the opposite effect. The potential customer will walk away from high pressure tactics.

You don’t have to use force to make a sale. Simply give the necessary information and show the features and benefits so the customer can make an informed decision.

But there’s more to it.

People buy for emotional reasons.

Lust, greed, pride, desire, vanity, envy, even fear – these are all emotional reasons. Someone may fear losing out on something, they want to keep up with the Joneses, and they want to impress, appear successful, be happier, have more independence, and look better.

Why is this important?

Because you need to know that your job is selling to the heart, not the mind. At least in the beginning.

Everyone has preexisting notions based on their own past events and thoughts. Very often they are not at all rational and later, after buying, they may try to rationalize or justify their purchase in their mind. They don’t want buyer’s remorse. They want to know they made the right decision.

So after the emotional appeal, the biggest secret to successful relationships with your customers is giving them enough data so they feel good about their decisions.

How do you begin?

Start by identifying a desire, fear, or other emotion, then activate that feeling by creating a picture in their mind of how successful they can be with your service or product. You want them to know how this product can satisfy that emotion.

Lead them through it. Don’t spend all your time giving dry statistics. You want them to be able to visualize themselves after buying.

If you’re thinking that price is what motivates people to buy from a certain business, think again. It may be a reason, but it’s not the motive. And neither are your selling skills.

People have many motives other than price, which you can make less of a barrier by understanding any objections they may have. By uncovering customer motives, you can increase sales.

It’s not just about you making a sale. It’s about honestly helping others to see you and your product or service as part of their reality.

We all want the same thing.

Everybody in the world wants the same basic things. And it generally all boils down to health, time, love, money, meaningful work, and God.

Go to the richest billionaire in the world or go to the woman who has five kids in a third world country and ask them the same questions.

Do you want to be healthy or do you want to be diseased?

Do you want to have balance and harmony in your life? Do you want to have some time for the things that you really love doing?

Or do you want to be pulled in fourteen different directions and stressed to the max?

If you could choose between honest loving relationships and relationships where you feel deceived, where you can't quite trust the other person and you feel alone, which would you choose?

Honorable income and finances versus no or low income and mounting debt? Having peace and purpose versus constant anxiety, worry, and feeling like you just don't matter?

It doesn’t matter where you go. All people will pick the same answers. Everyone wants the same thing regardless of where or how they live.

You are the product you’re selling.

Establishing a rapport with your prospects is a great way to establish trust.

• Find common ground; learn to understand and empathize with them. If they trust you they will likely buy from you. Become a friend instead of a salesperson.
• Make them aware of their most focused thoughts and how they may be hindering their own progress.
• Learn how to listen. Don’t just pretend to listen while you’re really thinking of your next move.
• Be sensitive to your client’s mood. Mood can play a key role in decision making.
• Don’t do all the talking. Get them to talk about themselves. Here you will find motives.
• Be friendly. People will relax and feel comfortable around you.
• Be real. Authenticity will create trust.
• Always put your best self forward.

The Law of Projection

You may need to be the right person in the right place at the right time any moment now. And you need to be ready when it happens.

But being in the right place at the right time can often be for the benefit of someone else, and this in turn can ultimately help you.

The truth is that this entire process works because there are natural indisputable laws in place. One of those laws is the Law of Projection and it’s very clear.

Everything you project you get back. Your immediate world is a direct reflection of you.

• Don’t simply wheel and deal. People can see right through that.
• Take a genuine interest in people and get to know them. Let them get to know you and that is when you will form a genuine relationship.
• Don’t go into everything always looking to get something for you.

If you think about that woman in in the third world country, she sees a cement shed as a sign of success. It’s a great step up from a hut with a dirt floor. But she can’t envision living in a Beverly Hills mansion.

Your job is to help your potential customers see themselves with your product or service. If they don’t know something exists because it’s never been shown to them, if they can’t make an emotional connection, they probably won’t make the decision to buy.

Don’t look at this as a selfish thing. Give of yourself first to receive the opportunities that will present themselves to you.

Character counts.

All of us have choices every day about where we can shop and which retailers or restaurants we can patronize.

If you have a choice between two stores that sell essentially the same products, you’ll always choose the store that has the best ambiance, customer service, and the friendliest atmosphere. This even trumps price in many instances.

Developing yourself into a person that others want to be around is a crucial step to success. But you can’t attract success if you don’t have the right character.

To be successful at any level you’re going to need to be aware of your thoughts.

• Aim to help rather than sell. If you’re greedy, people can sense it. If you genuinely want to help others reach their goals, they can sense that, too. Remember, your sales pitch is only a small part of the decision to buy.
• Listen to your head and your heart. Follow your own counsel and believe in your own positive thoughts

If you do these things, you’ll always be headed in the right direction for growth, and you’ll always know what the next correct step is for you.

Ask yourself, “What’s really important to me?” Then craft some character building affirmations around that.

An affirmation is like a prayer or mantra. It’s something you say everyday out of faith that it is true. Here are some examples:

• I put 100 percent of my energy into everything I do.
• There is no limit to my success.
• My ideas are sound.
• I am prolific in my creativity.
• I believe in my talents and abilities.
• I am a loving, caring, good person.
• I truly want to help others reach their goals.

Negative energy is contagious but so is positive energy. Try to flip a customer’s negativity so they leave feeling better.

Surround yourself with positive, driven people every day. Find those people who will be your stepping stones, connections, guides, and mentors because, in the end, there is always more to learn. You just don’t know what you don’t know.