"Are you really trying to help or just win the business?" --- David Maister, author of The Trusted Advisor

Serve Before Selling

Real value is helping someone 'do their job'.

There is an old saying from Dale Carnegie (How to Win Friends and Influence People): "You'll have more fun and success when you stop trying to get what you want and start helping other people get what they want."

If you really want to market well and ultimately sell something to someone, your effort to find out what they really "want" from you will fall short if you don't start from the position of a real intention to help them out. Helping someone 'do their job' is the ultimate in providing value.

If we begin with the 'end in mind', as Steven Covey tells us we should, we could look at things this way. You've probably all heard the statement "People don't buy drill bits, they buy round holes." That's supposed to mean that they don't buy your product, but rather the benefit it provides. Pulling that example along just a bit further, I submit that they're not really buying round holes. They're buying a birdhouse project, a bathroom renovation, a new painting hung in their den or something akin to that. They 'job they have to do' is not create a round hole but rather to manifest the end game of what that round hole allows them to do.

For the next week, think about each client or customer that you encounter and ask "what job am I here to help them do?" Then get down to helping them do that. I'll be you that you're the only one thinking this way and really looking out for them.

Q&A | QUESTIONS & ACTIONS

What job will you help your customers do this week while being the most helpful firm and generating the most sales?

PLANNING AHEAD?

Each week, we look at what’s coming up a month from now in Chase’s 2010 Calendar of Events to help you plan your promotions in advance.

Daylight Savings Time begins on March 14th! Help your customers by reminding them to set their clocks and if your business deals with appointments, you can be helpful and do a little extra promotion around that time by reminding them of the hour shift in their appointments that week.

 

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