How to avoid skepticism in a crowd

... with referrals in hand. Think of the beautyof having a referral come to a function, of seeing a wholebunch of happy campers. The "safety in numbers" syndromewill alleviate all of the skepticism they may have broughtwith'them, I assure you. People will correctly assume thatif all these others like you, then you must be legit.

Get the objections out of the way, right away. There is avery common, but erroneous, assumption in marketing thatyou should never bring up anything that's negative. Thatyou must always be "perfect." Well, I got some bad news foryou. You aren't, and your prospects know it.

Therefore, one of the best things to do in any marketingpiece is to admit your faults and explain why they will notbe a problem. For example: The "professional" thing to sayabout an independent, smaller company is usually, "We offerthe highest level professional service, in a personal way. "

Instead, how about admitting that being small has somedraw backs, but that the benefits outweigh the weaknesses?Like, "Yes, we are small, and we might not have theresources of a huge company, but we can look at the verysmall tasks, while taking care of you in a personal waythat no big company could ever do."

See the difference? By admitting to your fault, you makeprospects feel that you are legitimate, and not full oftypical hot air. Do you think this type of admission will help reduce skepticism? I don't think it does; I know itdoes!

The same idea applies to telling people you won't be tryingto sell them anything at the first meeting, and thenkeeping your promise. If they still have doubts when theycome in, if you do the psychological interview the rightway, you will have wiped any skepticism right off the brain.

Remember, in order to keep skepticism out of the way, youcannot start selling at the first meeting. You cannot! Istill hear from some of you how prospects say, "I just wantto buy for the lowest price, so whad'ya gonna do for me?"And, of course, a salesperson cannot stop and say, "Let'stalk about your overall situation first, before we discussany specific ideas."

No, the salesperson or business owner starts selling, likeeveryone else, and blows the whole deal. People will justlisten to the pitch. And since you haven't done squat toalleviate skepticism that you're nothing more than justanother salesperson, the prospects will also do the usualshopping, delaying and time wasting. .

Now, on the other hand, if you prove to them you are not asalesperson, they will have revised their mental impressionof you and put you in the believable category. This is veryimportant, because believability equals trust. And trustequals money.