The Secret of Selling

I was talking to one of my client a week ago. We were talking about life, her job and eventually she was talking about her son.

She told me that her son was a car salesman. She told me that he was so successful that the car manufacturer in Japan had his name stuck on their wall. He was selling on average, 39 cars a month. This is an average only, imagine how much he would sell on a good month and some salesman are lucky to sell 10 cars a month.

Immediately in my mind that I thought his son was a sort of mind reader or have some special mind powers that he could manipulate people. I was wrong. The secret that he had was not very obvious and counterintuitive.

The secret of his technique was that he is 100% honest with his customers. I was shocked. I thought you have to manipulate people in buying things they don't want.

If you are honest, you automatically create trust with that person. If you manipulate people, they will build mental barriers towards you. They can't trust anything what you say.

Building trust also means more word of mouth and more repeat business. Have you ever bought something from a person who promise your product to deliver certain results but didn't deliver? Would you go back to see that person again?

Conversely, if a salesperson sells you something and is honest and directly warns you that the product might break down and you might be disappointed with the product. Would you still go back to the same person?