Traditional sales is all about "What's in it for me?" A different mindset that can be hugely beneficial is, "If you want to get more, you must first give more."
A client of mine that's a contractor got a phone call a while back from Dave Ramsey's corporate office. In the past, he and his wife had been volunteers at their local church for Financial Peace University.
The guy said, "It's been a while since your church put on a class. Is there any way you would want to run one again?"
My client shared why it didn't and gave him some basic, relevant information about his church. But then he started thinking, "What can I still do to help this guy out?"
He shared that he'd recently done some work for another church in the area. He asked the guy if he had any contacts at that church or if they were doing anything with them already. He didn't, and they weren't. So my client told him he knew some of the pastors and asked if any of those connections would be useful.
He said they would, so my client shared the information, then they ended the phone call.
Now, if you don't know, Dave Ramsey is based out of Tennessee. My office and this client of mine are in the Oklahoma City area.
So you can imagine his surprise when a couple hours later, he got a call from someone in the OKC area looking for a contractor, and he found out that the guy in Tennessee referred him.
During that first call with the person from Dave Ramsey's corporate office, my client could have said, "No thanks, not interested, bye!" But he's been in business a long time and has a different mindset about helping others. His natural instinct is to think, "Is there any other way I can help this person?"
When you change the traditional dynamic of "What's in it for me?" to "How can I help?" it greatly changes your outcomes.
Crandall is the Principal of Sandler in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He works with business owners and motivated individuals to create and implement Professional Development Strategies to foster the growth of individuals, teams, and organizations.
