If you are in business, you need to find (and keep) new clients.
Note how I refer to them as clients and not customers. Customers just buy commodities or services from a provider. However clients look to you for protection, their well-being, guidance and results. The origin of the word “client” comes from the latin “cliens” which denoted a person under the protection and patronage of another.
Incorporating the “Strategy of Preeminence” is essential, and encourages the process of gaining that invaluable trust. It helps you to establish credibility, to create a role as the most trusted adviser for your client.
Jay Abraham, the marketing extraordinaire and business guru created the phrase, and it is focused on the receiver (your client) and what is in their best interest.
He describes it as follows:
“… It boils down to, I am not trying to sell you – I am wanting to serve you. You basically need to change the whole focus of your strategy, subordinating your needs and totally focusing on your clients.
The primary basis for the entire Preeminence Strategy is based upon empathy. Empathy is understanding in a very compassionate way and respectful role how the other side in the transaction feels, sees the situation – what their hopes, dreams, needs, feelings are – expanded far past the mere limitation of the singular transaction you might be engaging in.“
By having their best interests at heart, it will become obvious to your client that you are truly there to help them, to support them, to guide them into making the right decisions. You will then be seen not as giving them information, but as giving advice. Giving advice is definitive and advice is converted into action. You can then tell them “here’s what you should do, and here’s how you should do it, and here’s why”.
Remember, people buy for emotional reasons (benefits). So you have to compel people on an emotional level – they need to see your advice as a solution to a problem they feel emotionally as well as rationally – logic doesn’t make the deal – people initially buy emotionally and justify their decision afterwards with logic. Unfortunately, most sales people do business on a tangible basis and ignore the emotional side.
As Jay says: “Most people fall in love with the deal, instead of their prospect. Of course, this is the exact reverse of what they need to do to achieve the Strategy of Preeminence. Most people think “what do I need to say to get people to make the deal? Instead they should say “What do I have to give? What benefit do I have to render?” The message you want to give is this: “You matter. Your well-being is important to me“
To accomplish this, you must believe that your primary purpose is to contribute great value, not to take their money, but to give them a great outcome or result for what they are doing.
Remember, people are silently thinking “I don’t really know what to do”. They are searching for someone they can trust, someone who understands their point of view, to point them in the right direction, to look after their best interests. By putting yourself in their shoes and understanding where they are at, and then being seen as a leader, as a guru, as a specialist at what you do, they will be compelled to deal with you.
So you have done the hard work and won your client over, gained their trust and helped them meet their emotional “wants”. All you need to do now is carry on looking after them, because as true clients they will remain loyal, will be less price-driven and are more likely to refer you to others. What a great business model!
However, never make the mistake of letting your ego get in the way…
A mistake many unprofessional sales people make as they get more successful is to allow their ego to creep in. This happens when they start not to value other people, when they begin to look at people (clients) as what they can do for “me” instead of what can “I” do for “them”.
As I keep stressing to anyone who cares to listen. No matter what product or service you promote, you need to gain rapport with your prospect in order to gain their trust. Once you have this trust, they will open up to you with their “wants” and you can then show them how you can meet those wants. It is only then that your ability, your knowledge, your leadership comes to serve to help you close the deal, as people will find it comforting to be looked after by a specialist – a specialist they can trust, who has their best interests at heart. By utilizing the Strategy of Preeminence at all times, this incorporates both gaining trust as well as promoting you as their most trusted adviser.
