Do you know what your customer is thinking of when you call on them for the first time? 

If you don’t, you could be actually turning off your customers, never to want to see you ever again. 

So, I will tell you some stories that happened to me here in Dubai. 

I’ve had people coming into my office from telephone organizations, and they walk in, and the first thing they say is: 

“Hi, I’m from the telephone organization, and we have a promotion”. 

I said:  “Thank you very much. Get out, I don’t have time for that”. 

I’ve had people coming in want to sell advertising space on certain magazines or publications for visibility.

And they really don’t understand that our business does not really get value from putting ads in such publications. 

So the first thing you want to understand when you visit customers, you want to understand what their thinking is?

Look, number one is do not waste my time. Time is a resource that people do not…once people take it, once you consume it, it never comes back. And the last thing that customers want is for someone to be wasting their time.

So there are three things you can do to ensure that you are relevant when you are with the customer. 

And you understand the WIIFM: what’s in it for me, what’s in it for me. 

And basically, at the very basic level is, you know, can you help me make more sales? 

And can you help me reduce my cost, so that I can be more profitable? 

So first thing you want to do is, you want to do a little bit of research to understand the customer’s business. 

So it’s a little bit difficult when someone walks into my office, doesn’t know my business and they just want to tell me about their business and their offers. 

That doesn’t really work. There are so many people offering their products and services. 

So the key is how will you be different than all the other individuals that are just what we call talking brochures, they are just talking at you instead of talking to you. 

Are you guilty of talking at the customer instead of talking to the customers? 

Second thing that you want to do is build trust. 

And the biggest thing that you got to realize is people buying from people they like, and they trust. And the bit on liking and trust, there is a very simple acronym called the HARIC formula.

H stands for honesty, A stands for ability, the R for reliability, the I for intimacy and C for care. 

So how are you able to quickly connect with the customers to establish the honesty, the ability, the reliability? So I understand it’s very quick and very fast. 

And at the very basic level, you got to understand, how can you demonstrate, what do you have, what tools do you have to help drive this level of trust with your customers? 

And the third thing that you can do is simply tie in whatever you’re doing to results, actual value that customers have gained. 

So this is where you want to maybe have stories. 

People that have used our services have been able to save X amount, achieve X amount, drive X amount, saved X amount. 

And here’s some examples show a third party, I would say, brochures, or testimonials or videos that can actually add value to what you’re trying to achieve. 

So in simple terms, the three things that you want to do is you want to show that you understand the customer’s business. 

You want to show that you are trustworthy and you’re not there just to simply sell to them, but you want to get to understand and help them achieve a certain goal or objective. 

And the last thing is you want to make sure that what you are talking about is actually reliable.  Has brought results for others. And people can benefit from that. 

So until next time sell more, sell faster, and profitably.

This is Ramez Helou, coming to you from The Academy for Sales Excellence right here in the Middle East.