I love that movie Jerry McGuire and it amazes me to see how many other people have it on their Facebook favorites. There are so many awesome lines that came out of that movie!

“SHOW ME THE MONEY….!!”

… I hear you say, and rightly so!!

There was one line that has struck me a little more than “Show me the money!” though. It was more that I was confused by it at that age than I felt it being a “secret to success”. This was a comment was made by Dicky Fox. You remember him, he was the old guy who Maguire keeps referring back to as his mentor in the Sports Marketing business they were in.

The comment was “If you don’t love everybody, you can’t sell anybody!”

I will come back to the “Why’s and How’s a little later”

Okay, so if you look at most of the successful entrepreneurs out there, you will notice a few similarities no doubt. One thing that I believe to be in HUGE demand as far as entrepreneurial skill sets is the ability to sell. As an entrepreneur, you are selling yourself, your product, your service, the bank manager on your loan, you are selling your employee’s on your vision and why they should also be passionate about it.

Selling has got to be a major skillset for any entrepreneurial business.

What does strike me sometimes though is how many new entrepreneurs are so swept away with the passion that they have for their business and venture (which is awesome!) , that they break the number 1 rule of selling.

They are so keen to tell you about their product, service, venture or even themselves that they forget that in selling there is an old saying that goes, “You have two ears and one mouth. Use them in that proportion” . It astounds me sometimes (and this is by no means everyone) how some people will come “windmilling” in at you, telling all about the features and benefits of what they do before they have even taken the time to find out about you and whether of not you as a consumer and them as a provider would be a good match.

One truism that I have learnt in selling is that “People LOVE to buy, but HATE to be sold”.

Think about that for a moment:

Is there anything worse than a cold call from someone who wants to sell you a conservatory ( especially when you live in a flat), just as your sitting down for dinner? Come on, we’ve all been there

On the flip side however, us human beings LOVE to buy. Hell, there even an activity that makes you feel better called “Retail therapy!”

We do it and we love it.

So where is the cross over between “being sold to” and “buying”?

The reason I believe that people hate being sold to is that us human’s hate to feel manipulated into something. Or even worse, forced into something. It goes against one of deepest desires – to be free. We may feel that the sales persons motivations are in the wrong place and they are more keen on making commission than having out best interests at heart.

Now, as an entrepreneur, you maybe thinking : “Alright Harrison, enough with the starters! Lets get onto the meat and potatoes – sharpish! How does all the above relay to the Dicky Fox quote?”

And I will tell you.

Any good sales person will tell you that people buy on emotion and justify their purchase with logic. However, we fear sales people who focus on the our emotions of fear or greed or time restrictions… They can use clever NLP techniques to tie us in. They can use reverse psychology techniques, left-brain – right brain assessments, they can mirror and lead us…. all tecniques that can work – to some level.

However, if we come back to the assesement above that people buy on emotion and justify with logic, then I have got to ask you a question

What is the strongest for of human emotions?

What is the emotion that songs are written about? What is the emotion that people are truly prepared to walk through Hellfire and Brimstone for? What is the emotion that people are prepared to die for? What is the only emotion that nobody can’t live without? It’s in our DNA and it’s its every long term success? (Just ask Richard Branson)

The strongest emotion known to Mankind, is LOVE.

Now, for those of you who have just spat out your coffee, not believing that I would write something like this, I am going to take this to the next level!

THIS is my key to success – for you:

If you have a genuine love for your product or service but more importantly, a SERIOUS interest in the best possible outcome for your client – then you will be TRULY successful.

The reasoning for this is that when you have interest in your client’s well being, you want to listen to them. You want to engage with them . You want the best possible outcome for them. You would rather walk away from the client that you couldn’t help to the highest level, than take a commision for a sale you should never have made and you would be prepared to fight tooth and nail to protect them from your competition who you know have inferiour products or services to you.

The reason WHY this is so powerful is that you are not only prepared to walk away from a deal that doesn’t suit your client – which gives you a HUGE abundance mentality but the way you talk about your product or your service, with heart and passion, those words come from a completely different level of energy and conviction than if you are just selling for the paycheck and the client will feel it on a completely different level. A level MUCH deeper than any clever word-trick or closing strategy that you can use.