Do you want to make friends, or do you want to make sales?

There's been a lot of back and forth about the desire to make a sale being at cross purposes with what's in the best interest of the prospect.

The notion seems to be that you can only do one or the other. That if your only intention is to close the deal, than there is no way that you can show that you have concern for the client. I'm going to do my best to try to dispell this nonsense, because the fact is that nothing could be further from the truth once your really understand sales.

First we have to assume some facts to be understood:

1. That your product/service is of value and the prospect would benefit by purchasing it.
2. You prospect is properly qualified as the decision maker.
3. You as a representative of the product are able to present the features and benefits properly.

Let's agree that we are speaking with a business owner and the qualifying factors have been met. His concern is that you have something that could increase his profits or reduce his costs. He has no other reason to speak with you, you didn't meet on eHarmony.

This is the only reason that intelligent business owners make a buying decision. If what you are selling doesn't meet that benchmark, you need to sell something else.

Keep in mind that this is a conversation. Simply because your goal is to close the deal, it doesn't preclude that you aren't having a conversation about how your product/service will be able to meet the end goal of increasing profit or reducing costs.

There seems to be the idea that if you are not "making friends" with the prospect, that you are simply delivering a canned presentation of facts and figures. Basically a one-way message ending with "which card will you be using today" and hanging up to dial the next one regardless of the prospects reply. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I will concede that it may be the case if you are selling newspaper subscriptions or setting appointments for home alarm systems, or cemetery plots. But the vast majority of us are selling professional services to business owners and that requires a different skill set.

Now, all things being equal, if you have shown that your product/service is able to meet a prospects need, if you have provided him with evidence that your proposition is a good choice, if you have answered his objections truthfully, I'm at a lack of understanding as to how I have put my goal to close the deal, ahead of displaying my concern for the prospect.

Once you have gotten to this point with your prospect, it's your obligation as a professional to close the deal. If you prefer, I can put that in more "huggie feelie" terms, it's your obligation to help make it easy for the prospect to buy.

If you're of the mindset that after doing your job perfectly the prospect is going to to ask "who should I make the check out to?" ....You're going to be walking away empty handed in just about every instance.

As salespeople, and as hard as it is for many technoids to admit that's what we are when we're asking someone to buy, it's not our job to make friends. When a business owner gives us an opportunity to have a certain amount of time and attention, he expects to know what it is that you are bringing to the table that will be of value, that's it, nothing else.

If you have made the case that you can save him money or increase his profits, is there a better time to start doing that than right now?

You don't have to show every prospect that you can be a good friend. You have to show that you are a good vendor and can be trusted to perform in the manner you've presented.

I don't have a social relationship with my doctor, dentist, accountant, attorney, or my mechanic. None of them have expressed the interest in having a social relationship with me, nor do I wish to have one with them.

However, on a professional basis, these are the people who I trust to look out for my health, finances, business, and vehicles. This is the same and preferred relationship that I have with my clients.

When I get a referral from a client, the client who refers me never says, he's a great friend and he really cares about me. He says, he does good work and you can count on him to deliver what he promises.

I'm sorry this is such a long post, but I'm quite tired of the characterization that salespeople focused on closing the deal have no concern for the well being of the prospect. These two concepts are not diametrically opposed and if your product/service will put your prospect in a better position, nothing could be further from the truth.