Are you in your customer's Confidence Zone?
Two business owners are vying for the same client. Both are working hard, busy exchanging emails with the client, doing their homework, trying to make sure they make the best possible impression. A lot of money is on the line, and getting this project will secure their financial situation for the next year or two.
But something just happened that changes everything. The client, who knows perfectly well he is being wooed by these two different people, has just sent an email to Suitor #2 that he got from Suitor #1. He is asking Suitor #2 to comment on the email from Suitor #1.
What this means is that Suitor #1 has just lost the sale, because he has left the client's Confidence Zone. The client has gained enough confidence in Suitor #2, and has lost enough confidence in Suitor #1, that he is willing to step over the confidentiality line and show an email from Suitor #1 to Suitor #2.
The Confidence Zone has more influence on sales than any other factor, and yet it is something that is virtually ignored by the usual sales gurus. Most sales training involves teaching salespeople how to interact with customers, using techniques such as "mimicking" them (so they are supposedly comfortable with how you talk and what you say) and "countering" them (overcoming their objections with seemingly sympathetic, but ultimately argumentative approaches). Both of these techniques insult the customer more than they convince him, but that's beside the point for the purposes of this article.
The real problem is that all "techniques" ignore the elephant in the room. The elephant is the customer's level of confidence in the person trying to make the sale. That person could be a business owner or a salesperson; it doesn't matter. What matters is whether the customer trusts that person enough to give them their business.
What builds confidence? What erodes confidence? What makes the customer think, all of the sudden, "Well, that does it. I'm not doing business with this guy"? Here's the list.
1. Honest answers. As long as you are telling the truth, and nothing but the truth, you will remain in the customer's Confidence Zone. As soon as you pretend to know something when you really don't, or you know something but don't want the customer to know it, you are stepping out of the customer's Confidence Zone. You may think you've gotten away with the little fib, and you might have when you actually told the fib, but the customer will find out the truth - probably from the guy who is selling against you, or from a former customer, or from the Internet. The moment the customer realizes you've lied to him, he will mentally remove you from his Confidence Zone - and you won't be let back in.
The customer won't let you know when he's removed you from his Confidence Zone. He'll continue to interact with you, to learn all he can from you, but he won't trust you and he won't give you the sale.
On the other hand, if you are very careful to think before you answer, and always answer truthfully, you will stay in the Confidence Zone. If you don't know, you should say, "I don't know," or "I don't know, but I'll find out," or "I don't know, but I know someone who does know." If something goes wrong, you should immediately and thoroughly admit it to the customer.
2. Experience. If you have truly "been there, done that," you will be able to provide information that is valuable when you answer the customer's questions. I've recently had the opportunity to compare the difference between a vendor who has a great deal of experience versus one who has very little - but wants everyone to think he has a lot. These two vendors are now competing for the same customer, and it's been easy for the vendor with experience to challenge the claims made by the inexperienced vendor, who is guessing but acting like he's not guessing. The customer, aided by the experienced vendor, is no longer impressed. He has mentally removed the wanna-be vendor from his Confidence Zone.
3. Aligned Agendas. If you care only about yourself, and are in business to make yourself feel better about yourself, your agenda will be different than that of your customer.
Your customer doesn't care if your wife is impressed with your career. Your customer doesn't care if you are determined to be a "big dog" in your industry. Your customer doesn't care if you won't have any sense of self-worth if you're not running a certain type of business. None of these things matter one whit to your customer.
If, during the course of the sales process, your customer realizes that your agenda is ego-driven rather than service-driven, you will find yourself outside the Confidence Zone.
4. Respect. Customers can sense whether we respect them or not. If you don't respect your customer, he will know it, and he will not be confident in your recommendations. He will assume that you don't have his best interests at heart.
It is possible to find something to respect in almost everyone, except for those people who are intentionally acting like jerks. If you find a quality you respect, the customer will know it, and you will be allowed to stay in the Confidence Zone.
5. Professionalism. I've spent a lot of time in factories, especially in Silicon Valley, the Northeast, and the Southeast. These factories range from "casual but clean" to "cleanroom spotless" in Silicon Valley. If your customer visits your facilities and they are filthy and unsecured, you will find yourself out of the Confidence Zone. If your correspondence, offices, and mode of dress aren't up to standard, the customer will question your ability to provide professional services. The way you communicate, dress, carry yourself, and maintain your facilities can make the difference between being "in" and being "out."
6. Fiscally responsible. No one wants to bet on a crippled horse. Customers place a "bet" on their vendor of choice, especially when they are buying a large project, product, or service. They don't want to be stuck with something half-finished because you didn't pay your bills properly or manage your cash flow. They want to place an order, and give you money, and then be satisfied with the end result.
If you are lax in your accounting procedures, and they have a way of testing this before making the final decision, you may find yourself out of the Zone. If your estimate seems too low, the customer will run it by someone he trusts - including a competitor - to see if it is unrealistically low. Even during recessionary times, customers are suspicious of too-low prices on high-importance products or services.
7. Responsive. If you don't get back to the customer quickly during the courtship, he will assume that you certainly won't get back quickly after the sale is consummated. He won't have the confidence that you will take care of him when something goes wrong.
When it comes to responsiveness, there are three types of businesses. There are businesses that take care of you during and after the sale; these businesses earn a high level of confidence from customers, and many referrals. There are businesses that take care of you before but not after; these businesses cause customers to lose confidence after the sale, and to warn others not to do business with them. And, there are the businesses that don't take good care of you before or after; any halfway attentive (or naturally skeptical) customer will lose confidence in this business early in their buying process.
It won't take long for a customer to figure out which type of business you are, especially if that potential customer calls your references.
-------------------------
Almost all sales, except for those where price is the only issue (and this is rare) are won or lost because of the Confidence Zone.
It's well worth your time to see where you stand on this issue. Take this list and talk it over with your salespeople. Observe them - and your interactions with customers - and see if you can determine which one of these rules was broken when the sale was lost.
In my experience, you will find that you are either losing sales because one or several salespeople are doing things that make the customer lose confidence, or because all of your salespeople are doing something that makes the customer lose confidence. In the first case, you will (obviously) need to work with each salesperson until their behavior has changed. In the second, you will have to change the information you provide to salespeople or the processes they are using to interact with customers.
It could also be your website or product line that is causing the problem; for example, people might be coming to your website expecting one thing, only to find you are selling something else. This breaks the honesty rule.
If you're really brave, you'll send this article to several existing customers and ask them if they feel you have weaknesses in any of these areas. This is the fastest way to identify the problems, and the changes you must make.
