This is the last part of the series. We will be talking about potential business partners.
Business partnering in a way is like dating. Nobody wants to “date down”. And if they feel they do, they are very likely to treat their dating partner in a patronizing manner, avoid commitments and see the relationship as casual, temporary. They might even feel that by giving their partner any small token of attention, they are doing their “insignificant other” a grand favor for which their dating partner should be eternally grateful.
This is pretty much what happens in a business relationship where one side feels like they are “dating down”.
If your potential business partner feels superior to you, they will either avoid building a long-term business relationship with you, or will only agree to a relationship that would place you at a serious disadvantage. Either way, there is a high probability they will not be open and straightforward with you.
On the other hand, if a potential business partner feels inferior and insecure, they are likely to become secretive, manipulative or untruthful to mask their inferiority and achieve a better negotiating position.
Which means that to get an open and honest relationship with a potential business partner, you need to:
- Offer an equal partnership, a win-win situation.
- Feel confident in what you bring to the table.
- Answer all their questions openly and honestly, so they will see they can trust you.
- Offer a taste of your expertise or a generous sample of your product at no charge and with no obligation, for them to get to know you and your business.
- Oh, and avoid traditionally trained salesmen interfering in your negotiations with your potential partner.
Related Posts:
How To Make Someone Tell The Truth. Part 1.
How To Make Someone Tell The Truth. Part 2.
How To Make Someone Tell The Truth. Part 3.
How To Make Someone Tell The Truth. Part 4.
Technorati Tags: how to make someone tell the truth, rita kai articles, why do people lie
As we talked about in the previous post, certain groups of people are labeled by the general population (or other groups) as “habitual liars”, and if we are unlucky enough to belong to one of these groups, we are pre-judged as possible liars and met with suspision and possibly even hostility.
As work-for-hire professionals, small business owners or members of sales/marketing departments we are seen as “salesmen” by our potential customers. “Salesmen” is one of the groups carrying the “habitual liars” label. Thus, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that our potential customers meet us with caution and suspicion, half-expecting us to try and take advantage of them, and prepared to defend their interests from us. In a way, we are seen as a potential enemy. Sad, but unfortunately that’s how it is.
That’s why potential customers are so reluctant to tell the truth, open their cards, make any form of commitment. They don’t want “salesmen” to put pressure on them, to use disclosed information to manipuate them, to trick and trap them. If you’ve ever shopped for a car, you know what I am talking about.
The question is: what can you do to make your customers let their guard down and be open and honest with you? There is one and only one thing you can do:
Extract yourself from the “salesman” category and move into the “excellent specialist”, “expert in a field” or “helpful and knowledgeable person” category.
The best way to do it is to position yourself as an expert in your potential customers’ eyes even before they contact you. Here are a few things you can do to accomplish that:
- Build a reputation of an expert; become well-known in your field as the person to go to.
- Be a source of an excellent information that your potential customers can access before they even contact you.
- Pre-qualify your customers.
- Don’t look or sound needy or pushy. Lay off cheap salesmen tricks. Create an image of a successful specialist who doesn’t need to run after or put pressure on his/her customers.
- Don’t be vague or elusive or your customers will be vague and elusive with you. Tell your customers exactly what you can do for them and provide them with clear options to choose from. Answer your customers questions and concerns to their satisfaction.
- Be honest with your customers and sincere in your quest to provide them with the best service/product/information.
For additional information on this topic visit Ari Galper’s Unlock The Game website and sales blog.
Part 5 of this guide: Dealing with a potential business partner is coming next.
Related Posts:
How To Make Someone Tell The Truth. Part 1.
How To Make Someone Tell The Truth. Part 2.
How To Make Someone Tell The Truth. Part 3.
Technorati Tags: how to make someone tell the truth, rita kai articles, why do people lie
Before I move to the part 4 of How To Make Someone Tell The Truth, I have to explain one thing. Lies breed lies. Not only in a sense that a liar often has to cover up his lies with new ones, but most importantly in a sense that in a relationship between people or groups of people when one side is caught in or suspected of lying, the other side would often try to offset it or even get an upper hand by lying in return.
You can often see this kind of unhealthy relationship developing between a salesman and a buyer, an employer and an employee, between mistrusting business partners, between a corrupt government and its citizen…
The worst case scenario, of cause is when it happens inside close relationships — between spouses or romantic partners, friends, parents and children. It’s so much easier to loose trust than to get it back after it’s been lost.
Unfortunately, some of us — doesn’t matter how honest we really are — are suspected by default, before we even have a chance to shake the other person’s hand or say “hello”. It’s because in the eyes of the other party we belong to a group suspected of habitual lying. We’ve lost trust for no fault of our own and now we have to do our best to gain it “back”, if we are to ever have an honest open conversation/discussion/relationship with this other person.
In Part 4 of the series we’ll be talking about how to gain trust of a suspicious client of a potential business partner.
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Photo: Remedium
Technorati Tags: how to make someone tell the truth, rita kai articles
