Communication Coach: Close more sales by going to your power place

June 27, 2023 - By Jeff Korhan

(Photo: Paul Bradbury/OJO Images/Getty Images)

Have you ever sat in front of a buyer who stoically looks at you with that blank “sell me” expression? It’s a painful experience that you can eliminate with a unique preparation method.

Buyers who show up unprepared are quick to put the burden on you. It’s up to you to make them own their problem by showing up prepared and open-minded to solutions. A key factor in doing that is controlling the selling environment.

Early in my career, I met a landscape professor at an industry event who shared this idea with me. He advised only meeting buyers at our offices so that we could, in a sense, bring the game to our home turf. We also learned to put buyers to work so they prepared for a productive conversation.

Go To Your Power Place

In the sports comedy film, Happy Gilmore, coach Chubbs Peterson helps Happy overcome his putting woes by teaching him to go to his happy place. It’s not actually a place, but rather a mindset that reminds him to relax and trust his skills and training.

It’s an exercise in letting go. For Happy, it was letting go of the brute force tactics he learned in his hockey days. This accomplished, he discovers having fun is the secret to improving every aspect of his golf game.

This is how successful salespeople close more sales. They make the buying and selling experience enjoyable for everyone by going to what I call their power place. It is indeed a mindset, but at my design/build company we discovered it works best when it’s a place, too.

When prospective buyers arrived at our company, it was go time. We made sure our staff knew their names, where they lived and the sales team expecting them. After welcoming them with some conversation and refreshments, we invited the prospective buyers into our conference room where we set the stage.

Our goal was to create anticipation and excitement for outcomes greater than they had imagined. The room and our tools were ready. So, it was lights on and time for action. We were relaxed and ready to take a long, deliberate, and beautiful swing, like Happy Gilmore, at serving their needs.

If this seems a little overdone, consider a selling situation most of us experience at one time or another. You arrive late to a sales appointment, frazzled from fighting traffic, and once in front of buyers, you already know you lost a bit of their trust.

Landscape company owners wear many hats and one of them is chief rainmaker. Sometimes things are out of your control, but you can recover if you always have your power place ready. Preparation gives you and your sales presentations energy and that lifts buyers up enough for you to solve their problems and close more sales.