Do prospects/customers need to like you?

people always tell me my customers like me and thats why they buy from me. i think there is something to that.

Originally Posted by Frankie At some levels I'd agree that likeability is a key factor but at other levels, c-level for example, likeability takes a back seat to trust and credibility.

Jeffrey Gitomer wrote about this in "The LIttle Red Book of Selling". Here is an excerpt:

Liking is the single most powerful element in a sales relationship. I got a quote the other day from someone claiming to be a sales expert. It started out saying, "Your customer does not have to like you, but he does have to trust you". What an idiot. Can you imagine the CEO of the company, when making a buying decision, saying, "I trusted that guy, but I sure didn't like him." Like leads to trust. Trust leads to buying. Buying leads to relationship. That's not the life cycle, that the life cycle of sales.

I think it's probably more important that you like and know how to relate to them than vice-versa

The more confident and excited you are about your product or service the more your prospects and clients will feed into that energy and by default will end up liking you.

Success,

Rory Wilfong

I think that if a customer likes you he is more likely to use you to start with but if you have a long term selling relationship - trust and competence will come into play pretty quickly. So like-ability will get you in the door but then you must establish trust and competence quickly or you will soon lose the client.

AZBROKER and Joe are right about this.

The important question has to do with what produces one to be liked or not to be liked. Too often what's done to produce being liked is contrary to the desired outcome.

Neutrality and a belief in your own believablity lead to being trusted and respected provided the offer being made is clear and to the point. After that when a "want-to" is expressed being liked becomes a function of clear communication to uncover conditions of satisfaction and further trust and respect.

It's a character issue more than a superficial like issue. Smiling, making glib, light talk, building rapport and being a yes man or woman generally creates dislike. So does probing when the prospect says NO and the salesman attempts to change NO into a YES.

MitchM

Originally Posted by MitchM Neutrality and a belief in your own believablity lead to being trusted and respected provided the offer being made is clear and to the point.

Huh???

Originally Posted by MitchM After that when a "want-to" is expressed being liked becomes a function of clear communication to uncover conditions of satisfaction and further trust and respect.

Huh???

Originally Posted by MitchM It's a character issue more than a superficial like issue.

Huh???

Originally Posted by MitchM Smiling, making glib, light talk, building rapport and being a yes man or woman generally creates dislike.

Your ignorance and pomposity frustrates the heck out of me. There are so many great people in this SP community who want to learn and share information. But you just want to be the center of attention, I believe.

By definition, "creating rapport" creates "like", not "dislike". Unsuccessfully creating rapport creates dislike. Look up the definition of rapport, for Pete's sake, before you spew such ridiculousness.

Smiling is a universal sociological signal of pleasure and happiness, and has been used for time eternal as a way of connecting with other human beings (at least on my planet). People smile at other people and those people like it. Smiling is a good and nice thing. Smiling is part of being human. Smiling does not create dislike, as you postulate. Only in your world, MitchM, does smiling cause dislike. But, I will say this: posts in this forum that have typos and spelling errors and are filled with self-serving drivel create dislike.

Making "light talk" is a way of being sociable and human and friendly. Why is being human and sociable and friendly offensive to you, MitchM?
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Frankly, MitchM, your posts like this serve absolutely no purpose other than allowing you to have another moment in the "new posts" spotlight. But it's clear that all you have to say is gobbly-gook. Honestly, your views on selling are just too strange for words. The majority of your posts have little to offer anybody interested in improving their sales performance.

One last thing: Your forum profile says you have a Master's degree in literature, right? I simply do not believe it.

To be or not to be and how to be liked, that is the question. I don't need to respond to either "huh" or insults, Skip as they serve no purpose.

I spent the day at an employment exposition at a local community college. My friend Dick who has sold insurance and run an agency for thirty-three years was there and we talked shop talk. One of our topics (on the way out) was partially about being liked.

We talked about how being liked isn't something you do, it's something that happens when people hear you responding to their needs and paying attention to what they're saying. It's not a smile or light talk at all. It's clearity of intention and focus in a meaningful conversation.

Your public stand against what I have to say, Skip, is true for you obviously and others who agree with you. Likewise, the private emails I've had on occasion validate other people understand what I mean and agree with much of my perspective.

What I post and how I've built my business which is small compared to what some have done and large compared to others - my distribution network does just under a million dollars in retail sales yearly - are in agreement and the independent distributors who I've worked with and trained are successful.

Obviously personality also has something to do with success as do unique and sometimes esoteric and highly personal sales methods or systems.

Others here will judge what I have to say, Skip, what you have to say, and what we have to say to each other. If they can't learn from it all and everything else here it's about them, not us.

I wish you continued success, Skip.

MitchM

I think there are three questions you need to achieve YES in to get business;

1.) Does the customer like you?
2.) Does the customer trust you?
3.) Does the customer respect you?

If you've worked on building successful rapport, you should get yes in all three and gain the prospective business (external factors aside).