I already know what you’re thinking, it’s all about sales, it’s all about what I sell, right? Well, yes and no. Let’s dig into this a little deeper. First, we need to establish some context. I think there are two paths of looking a successful sales approach.

1. Only be concerned with selling something to someone.
2. Be more concerned with finding the customer’s needs that fit your product or service.

Here’s the difference in the two scenarios:

1. Selling something to someone, no matter who, no matter what, no matter where, you feel like you’ve got to sell something to someone today! It doesn’t matter what they need or what they want, you’ve got an objective in mind, to sell something to someone. That’s a very short-term thought process, which is to say, at some point you’ll lose touch with your customers’ needs, and you’ll begin to think in terms of what your needs are over what the customers’ needs are. You’ll lose sight in what the right objective is. With this scenario, the customer is there for your benefit only. Yes this has short-term benefits, yes you sold them something, but did you fulfill their needs? In this type of business relationship, it’s not sustainable long term, your customer will soon learn that you’re in it for you and not in it for the best interest of the customer. For a good example of this, it’s best played out in the movie The Wolf of Wall Street.
2. Ok, I like the movie parallel, so let’s stick to that for the second scenario. I’d like to draw you attention to the movie Miracle on 34^th Street. This is a great example of helping the customer find what they are looking for (fulfilling their needs) no matter what the consequences are. In the movie, Macy’s Department Store “hired” a Santa for Christmas. While listening to the children tell Santa what they want for Christmas, he would help the parents by telling them where to find that toy. And if Macy’s didn’t sell it that toy, he would tell them which department store did sell that toy. The overriding message being communicated was, Macy’s was more concerned with helping the customer get what they wanted (fulfilling the customer’s needs), over what Macy’s needs were and what Macy’s wanted to sell them.

As counterintuitive as it may seem, the act of helping customers get what they want, in turn, built the Macy’s brand, established trust and developed a foundation of loyal repeat customers, which also meant, Macy’s was the “go-to” department store that was more concerned with helping the customer get what they needed, over what Macy’s needed or wanted to sell them.

So which would you rather have, a sale or a loyal, long-term repeat customer who will always come to you first, even if you don’t have what they need/want?