Principles of Selling 5: Show Facts – Who like me has used it before?
The power of social proof and external validation are strong influencing forces in selling. Prospects and buyers want to avoid being the guinea pig for your products and services. A history of performance and testimonials lend more credence to your selling points than all the demonstrations and claims you can present.
This principle is more potent when the testimonials or history are made of people and institutions that the prospects or buyers defer to. For example, your chances of converting a prospect are higher if you are selling a school solution to a prospect with 1,000 students and you can show evidence of satisfactorily deploying the same solution to schools with students in excess of 3,000.
When I claim, as Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe of Tekedia will call me to be “the Zen of Sales in Africa,” I can validate that with fact that I have trained over 175, 000 business development professional for over 150 organizations across Nigeria, Africa, Europe, UAE and America, with awesome testimonials from individuals and organizations. I can also point to the five bestselling sales books I have authored.
The psychological disposition of a typical prospects is, “Show me what you have done, not just what you can do.”
