It pays off for us to be perceived by our prospects and customers as being credible, because we get better results.

Credible salespeople are believed. Their word is their bond. If they say a product or service will perform, the customer agrees quickly, and a deal is made.

Non-credible salespeople can't seem to get any traction with their prospects. They're hung-up on way too often, and tossed, unceremoniously out of office doors.

So, what makes us credible, according to research?

Two things:

(1) Customers need to be able to identify with us, to see, in essential ways that we're alike. Joe Girard, the self-professed world's best car salesman, shares the secret of his success. When he chats with a potential customer, he says, more or less, I'm just like you are, so why not give me your business? He creates identification, and this goes far to put people at ease. If he's a follower of NLP, he'll probably mirror a customer's gestures and facial expressions and even posture, to nonverbally and unconsciously support his claim.

(2) We need to seem different in a one or more crucial ways. Expertise is partly what customers find credible, so they want us to more know than they do, of a pertinent nature, and they want us to seem organized in what we know. When we talk with our physician, we don't want that person mirroring our nervousness and fear. We want that person to be stable, at ease, but professional, and we want an or

ganized, succinct diagnosis and prognosis. Doctors that seem too casual, too much like us, won't gain our trust, and that won't build their practices or speed our recovery.

Are you credible?

Have you blended the factors properly, of identification and authority?

Do you need to loosen up, or to tighten up?

Consider these things carefully, and make adjustments, where necessary.

It will definitely pay off in more sales with fewer hassles!

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