They say trust is the currency of the sale, but there is another equally more powerful currency …

Hope!

So much of the thinking about selling says to focus on the customer’s problem, aggravate it and then offer them a solution … and that does work!  But does it leave a bad taste in the customer’s mouth?

To combat any sour taste the common thinking is that trust must be established to form a connection with the prospect that they can rely on.  If they know they can rely on you, having you agitate their problem, to make it more visible to them, is a little more palatable.

But I think hope is equally important to trust.

When people have no hope, there is no point in taking action.  Trust allows them to feel safe but hope allows them to believe.  If your prospect can’t believe in a better future, then there is no sale to be made.

So how do you create hope?

Well first of all, make sure you don’t destroy it.  It’s possible that if you aggravate that problem too much you just might make it seem unsolvable for the prospect and they lose hope.

Then, to build hope, future pacing is critical.  Sure, testimonials help and they do create a sense of “if it worked for them, it may work for me too”.  But future pacing the prospect into their own future circumstances, by walking through incremental steps, is much more powerful.

We’re so keen to sell our solution and the steps involved in it, that we often miss the opportunity to paint the journey the prospect will go through, step-by-step, to give them a real belief that your solution will work.

Don’t ever take hope away and remember to build it at every step.

I’d love to know how you build hope in your prospect when you’re selling?