How to Build Trust to Boost Your Sales
When disgraced auto executives boarded their multi-million dollar jets and flew to Washington to plead for more government bailout money in the fall of 2008, the image of private aircraft took a severe hit. Worried about appearing extravagant and equally out of touch, companies scrambled to sell their jets. Despite the industry's tarnished image, Andrew Mearns, a sales rep for Flexjet, managed to not only sell a few aircraft, but he turned around an underperforming region to become Flexjet's top grossing sales person for 2009. He did it by persuading both companies and wealthy individuals that owning private aircraft is smart business. "This is not people having caviar and champagne at 40,000 feet," says Mearns, who covers the New England and eastern Canada territories for Flexjet. "It's a way for busy people to maximize their time."
Andrew Mearns, sales rep for Flexjet
BNET interviewed Andrew about his strategy:
I approach sales like it's a long-term partnership. I don't want to be just selling something to somebody — what I want to be is their adviser, their confidant, somebody who's looking out for their needs in a very real way. It's really a whole different conversation.
I had an experience in my mid-20's that was an epiphany in terms of my attitude about sales. This was before I joined Flexjet, when I was an aircraft broker, focused on selling whole corporate jets and helicopters. I was actively marketing a corporate jet and had located a buyer who was ready, willing, and able to move forward with the purchase of the aircraft. But it became clear that the aircraft was more than they needed. Instead of pushing my position, I was honest about the situation and they bought a different, better-suited aircraft.
The lesson came almost two years later when that client decided to upgrade to a bigger, newer aircraft. They remembered what had transpired and asked me to accept the exclusive listing to sell the original aircraft and to simultaneously represent them in the search and acquisition of their next purchase. Two years earlier, I had lost out on a $1 million deal, but I ended up winning two transactions totaling over $7 million. Integrity won in a very big way and I never forgot this lesson.
I've actually had clients say things like, "You're a salesman, aren't you supposed to be trying to sell me more?" You have to start with honesty to build trust. I'm not trying to gain a one-time win for myself; the goal is a long-term mutually beneficial partnership. On Tuesday, one of my clients wrote me a note that ended with: "And I LOVE Flexjet!!!" This is what I live for.
One of the other things I've learned from many years of sales is that face-to-face interaction is critical. On the phone people tend to be in a bit of a hurry.
I can usually get a meeting with prospective clients once I've explained how Flexjet can help them be more productive. I try to paint a mental picture of what life can be like after they join our program, so I ask them to: "Imagine if you and your team could conduct three presentations in three different states in one day and still make it home for dinner with your families."
And sometimes we go the extra mile with face-to-face meetings. Last year when we were trying to win the business of a flight department of a large manufacturing company, we invited the whole team to fly down in one of our aircraft to our main operations center in Richardson, TX for the day. We wanted them to meet and talk to all our key operations people so they could collect the data they needed. And they were able to see firsthand what it was like to be a Flexjet customer. After six months of work, we got a several million dollar deal and it's now one of the largest I support.
Most of our prospective clients do a demonstration flight on one of our aircraft. I always make a point of going to meet them on the outbound leg, so I can personally introduce them to the pilots, show them around the aircraft and encourage them to ask myself and the crew any questions that they can think of.
And yes, I usually fly commercial and coach. I recently came back from meeting a new client for a demonstration flight in Montreal and my flight back to Boston was delayed three hours and it took two hours to get through immigration. It's a good reminder of the selling points of private aircraft.
— as told to Melanie Warner
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