Velocity Selling begins with buyer relationships. People buy for emotional reasons and they buy from people they like and trust. The Velocity Selling Cycle starts with building relationships. Therefore as a sales professional, it is important for you to be aware of and to understand the universal needs of buyers.

The competencies of sales professionals are numerous but boil down to human interaction, communication, and relationship building. As a sales professional, you must establish rapport and build trust, communicate effectively, and develop and maintain lasting relationships if you are to succeed in the sales profession.

In order to build a long-term relationship, it is imperative to first establish rapport with your client. You need to know how to build rapport quickly so that you can gain the trust that is needed to ask questions and get answers. You need two basic communications skills – asking the questions and listening to the responses. What is the point of asking questions if you are too busy thinking of other questions to ask and not really listening to the answers?

At one time sales professionals were taught to follow the golden rule “Do onto others as you would have them do onto you.” That was a great rule to follow. Under the golden rule it is acceptable to believe you are the most important person in the world and to acknowledge that how you treat yourself is also how you should treat others.

However, over the years the golden rule has been replaced with the Platinum rule – “Do onto others as they would have done onto themselves.” The platinum rule takes on a different approach. Simply stated, when you are with another person treat them the way they would like to be treated, and not necessarily the way you would want to be treated. For that reason, we have to change our sales approach.

Who becomes the most important person in the world when a salesperson convenes with a prospect or a client? I hope you set aside the golden rule and choose the prospect or client. You would be right. We all know that without a prospect or a client, you have absolutely no chance of selling anything. Do you agree? Good.

If the prospect or client is the most important person in the world as it pertains to sales, then we must follow the platinum rule. It certainly is in our best interest to treat them the way they want to be treated. The universal needs of buyers take priority.

There are basically four universal needs that sales professionals must address in order to satisfy buyers. The first one is buyers have a need to be understood. This simply means we must listen to them and question them to better understand them. The problem many salespeople have is the lack of listening skills.

They don’t listen intently and they don’t question the answers they receive in order to generate even more information. I am eager to share more facts about questioning skills in another article. Please watch for it.

The second universal need is buyers need to feel welcomed. How do you welcome people that come and visit you at home? Do you welcome prospects and clients the same way on their own premises?

Buyers need to feel important. How important do you make them feel in your presence? I urge you to show you are interested by asking questions and taking notes.

Buyers also have the need to feel comfortable. How can you make them feel more comfortable? The Velocity Selling Cycle has these answers and more. I encourage you to get onboard today. It’s an “eye opening” ride to the top. One you won’t want to miss.

Visit www.BobU.com and download your complimentary White Paper: The New Economy of Buyers. Why Traditional and Consultative Selling Methods no Longer Work.