In last week's blog post, we talked about the prerequisite. Before you can inspire your buyer, you have to establish and maintain credibility. Then -- and only then -- will you be positioned to inspire your buyer.
But just what does that mean? What does it entail? How is that different from selling or persuading? Why bother?
Let's start with the last question: Why bother? Because modern buyers do not want to be sold or persuaded. They avoid sellers whenever possible to dodge the experience of being sold to. Today's empowered buyers are looking for something more.
Sellers who see themselves as leaders do things differently and deliver something more. They inspire their buyers instead of making ho-hum sales pitches. They ignite enthusiasm in their buyers. They differentiate themselves and their products so buyers no longer make comparisons and are, instead, compelled to take action.
To inspire means:
1. to fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence;
2. to produce or arouse (a feeling, thought, etc.);
3. to fill or affect with a specified feeling, thought, etc.;
4. to influence or impel.
In its simplest form, from Latin word origins, to inspire means to "breathe life into."
An important distinction must be made. This is about inspiring your buyer or "breathing life into" your buyer. It's not about delivering an inspired presentation. You can try all you want to breathe lots of life into a presentation, but it will never come to life they way your individual buyer might. An over-reliance on slick presentations may, in fact, suck the life (or at least the energy) right out of a buyer.
Inspiration is all about emotional connections and personalization. The facts and figures and rationale in your presentation can't arouse a feeling in your buyer. The generic pitch you deliver with gusto will never, on its own, animate or engage your buyer fully.
To inspire, you need to get past the pitch. You have to stretch beyond the data and the business case. You need to connect, human to human, around the things that matter most to the buyer.
