Cure for the Amateur Salesperson: Frame It!

Every parent is familiar with “fridge art” — the steady flow of drawings and paintings produced by children for household display. The gallery of choice for most families is the refrigerator. In our family, occasionally, we selected a piece of “fridge art” for framing. The transformation was immediate and astonishing. The frame made the chosen piece instantly more professional and attractive. Instead of child art trying to look professional, it became professional art conveying a childlike quality. The frame made all the difference.

Frames are used to focus attention. They provide definition. They set apart a theme from competing subjects. But framing can refer to more than just a picture. Framing is a state of mind and cognitive processes. One’s frame of mind can influence choices, decision making and behavior. Influencing the frame of mind of a suspect or prospect is fundamental to persuasion and sales.

An amateur salesperson will ignore their prospects frame of mind. A skilled salesperson, on the other hand, will be focused on the influence they have over the frame of mind being established throughout the sales process. Even when a salesperson isn’t consciously aware, the Griffin Hill Integrity Sales System helps clients manage the frame of mind of their suspects and prospects.

The Case Open Routine helps to establish a positive frame of mind by telling the suspect who we are, what we do and why people just like them care. This leads perfectly into offering examples of how we have done that, followed by an invitation to talk about the prospect’s goals and priorities. In the Griffin Hill system, plays represent the key principles that help to establish the frame of mind. In the Case Open Routine, which is the first engagement between salesperson and suspect, the basic plays are Rapport, Position, Benefit, Proof and Schedule the Next Event. These plays create a favorable frame of mind in the suspect that stimulates interest in what the salesperson has to offer.

Often a gap of time sits between the Case Open Routine and the next step in the sales process, the Needs Audit Routine. In this in-between, the frame of mind created by the initial interaction decays and is lost, regardless of if you are an amateur salesperson or a professional one. In a complex or multi-stage sale, similar erosion can occur between the various meetings in the sales process.

Knowing how to create, nurture, sustain, and re-establish a favorable frame of mind is the domain of great salespeople. Lesser salespeople may appear to have the same level of maturity, intelligence, social skill, and work ethic as great sales people but for unseen reasons they simply can’t produce at the same rate. The answer to such an issue may be found in managing the frame mind.

Take a page from the Integrity Sales System. Create the right frame of mind in the very first interaction—the Case Open Routine. Using those same skills, start every meeting with the re-frame play—get everyone back into the same frame that you originally built around your sales process. Stimulate interest, desire, and urgency again.

Success is all a frame of mind. When you, as the sales person are armed with the right system of process and plays, it puts you in a positive frame of mind. Using the plays in a systematic way shapes the frame of mind for your suspects and prospects.

So, how do you break out of the box of the amateur salesperson and make the move to the professional? Frame It! Learn more sales tips at the Griffin Hill Youtube channel!