When I asked them for feedback, I got a real wake-up call.

They said that at first they felt as if I really understood their processes and problems. Our prices were a little higher than our competition, but what stood out was my approach to understanding them and not pushing sale.

They felt as if I really had their best interests in mind, so they heard me out. But when I started to push for close, they saw that I was just like everyone else who sells, so they had to make their decision based on price, instead of on value of our relationship.

The relationship, and consequently sale -- which I invested many hours developing-- died moment I put on pressure. By using traditional sales techniques, I wound up sacrificing relationship and sale.

This experience was what I needed to unlock my brain and realize impact of traditional selling techniques on prospects (or should I say, "people").

I finally feel as if I've found missing ingredients that make selling a natural, productive experience that will actually bring me sales instead of losing them.

Warmest Regards,

Ryan ===================================================

Ryan's story points to a very important lesson: if you don't have an approach that is a perfect balance of nonaggression and effective penetration of your prospect's core needs, you'll end up asking yourself time after time, "Why am I losing sales, and why has selling become so painful?"

You can risk relationship and lose sale, but with a different sales mindset, you don't risk anything at all -- because you can preserve relationship, and make sale.