Stop asking for money

I am an alumnus of three schools. I get hit up for donations nonstop from two of them, as well as countless other organizations.

After I was hit up by one of the schools for money again, I asked myself how come they never call and say, “How is your business going? Do you have any issues that we might be able to help you with?” How come they never call and say, “We were thinking about a way we could add value to your life, family or business and here’s what we came up with?”

Despite their constantly asking me for money, I continue to donate as I feel obligated to and I feel like a stakeholder in their success. I also have to admit something far more troubling – my own company does the same thing. Just last week it dawned on me that I had not spoken to one of our biggest clients in years. I’m sure even though my team has spoken to them, they wouldn’t know if I cared.

I teach a seminar all over the United States titled “Make friends, make sales: The art of relationship selling.” In this workshop, I teach my students the value of making friends and focusing your efforts on that, and not being so focused on how much money you can make.

The interesting thing that has happened in using this method to sell is you actually end up with the money in the long run by doing the right thing. You get the money by allowing your clients to buy and not selling them anything.

We have two new members on our sales team, and both of them are doing really well. One of them was accompanying me on a sales call. When we were done, I asked her to share what she learned on the call. She said, “I liked how you told him he didn’t need a new step-stone walkway. I enjoy working at a company that doesn’t push things on their clients.”

I was impressed she picked up on that. However, I had to correct her. Here’s what I said that I think will help you with your sales, “I know you think I was a great guy for doing that – walking away from a sale – but look at it this way. The client has money to spend and one way or another, we’ll get a sale from him in his landscape. I know this.

“I want to do work I’m proud of. I want to do work that adds value. And what I have found is that you actually still get ‘the money’ in the long run by doing the right thing.”

As my friend Dr. John Maxwell says, “When you do the right things, the right things happen.” I think a lot of sales professionals have lost their way. They think about their commissions and bonuses, and not about what is best for their future. That’s what these schools are missing when they ask me for money.

I have no idea what my donations fund at the school. I have no idea why they need the money. To be blunt, I don’t feel important to them and I don’t see what they are doing for me or could do for me. They rarely, if ever, have me do landscaping for them. They don’t refer me work and haven’t once come out to my office to see me.

These organizations asking me for money should be doing the same thing I should be doing more often. People do business with people they know, like and trust. It’s a process and to keep the sales or the donations flowing we have to work the relationships; we have to let our clients or donors know we care about them.

Forget about transactions and how fast you can make the sale. Instead, think about how you’d like to be treated if you felt like what you were doing was making a difference at a company or organization.