As I was searching the web for Christmas presents, I came across this wonder of modern science.

Yes! For a mere investment of $9.98 you can purchase a microwaveable s’mores maker. This handy gadget will help you eliminate burned fingers and drippy chocolate.

And that is the problem.

You see, making s’mores is not just about the s’mores. It’s about the experience – your eyes burning from the wood smoke, taking your mittens off to break the graham crackers in 1/2, practicing your timing over the fire so the marshmallows are toasty but not charred, futily trying to get the marshmallow spread over the chocolate without breaking the graham crackers, laughing at your friend who has sticky, chocolatey marshmallow goo on his face.

What does this have to do with sales? Quite simply, the s’mores gadget solves problems, but eliminates the meaningful experience.

The Experience You Provide is as Important as the Solution

“People make buying decisions at an emotional level and justify those decisions with logic.” Kelley Robertson

Every great sales coach will tell you that if you want to make money, you need to find people’s pain points and solve their problems. That is true, but it’s not enough. You must solve people’s problems and provide them with a powerful, positive, emotional experience. Each interaction you have with your clients, from the moment they visit your website or read your tweets to the moments after they purchase something from you is building a series of experiences. It is the accumulation of these experiences that will cause your clients to become loyal and long-term or to look somewhere else.

What can you begin to do today that will go beyond solving a problem for your clients and create an indelible experience that will generate customer excitement, word of mouth advertising and ultimately increased sales?

Fight Club is one my favorite movies and stars Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. It’s pretty graphic at times, but the truth is there are some great lessons to be learned from it about life and believe it or not – about sales.

Lesson 1 – It Takes Pain to Win

“Without pain, without sacrifice you have nothing.” Tyler Durdin

Sometimes I think we remain mediocre because we are not in enough pain. Pain is a motivator. Discontent is a catalyst for great things to happen in our lives. Does it physically hurt you that you’re not where you want to be in your sales, salary, career or family? Well it should!

One of the messages in Fight Club (the chemical burn scene) is you should let yourself feel the pain. If you’re not where you want to be, stop numbing yourself to the mediocrity in your life. Wake yourself up out of your stupor and seriously think about the things you don’t have yet:  fulfillment, a sense of accomplishment, an award, money, that dream vacation, pride, or whatever it is you want.  Are you hurting yet?

Once you start to feel that pain, feel it deeply. Grab a hold of it and channel that into super-hero determination. You’ll be surprised at the results you will achieve.

Lesson 2 – Solving Problems Leads to Sales

“It was right in everyone’s face. Tyler and I just made it visible. It was on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Tyler and I just gave it a name.” The Narrator

Your job as a salesperson is to meet people’s needs. You are not supposed to sell – you are supposed to solve problems. That sounds easy enough right? The issue is that as consumers, we don’t always know what we need. We don’t always recognize there is a problem to be solved. You want to kick some butt and take some names in sales? Figure out how to make our needs visible and put the solution (your solution) on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Just remember not to be obnoxious, overbearing or pushy.

PS – The more creatively you can do that, the better.

Lesson 3 – You Can’t Fake Sincerity

“Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.” Tyler Durdin

If you are not authentic, people can tell. If your true motivation in being kind to someone in order to hit them up for a sale, be prepared to lose. What would this world be like if every salesperson cared about their customers more than closing the deal? Unfortunately, that mindset isn’t teachable; that value system has to come from within you. Are you willing to shift your perspective on selling? Are you open to a new approach that may seem counter-intuitive?

Lesson 4 – Know When to Walk Away

“[Screw] Martha Stewart! Martha’s polishing the brass on the Titanic. It’s all going down man.” Tyler Durdin

The bottom line is this: you can’t afford to waste your time. You’ve got to make really smart decisions about your priorities. You also need to learn to say “No.”

Let’s get practical. Is that networking group yielding any results for you? Yes, I know you already paid the 12 month membership fee. But seriously, how many referrals have you received? How many strategic business relationships have you developed? Here’s the big question: how much new business could you develop if you spent that 1.5 hours plus drive time doing something else?

Another scenario: Will that prospect who has been stringing you along really become a customer? And if you have to work that hard to convince him/her that they should be working with you, do you really want them to become a customer? How miserable could they make your life moving forward?

At what point do you say, “Enough is enough?”

I wish there was a black and white answer to that question, but there isn’t. Knowing when to keep nudging and knowing when to cut your losses takes practice and unfortunately, learning hard lessons along the way. But over time, you will become more self-confident and realize what value you bring to your clients. You know what happens next…? That’s for another blog post.

Here are some other quotes from the movie. Which ones speak to you? How does it challenge you?

“I say never be complete, stop being perfect. I say, let’s evolve. Let the chips fall where they may.” Tyler Durdin

“The things you own, end up owning you.” Tyler Durdin

“Stop trying to control everything and just let go. Let go!”  Tyler Durdin

Alicia Arenas is a guest blogger for The Red Recruiter.

Read Alicia’s last “Fight Club” post -  “The Fight Club Guide To Selling, Part 1″

Photo Credit, Polina Sergeeva

Guest Blogger – Alicia Arenas

Over the last several months, I have developed relationships with executive search and recruiting professionals on Twitter. The conversations I have with these folks are always enlightening and inspiring. This may not reflect the industry as a whole, but the people I talk with represent the true spirit of entrepreneurialism. What they do involves sales, risk, research, an intense understanding of human behavior, negotiation, intuition, knowledge of employment law, compensation and the ability to influence. You have my greatest respect.

Why a post for recruiters?

I recently had the privilege of being a guest panelist at a recruiting association meeting. Their goal was to give their members an insider’s, HR perspective on the world of recruiting. Do you know what shocked me? I was surprised to learn how little the recruiters really understood about the inner workings of HR. Hopefully this post will shed some light on what is happening behind the scenes in HR.

Human Resources Professionals Know Little About Effective Recruiting

Don’t get me wrong, most all HR professionals have received some type of interview training, but we’re not taught how to recruit. And the quality of the interview training we do receive is lacking. Here is what it looks like: 1/2 day of employment law training, 1/2 day of behavioral interview training & maybe 1/2 day of practice interviewing. That’s it. I worked for four Fortune 500 companies and this was the extent of the training the HR team received. If you are working with someone in a Generalist or even a leadership position within HR, this is probably the extent of their formal training too.

To get you even deeper into what happens behind the scenes, I would invite you to think about how tough it is to do something important when you haven’t been taught how to do it well…  Now insert that responsibility and pressure into the real life scenario of an HR pro: the need to effectively recruit for multiple openings along with handling employee relations issues, benefits questions, drug testing, background check verifications, training, investigations, performance management, audits, budget reviews, special projects, etc. If there is an employee crisis somewhere, the mountain of work gains altitude each day that crisis needs attention.

What does this mean for you?  Opportunity.

Be a Consultant, Not a Recruiter

This is a true story. There was an IT recruiter who wanted to do business with me, but we did not have (nor did we anticipate having) any IT openings. I explained that to him and his answer was “That’s okay. Someday you will. In the meantime, do you want some pointers to help you with your other openings?” Pointers? Of course I wanted pointers! So over the course of a couple of months he took time from his business to show me how to be a better recruiter. He gave me search tips, taught me to read between the lines in a resume and how to get worthwhile information from references. Because of his help, I did a better job filling the positions I was responsible for. The result – he made me look good to my hiring managers. Folks, in the HR world that is priceless. We’re seen as a “drain on the budget” or “a necessary evil.” When something you do helps us deliver results to our internal client, that is golden. Three months later I had an IT opening – it was for an EVP. To whom do you think I gave the order?

What do you think? What can you do today to shift your focus from recruiting to consulting?

Guest Blogger – Alicia Arenas – Founder & CEO, Sanera

Look, there are a few things we need to straighten out about sales. If you’ve been advised to tell everyone you see or meet about your product,  you’re in trouble. If an “expert” told you to keep pushing, even though the person you’re talking to is disinterested, take the ebook you bought and feed it to a mulch machine.  What are the rules in selling?

The first rule of sales: don’t talk about sales. The second rule of sales: don’t talk about sales. The third rule of sales:…. you get the idea.

To master sales, you’ve got to master asking questions. Questions are the key to building a relationship, credibility and a long-term business relationship and oh yeah, sales. (i.e. if you want great sales, ask great questions.)

Scenario 1: Thank you for meeting with me today. [Set brochures down on the table with a business card.] At Widgets, our number one priority is our clients. We pride ourselves on our great customer service and we have the widest array of premium widgets available in the country. [Open brochure to show pictures of the wide array of premium widgets.] As you can see, our widgets are made of a titanium & cheez-whiz alloy which gives Widget’s widgets both strength and flexibility. Although our base color is the bright cheez-whiz yellow, our widgets are available in fifty different colors including….

Scenario 2: Thanks for meeting with me. I know you’re really busy and I’m just curious, why did you make time to meet with me today?… Have you worked with other Widget companies before?… What is causing you to look for someone new? (or) No? What is happening at your company that makes you think you need widgets?

There are a couple of things happening with Scenario 2:

1 – You’re not talking about sales. In fact, you’re really not talking.

2 – You’re not talking about sales. You’re making your potential client the priority rather than getting a sale your priority.

3 –  You’re not talking about sales. You see, your clients are looking for answers, but they also need to be heard; they want to be understood. The more time you spend understanding them, the more credibility you will build. The more credibility you build, the more pre-disposed they will be to doing business with you. Not only that, but the more you know about them, the better you are able to align your pitch to their needs.

If You Want Great Sales, Ask Great Questions

Here are some questions to get you started:

1 – Why did you take time in your busy schedule to meet with me today? (This is an important question because the answer will help you determine if they are serious about working with you and what needs they have.)

2 – Have you used another _____ company? (If they say yes, keep probing. There is a reason they are talking to you. It could be price, bad service, etc. But try to find out why they are looking someplace else. If they say no, then ask them what is prompting their need for your product or services. You get great insight into their frame of mind. And by the way, getting them to say why they need your services is a lot more powerful than you telling them.)

3 – What are you looking for in a _____ company? (If any part of their answer fits what your company offers, you’re golden.)

4 – Six months from now, what do you want to say about the difference my products/services/company has made in your business?

What do you do when the client insists on you doing all the talking? Or even worse, what if all they want to know is price? We’ll address those in upcoming posts.

Do you have any great sales questions? What has worked for you?

Photo courtesy of Matheus Sanchez.

If you like what you see, feel free to click the links below and share the good news with the world.