Can you inspire people?

A few months ago, our hot water boiler broke down. It was the tail end of winter. The plumber was not immediately available.

That meant a few painful days without heating in the house, or hot water coming from the taps.

We made a decision not to replace with a like-for-like combi-boiler, but to explore energy efficient solutions. So, we paid for some repair work on the existing boiler and began to research heat pumps.

Just a few weeks later, I arranged for an organisation to visit our home and scope out a solution. The owner of the organisation explained how the solution would work, and that an installation could begin within a couple of months.

We were told to expect a quote the following week. A week went by:. and then another week:. soon we were a month later. I followed up with phone calls and emails.

Eventually we received a quote. It was fairly basic. We wanted to discuss the detail and understand how we could get a project started.

What followed was a frustrating cycle of promises, excuses and basically zero progress. We were frustrated and had practically given up on the organisation.

And then out of the blue I received a phone call from a guy called Ray who had been recently hired to manage their sales. Ray apologised and asked if he could visit our home for a meeting.

I agreed to the meeting, hoping it would resolve the lack of communication. The meeting went well. Ray told me he was taking full responsibility for my solution and that I would have a detailed quote by Monday the following week.

I didn’t. There has been some communication since, but we are still waiting on a detailed quote. We have lost all confidence in this company. We have moved on.

Yesterday, I received a text message from the Ray:.

It honestly made me cringe. It represents everything I despise about bad sales ” impersonal, disingenuous, lazy, unprofessional, and completely disqualifying.

It translates to, “Hey, I’m a sales guy trying to close a deal. I don’t care about you or the solution you’re thinking of investing in. Can you help me?”

There are clearly leadership problems within Ray’s organisation. That said, there was every opportunity for Ray to enrol me into a solution.

I invited him into my home. I gave him permission to call me and obtain whatever additional information he needed. I outlined clearly what was important to me.

It is evident Ray knows very little about the technical solution he is responsible for selling. I don’t care about that. But I do expect him to care deeply about delivering the right solution for us.

When a potential client perceives that you do not care about them or that you make stuff up, there is no coming back from that.

I personally don’t like the term ‘Sales’. No-one wants to be sold to. But we do like to be enrolled into a better future. We like to improve and invest in things we believe will make our lives richer.

If you want to be successful, you need to learn how to powerfully enrol people into your ideas. It’s one of the most difficult skills to master. It takes practice and requires effort.

In the past week alone, various strangers on social media have promised that they can 3x my ROI, guarantee me 10+ high-ticket clients, and several promised to book an additional 15-30 appointments for me every month.

None of these people made any effort to research me or my business to understand what I need. People are highly unlikely to give up their precious time to speak to you ” especially if they’ve never met you before ” from a message on social media.

Enrolment requires that you listen deeply. Not only for the things that people say, but the things that they don’t say. Watch the expressions they make with their face, the gestures they make with their hands, and the subtle sounds they make as they speak.

Enrolment requires that you care deeply. People are smart and naturally intuitive. If you don’t care deeply, you will get found out. If you don’t care deeply, then start caring. You can’t fake this.

Enrolment requires that you paint a clear vision of a brighter future. People do not care about the specifications or the tiny details of whatever you’re talking about. They want to see clearly how their lives will be improved.

Enrolment requires that you talk less and leave some oxygen in the room. Trust that people will ask questions if they don’t understand. Allow them space to process your ideas.

Enrolment requires that you are completely unattached from the outcome. If you ‘need’ people to agree to your proposal or idea it will push them away. Neediness is a natural repellent to any proposal.

Master these five elements of enrolment and you will notice people start saying ‘yes’ to your ideas or proposals more often. And if they don’t, you’ll at least have more powerful and enjoyable conversations.

Which of the five elements do you need to practice more? Hit ‘reply’ and tell me where you need to improve.