Using Reserve Power

When I made the transition from printing industry headhunter to full-time seminar presenter and trainer, I read everything I could get my hands on to improve my skills. Not surprisingly, I spent a lot of time reading every single book Dale Carnegie has ever written. That time was well spent.

One of the most important lessons I learned from Carnegie was something he called, “reserve power.” His point was that you need to know 10 times more about your business, products, and services than you’ll ever need to tell your customers. In other words, you prepare to know your business inside and out, even if you never have to share all of it with a prospect. By doing so, you’ll be able to effortlessly answer any questions your customers have and do so with remarkable credibility. Not only that, the more confident you are in what you know about your business, the more confidence you will exude when speaking to a prospect. In case you didn’t know this, prospects love to do business with people they feel are confident because the prospects believe they will get what they want.

One of my Hall of Fame clients, Dan Luckenbaugh of Advanced Air Quality Products, practices reserve power on a regular basis. Perhaps because he’s been in business for more than 24 years, he knows his business inside and out. I’ve never met anyone who could explain every component of mold remediation and air purification better than Dan. The best part about it is he never struggles to come up with an answer. He knows them inherently because he not only knows his craft, but he’s mastered the art of crystal-clear communication. In addition, he uses a lot of metaphors to simplify the complicated.

Whether you work in a very technical field like Dan or not, the better you get at acquiring reserve power, the more equipped you will be to answer any question your prospects have about doing business with you. Not only that, but it will actually become a deterrent to your competitors, once they realized how thorough your knowledge is. I encourage you to invest heavily in understanding your business and niche better than anyone else.

“Improving yourself is a lot more profitable than trying to improve others.” – Dale Carnegie 

Let me hear from you.

(This excerpt is taken from The Sales Academy.) I encourage you to click here to register for The Sales Academy 5-part series running on five consecutive Friday mornings beginning on October 4, 2024, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon Eastern Standard Time at Bellomo & Associates in York, PA.