People buy-in to this before they buy-in to safety.

When selling your team on the benefits of safety, you must remember this one key element that is more likely to create buy-in than any compelling argument you may have for safety. Watch the video.

 

Safety shouldn’t have to be sold. People get hung up on the word selling like it’s a bad thing.

But selling happens everywhere. An innocent man shouldn’t have to sell a jury to stay out of prison. But he does. You sell if you want a raise. You sell when you try to convince your kids to clean up their room. You sell your spouse on what movie you want to watch.

However, no one buys-in to anything that doesn’t make their lives better in some way.

It’s why you buy cars, vacations, education, insurance, investments. You buy-in when you figure out how your life will be better.

 

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Safety is sold the same way too. It’s not about shoving safety down the throats of your people. It’s about helping them see that safety improves their lives in a way that perhaps they are not seeing it.

Back in 1997, in my very first book (Knock Knock! Who's There? The Out-Of-Your-Mind Approach to Cold-Calling - no longer in print), I wrote about the 2-sales rule.

In every sales situation, there are two sales. The first sale is you: the salesperson. The second sale is whatever is in the briefcase – the product, point-of-view, or idea.

The 2-Sales Rule says: If you don’t make the first sale, you will never make the second sale.

 

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People buy the salesperson before they ever buy what that person is selling. We don’t buy from people we don’t trust. Your people must buy-in to you before they will buy-in to your ideas.

We buy from people we trust. And if the person we trust and respect asks for our buy-in to safety, we are more likely to give it.

Remember, you don't need more rules and reminders in safety. You need more of your employees to buy-in. And that takes a very different approach.

Topics: safety leadership, safety culture, safety buy-in