The Quintessential Salesman

Friday, February 13, 2015

Perfecting the Art

of "Not Selling"

Kim Michael Copyright January 2015

The world is changing and so too, the world of sales. There was a time when people would answer the phone and get excited about winning something, or of getting something for free. Not any more. The constant barrage of sales pitches and the relentless way they are being thrust at us, have changed the way we think. People now know nothing is for free. You leave your name and number in a bowl for a drawing and within three days you will have a dozen telemarketers calling you. You buy something at a store and leave your email address and suddenly your getting twenty emails a day, often from the same company. All of this has a market changing quality to it that extends into the professional world.

I am constantly amazed at how many variations there are of methodologies to selling. My first foray into professional sales was "features and benefits", then it was “relationship" selling, then it was "solution selling” and most recently I saw the idea of “insight” selling—all valuable components of selling, to be sure, but for anyone who thinks any one of these are the "do all” and "be all" to successful sales—they will find out very quickly, the real world does not revolve on methodology.

The first thing I recommend anyone do when they first join a sales team is remove the word “sales” from their vernacular. The word pigeonholes others into believing you are the same type of individual who has called them a dozen times at home, or the insurance salesman who won’t leave, or a host of relentless others who won’t take “no" for an answer. As professionals we live in the backlash of the sins of others, and to overcome it we have to be different.

My experience has been that the most successful people in sales are the ones who are able to leave the concept of “sales” at the door step. They make selling a “human” interaction—which it is. They listen more than they talk. They ask the kind of questions that open doors rather than break them down. And they realize that a client’s emotional needs are as important (if not more) as the hard asset needs they are there to address. And finally they are proactive, leading the process instead of merely reacting to it.

We don’t have to come armed with a multitude of sales tactics to find a prospect’s needs and close deals. We don’t have to be better analysts of a prospect’s business than they are, and in most cases we aren’t. We are only required to be experts in a few areas and what makes us more effective in those areas is that we can be “focused", where our clients are often wearing many different hats at one time. True, good relationships will lead to bigger and better opportunities—which makes the process of growing a relationship “organically” far more important.

One of the greatest sales of my life is when I asked my wife to marry me and she said “yes”. Did I know all the her needs at the time of the close? I guarantee the answer is no. Did she know mine? Again... the answer is no. But that relationship over the years opened new doors for me, new ideas, things I would not have experiences or even thought of, suddenly were on my horizon. That’s what a good relationship is, that’s what effective partnering is. What I brought the the table were abilities and perspectives that she did not have and visa versa.

Today companies come to outsource companies looking for more than just specific solutions to problems. They may start out there, but beneath those initial needs, they are also looking for good relationships and good partnerships that add to their horizon in a way that each finds value in the other’s involvement, each becoming a good steward of the other's needs, and expanding each other’s horizon. Those relationships, like marriages don’t end with “yes”- they begin with “yes”.

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Rule of 25

“The Twenty-Five Truths of Sales

I. THE QUINTESSENTIAL SALESMAN - The most crucial element of any SALE, is not the product or service that is being sold…but the SALES PERSON who is selling it.

II. SUCCESS - Success has different meanings to different people. Understanding what success is to you is to know the door you must choose and the key that will unlock it.

III. BELIEF - The opportunity we hold in our hands is what we choose it to be-- and what we become, is what we choose to become.

IV. RELATIONSHIPS - Selling is first and foremost, a human interaction driven primarily by relationships, and our ability to create those relationships. To invest both time and effort in understanding prospects as people is to inspire in them to make the same investment in you.

V. BALANCE - Seek the balance between success and failure; neither the “highs” nor the “lows” of a career should be allowed to define your future.

VI. HUMILITY - I am reminded of the atheist who wakes up every morning and takes a moment to raise his eyes upward and say thanks for the life that he has been given, not because it is important for something, or someone, in the great somewhere to hear it, but because it is important for he, himself, to hear it.

VII. CONSISTENCY - In business you are either moving toward your goals or moving away from them. To remain in one place is to fall behind by virtue of a world that will continue to move around you. Consistency is cultivating the discipline of focus, continuing to do what you know to be right, even when success or failure is not immediately apparent to guide it.

VIII. SELF ADVOCACY – Never expect another person to put your best interests above their own. You must be your own protector, your own motivator, your own inspiration, and above all, your own greatest advocate.

IX. QUESTION – Learn to question everything. It is the doorstep of creativity, the mainstay of truth, and the one true weapon against deceit.

X. INTEGRITY - All that is legal is not necessarily moral or ethical. Integrity begins and ends with the basic understanding within one’s self of what is right and what is not.

XI. PROFIT- The single most important goal of any company or individual is to make a profit. Without profit, there is no equity, no excellence, no integrity, no philanthropy, and no quality. It is the life blood of commerce that makes our jobs, our society and our world possible.

XII. REALITY -It is possible for a company and/or an individual to do everything wrong and still be successful. It is also possible for companies and/or individuals to do everything right and still fail. The most difficult form of success is one that masks all the things you did wrong to attain it.

XIII. LUCK-- People who believe in luck and possibility, open themselves to life’s providence. People who trust in LUCK, commit themselves to the randomness of fate.

XIV. CATYLST - We transmit to others the kind of energies we attracted. Our lives are the true reflection of what we think and who we are, often on a scale far greater than our conscious ability to make it seem otherwise.

XV. COMMITMENT- The best laid plans without a conscious commitment to make them happen are doomed. The road to Hell may not be paved with good intentions, but it is certainly fortified by good intentions that are not acted upon.

XVI. CHOICE--There will always be a better mousetrap, a lower rate, a better price, a smarter person, yet none of these will have an impact upon your own success—unless you let them.

XVII. ADVANCEMENT- Actively pursue your own advancement. Never, never, never, wait for a company, or individual, or an opportunity, to pursue you.

XVIII. FAILURE - You will fail. All sales professionals fail, the best ones find ways to fail less often and learn from the experience. Never let a failure pass without taking responsibility for it and learning from the experience.

XIX. ENDURING - A sale is never over. The validation of a sale, and you as a sales professional, is in the actualization of what you have sold and its continuing value to those whom you have sold it.

XX. PERCEPTION -The greatest demise of those who are highly successful is they make what they do appear easy, masking their true value to the people for whom the effort is spent. Never underestimate someone else’s ability to marginalize or underestimate you.

XXI. PATIENCE- React calmly, never let emotional untruths cloud your perception of events that surround you and be mindful that everything must happen in its own time and not necessarily in the time frame you have set for it.

XXII. EXCELLENCE - The Pursuit of EXCELLENCE begins with; The COURAGE to recognize your weaknesses, the COMMITMENT to change them into STRENGTHS, and the TENACITY to make them lasting.

XXIII. TENACITY - Tenacity is the inability to accept defeat. Tenacity does not believe in “no win” scenarios. Tenacity knows there is always another way, another option, another direction, even if it appears otherwise. Tenacity learns from failure and is strengthened by it.

XXIV. CHANGE - All things change, in life, in business, in nature. To see change and perceive that something has ended or ceased to exist is to blind yourself to its existence in a new form. The face of “need” may change, but the nature of “need” will always remain the same.

XXV. FEAR - The most repeated phrase in the bible is “Fear Not”. It is mentioned three hundred and sixty six times; more than any other single sentiment. The most destructive forces to the human heart are fear and anger, and though anger can consume a mind, it is fear that can consume a soul.