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Can Overcoming Sales Reluctance Be This Simple?
Have you or your team ever had "sales reluctance?" The most instance success I have had at training people to overcome this in a heartbeat is getting people to remember what selling really is. Let me explain. It intrigues me how many people feel apologetic about selling something they truly believe in. I find this fascinating. If you believe in what you do, and you believe that it would be of value to others, and if you are motivated by serving other people – then it is a dis-service not to be as great at selling as you can. I have a fundamental belief that selling = conviction + service. That's it. That's all. Think about a situation where someone benefited from your services recently. You got some money from the transaction which I imagine you probably don't have in your wallet any more. They got a benefit which they still enjoy to this day. So who benefited more from the transaction - them or you? This is the example Zig Ziglar uses to prove that true sales is in fact service, because the other party will always win more than you do?" Feeling shy about asking someone to look at the benefits of what we offer is not “polite”; it is ego (in the form of fear-of-rejection) standing in the way of service. If you have total conviction in what you do, and you are motivated by serving others then selling comes automatically. If you do not have total conviction in what you do, then find the reason to have conviction, or find something you can have conviction in. Otherwise, what you do will feel like a struggle and your results will be more sporadic. True selling is the authentic combination of your inner conviction + your outer expression of service. Last week I was having lunch with Aki. Aki is a larger-than life 6 foot 3 German and a great all-round guy who also had the decency to agree when I asked him to join the board of a then-little company called Biomatters some time ago. Unexpectedly, at his instigation our conversation took a side-alley and veered towards the topic of "Authenticity". He told me that when he started off in the Pharma industry they were all given sales-training, whether they were going to be full time sales reps or not. At his first post-training meeting, he not only failed to position the product, but the “methods” he was asked to use grated. He asked top sales people at the company “Hey does this sales training work?” They all said “No – be yourself but also have total conviction in what you’re selling…” The second meeting he went in and literally just made a connection, talked about the weather and started by saying “This is just the 2nd time I’ve done this, so I might stuff up, but lets just have a chat.” At the end he said “By the way, they want me to leave this with you”. “What’s that?” said the Dr. “Its a suppository – it’s supposed to be quite good.” “Leave it with me” replied the Dr. How did Aki’s career work out? Not too bad - he eventually became the EU President of Bristol Myers Squibb, managing 7000 employees and a Multi-Billion Euro Budget. Once again his story illustrates that selling happens naturally when we combine conviction and service to our fellow human-being. Authenticity trumps “technique” every time. Selling = conviction + service
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