Passion is hailed as a “must have” in sales. Sales, after all, is the transfer of passion (many argue). They’ll follow this up with if you’re not passionate about your product, why should your prospect be.
Here’s the problem – passion in sales is poorly defined. Passion (in modern definitions) is actually uncontrolled emotion, or desire (like, love, joy). If we’re talking about the desire to help someone, then yes, you need passion.
However, that’s not what’s taught. Instead, passion is conflated with enthusiasm and excitement – two emotions that create intensity and urgency.
These don’t engender trust from a prospect.
The heavy emphasis on passion also moves conversation to the product or service instead of the prospect and what’s most important to them.
It’s important to believe in what you do, but in sales, passion (i.e. emotional appeals) needs to be balanced with ethics and logic. Aristotle’s three-part approach to persuasion – Ethos, Pathos, Logos – can help:
Ethos (Ethics) – integrity & honesty. You need to be believable. Sales folks are already at a deficit in this department. Excitability does not help here.
Pathos (Passion) – tapping into your prospect’s emotions – what’s motivating them (not us) is what really matters. Appealing to emotions is helpful to engage a prospect’s internal motivators, but it’s not the end game.
Logos (Logic) – you need to make sense with supporting data and clear actions that lead to success, instead of rambling on passionately.
Practicing the balance of these three in your sales conversations creates a non-anxious space. This creates safety for your “prospect’s emotions” so they can engage, explore, and ask questions.
Selling is not the transfer of passion – it’s the transfer of power…empowering & enabling your prospects to get to where they want to go.