“Oh, I hate sales!” You can see and feel the disgust from the folks who share these sentiments. The hard reality is that they have good reason. There is so much noise and confusion regarding sales it can be hard to see the positives.
I think that life is too short to be walking around with hate in our hearts.
To help, below are three common areas that annoy people about sales. I’ve included the counter argument and a few suggestions on how you can avoid them and provide real value to your prospects.
Stop playing the hero – sales is often portrayed as a smooth talking, persuasive salesperson who swoops in to save the day. Or they’re the hard-driving closer who wins the deal despite all the odds.
This is not professional sales. This is how amateurs sell, and how sales is depicted on film.
Instead – play the guide. Be the trusted guide who understands their prospect and can solve the problem they’re wrestling with. Sales is not about manipulation or high pressure. It’s about helping people through a process so they can make a positive change. This involves allowing them to own that change for themselves so they feel good about it.
Empowering heroes to solve their problem feels good. Don’t play the hero. Guide the hero in their quest to slay their dragons.
This is professional selling.
Avoid Toxic masculinity – you can see hints of this everywhere in sales. It’s even in the paragraph above – the hard-driving closer. It’s also depicted in sales books, social media, and job ads. Words like hunter, road warrior, and take no prisoners closer suggest tones that do not resonate with professional selling. Winning isn’t bad. Being good at sales isn’t bad either. Rather, these depictions of sales are violent and aggressive. They twist what sales really is about, i.e., helping people.
Instead – practice listening and curiosity. Seek to understand so that you can help someone – even challenge someone to think differently – so that they find their way.
Sales is not about aggression. Sales is about creating a safe environment to explore your prospect’s situation. This feels so much better for everyone. Learning how to do this makes you not just a better salesperson, it makes you a better person, period.
Welcome Rejection – of course, no one likes to be rejected. It’s hard to get a no. It can be difficult to stay motivated when people don’t respond positively to something we’re excited about. However, there’s a different way to think about rejection – welcome it.
Fear of rejection in sales stems from the fact that salespeople think it’s their responsibility to get a yes. It’s not. This is the prospect’s responsibility. They need to decide to make a change for themselves. A salesperson’s job is to facilitate that journey.
Instead – welcome rejection. The sooner you know the rejection, the sooner you can address it or move on to someone who wants your help. This is not done flippantly. Rather, as a professional, your time is valuable. If you have discovered need and offered a solution AND provided freedom of choice, to your prospect, you’ve done your job.
You can feel good about that.