I was with a client in Houston this week facilitating a strategy / training meeting with their sales team. Part of the session was a role playing exercise where we practiced our Disarming Authority approach. One of their sales people is brand new and jumped to volunteer, which is rare in role playing exercises – especially since he hadn’t been through the Disarming Authority training. I couldn’t refuse his enthusiasm and let him jump in.
He did everything wrong … everything. How could he have done it right? He hadn’t been through the training. However, I’d buy from the guy. I’d buy from him because of one thing … he was himself.
If I was forced to give only one piece of advice to sales professionals, it would be this: be yourself. I’ve written about this before and will likely write about it again because it’s so important and rarely discussed. Regardless of how efficient you are, how well you ask questions, how many problems you anticipate and find for your customers, or how you’re able to connect the dots between their problems and your solutions, one fact is still true: people buy people. We like to interact with others that are comfortable in their skin and not putting on an act.
Be yourself. Be your imperfect, hard-working, vulnerable self… and watch the sales start pouring in.
