Sales is an uncomfortable career. As a salesperson, your performance is constantly measured, you face rejection daily, and you’re expected to approach strangers and build friendships. That’s your job, and it’s uncomfortable.
However, there is one thing that salespeople do that’s pretty easy: they gravitate to the role of people pleaser. We’re trained to be people pleasers. We’re supposed to be polite to everyone, never interrupt a customer, entertain our clients, and always go the extra mile to support our accounts. All these behaviors are important to a salesperson’s success, but we tend to believe that we should always be a gracious host that never says “no”. When we have some success, our beliefs are validated. Unfortunately, the persona that has delivered some success holds us back from greatness.
Yes, customers want you to please them, but they also want you to lead them. They don’t need information anymore; they need expertise and leadership. They need their salesperson to take charge and be the authority in most settings. And that brings us to the one trait that holds most good salespeople from greatness...
Salespeople are afraid to lead their customers.
They’ve fallen into a trap of believing that taking charge of conversations will hurt their relationships; when taking on a leadership persona will actually secure their relationships. You can do both. Leading your customers and taking charge of your relationship doesn’t mean you can’t also be polite, take them out to fun lunches, and let them know that they’re the customer. You can do both, and that’s when you’ll begin to attain greatness.
