Rules To Help You #SellLikeYou
Professional selling was an enigma to me when I was getting started. I was out on my own on a daily basis: no bullpen, no sales floor, and no water cooler. Through the unfortunate timing of some circumstances, my onboarding experience wasn’t exactly robust. “Go get ‘em, kid!”
Naturally, I looked for books to read (this was before social media was a thing). I was regularly listening to audio programs from Nightingale Conant (30-day trials made it like a remote library), and while I learned a lot about what it meant to be in business (Harvey Mackay had a profound impact on me), there wasn’t a lot available at the time that was strictly about selling.
One day, at a sales meeting, someone mentioned The Little Red Book of Selling. There was a Borders Books on my way home, and I had $20 burning a hole in my pocket, so I picked up a copy and was introduced to Mr. Jeffrey Gitomer.
It was the first sales book I’d ever picked up that really resonated with me. He gave me principles to follow and concepts to think about instead of words to say. “People hate to be sold, but they love to buy” was not just his mantra but a completely different way for me to think about selling. The in-your-face style of delivery, while not for everyone, was exactly what I was looking for, and it delivered.
I think I bought that book five times before I finished reading it. I couldn’t help but give it to people because I was so excited about it. My personal copy was actually given to me by my wife. She wrote a note in it so I wouldn’t give it away!
Principles have always guided my sales approach. They allow me the flexibility to act in the moment while providing boundaries for the say-it-out-loud test.
“Wait, Jeff… what’s the say it out loud test?”
Oh, that’s where you decide if something makes sense by saying it out loud. For instance, “I’m definitely gonna make my number this year without doing any prospecting,” or “I’m going to lose ten pounds this quarter without increasing my activity or eating any less.” Neither of those statements passes the test. Got it?
In the spirit of Jeffrey’s 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness and the 21.5 Unbreakable Laws of Selling, I’m providing my own rules to enable you to #SellLikeYou, and deliver your best results.
Rule #1: Be someone worth talking to
Your reputation precedes you, and everywhere you go, there you are. When you’re trying to get a prospect’s attention, they’re going to look you up before they decide if they want to meet with you.
What will they find? Do you have a professional reputation that justifies a conversation with you? Do you have a personal website (your LinkedIn profile would count)? Do you look like someone who can carry a relevant conversation, or are your social feeds just a bunch of pictures of you acting like a fool with your friends?
You’re being judged before you have an opportunity to defend yourself. Be aware of that, and make changes where necessary.
Rule #2: Have something worth talking about
On the list of common places where sellers screw up, starting meaningful conversations is always near the top. The most common mistake is trying to lead with your product or solution instead of the problem or issue you know your prospect is dealing with.
Nobody cares about your product.
I’ll say it again… nobody cares about your product.
They all, however, care about the issues they’re dealing with at the moment, of which there are many. Can you speak to one or two of those issues? Do you have insights to share about how they may be able to approach the solutions? Could you be a resource, or are you just salivating over the potential commission?
Not coincidentally, the key to fulfilling rule #1 above and being someone worth talking to is to have a lot of things worth talking about.
Rule #3: If you cannot differentiate, you cannot sell
I first wrote about this in The Five Forgotten Fundamentals of Prospecting, and not surprisingly, this is the key to having something worth talking about.
You want to present different approaches and information than your competitors. Being different from theaters in your space provides the opportunity to start conversations. Saying you’re better than your competitors opens the door to arguments. I know you need to get emotions involved in your process, but those are the wrong kinds of emotions.
Of course, your objective differences will lead to subjectively better results, but you want to have as many clearly defined conversations as possible. This also allows you to sell against your competitors without talking smack about them.
“They’re doing a lot of great things over there at ABC Manufacturing, and they have several loyal customers. What we’ve found is that our approach resonates differently with people, and it creates outcomes in ways they can’t.”
That’s a high road that’s tough to argue with, even by your competition.
These differentiators will also allow you to have conversations with people who aren’t ready to buy. Those discussions are really valuable because they help you determine the factors that customers are thinking about when they make purchases like yours. I’ll go back to Gitomer on this, but “understanding buying motives is 1000 times more valuable than having selling skills.”
When you know how a decision is being made, you can have influence at the root of the purchase. That’s far different than waving your hand in the air and screaming, “Pick me! Pick me!” You're competing on something other than price, which means you keep your margins intact. There’s more dignity in it, too (refer back to Rule #1).
