Today I was talking to a salesperson about how they get past challenging gatekeepers. He told me that he flicks a stack of index cards against his wrist to make a helicopter sound and tells the gatekeeper, “look I’m about to get on a helicopter and I really need to tell John one quick thing.”
Seriously, I can’t make this stuff up.
I was speechless – a rare thing for most salespeople.
Grifter or Salesperson
That is exactly what is wrong with sales. Did you grow up thinking you wanted to be a salesperson? Why not? Probably because even you now have a part of your brain that tells you salespeople are sleazy, dishonest, out-for-a buck bad people. Admit it? Is that the picture you have? What about your parents or your spouse?
Well it might not be true but guys like the one I was talking to today make it seem like it.
If it isn’t true don’t say it.
If you have to be manipulative in order to win find a different prospect or customer.
Understand the difference between spin and dishonesty. We all polish our brass to look better than the next guy. That’s not lying. Selling stock in the Brooklyn bridge is. Know the difference.
You Sell From Who You Are!
If I had only one piece of advice I could give this would be it. If there was only one sales truth that I’ve found universally true no-matter what this would be it:
You sell from who you are!
And clients know it.
Prospects know it.
Your spouse knows it.
Bernie Madoff made a lot of money. Judge Ziglar (yeah, Zig had a brother) used to sell cutlery to poor folks without a kitchen. I don’t want to be either of those guys. Do you?
A sales career can be long or short. It can be hard or it can be good. It can be successful or fail. Who you are will have more to do with those things than any other factor.
Being deceptive, making helicopter sounds to get past a young woman just trying to do her job only results in two possible outcomes. You’ll end up being another Walter Mitty (Death of a Salesman) or a Blake (Alex Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross). One is a poor miserable failure not respected by his peers or his family. The other, a rich SOB that is more sociopath, more grifter than a sales professional.
Influence, Persuasion, Manipulation, Selling
Guys use all kinds of techniques to sell. They blur into one another as if they don’t matter if you’ve gotten the signature on the line which is dotted. Influence is persuasion is manipulation is selling. That’s just not true.
Trust can be earned. Trust can be given. Trust can be broken.
But Trust restored, well that is a very difficult thing to accomplish.
Integrity Still Matters
Not everyone likes me. Not everyone even respects me. I suppose you could say the same thing couldn’t you? But what no-one can say is that I’ve cheated them or lied to them. Period. What can people say about you? What are they saying? What do you think of yourself?
Do you have enough self-worth (good pride) not to play helicopter on the phone?
and this is why it matters…
Because people do business with me because they know that about me – even those that perhaps, and I know it’s hard to imagine, those that don’t like me all that much.
I don’t have to beat my chest. I don’t have to ask for referrals. People want to work with me – they want to buy from me.
Because…
At the end of the day they KNOW that I’m in it for their best interest. Taking care of them helps me, I’m still a capitalist with mouths to feed and a mortgage to pay. However I subscribe to Zig’s mantra that you can get everything you want if you just help enough other people get what they want. The simplest way (notice I didn’t say easiest or quickest) of doing that is to have integrity.
You sell from who you are. Who you are determines what you’re willing to do and what you won’t do.
Who you are comes across in everything you say and do. If your actions aren’t congruent with what you’re saying it’s probably because you’re lying. Sorry for being so harsh. It may not be intentional. You many not even know that you’re doing it. That is why I say we sell from who we are – and who we are always comes through, always.