There's an often-quoted, always mis-attributed aphorism that goes, "If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always got." It points to the fact that if you want to get different results, you have to change your activities. If you want to different outputs, you need different inputs. Sounds simple, right? But if it's simply a matter of different inputs, then why do many of us consistently fail to change our sales results? It's because at the beginning of each new year, each new quarter, and each new sales contest, salespeople sit down and promise themselves (and their sales managers) that it's … [Read more...]
How to Build Empathy with Your Prospects (And Boost Your Empathy Skills at the Same Time)
The robots are coming. And they're here to take your sales job. At least, that's what we're afraid of. It might be true that technology can be integrated into many steps of the sales process. But it can't do everything. For now, there are a number of skills that computers can't learn. One of those is our human ability to create empathetic connections with prospects and customers. This is a key ability for the modern seller. By developing your empathy skills, you'll find your sales conversations much more effective. And more importantly, you'll create a skill set that is in demand and hard to replace with technology. What is … [Read more...]
What to Do When You Feel Like a Fraud in Sales
An early mentor once described sales as a "transfer of confidence from you to your potential client". So what should you do when you can't find your confidence? Even worse, what if deep down you think that you're a fraud and that everyone is just about to figure that out? Feeling Like a Fraud When Selling At its core, impostor syndrome reflects a lack of confidence in yourself and your abilities. It's the impulse to look at our inadequacies and failures as the defining feature of us, even in the face of evidence to the contrary. It's important to understand that all of us have doubts and fears about our capabilities, but what … [Read more...]
3 Mistakes That Set Your Sales Conversation Up for Failure (And What To Do Instead)
There's the old, tired cliche that all things being equal, people do business with those they know, like, and trust. ...Here's the thing, it's an old, tired cliche because it's FRICKIN' TRUE. If you are trying to build your sales success by taking shortcuts and not creating that trust, that emotional bond, with your prospects and customers, you are building a house on a foundation of sand. But it doesn't take much time, or any fancy tricks, to create that connection with your prospects and leverage the most powerful sales tool you have in the modern sales toolkit: your humanity. Build a Human Foundation Too often, we think a gimmick … [Read more...]