Hello, and welcome to another episode of "Weirdos in the Workplace". I'm your host, Erin Patchell, your favorite professional people-problem-solver and I’m here to help you turn business philosophy into business fact.
Today we’re talking about the world’s most polarizing and, I think, underrated, skill set - sales.
For a lot of people, even the word “sales” brings up thoughts and feelings that we’d probably rather suppress. Why is that? Stay tuned.
There is no question that to have a successful business, selling needs to be a part of the equation. If you’re the owner of your own business, then you also probably need to be its best salesperson - at least until you’ve established yourself enough to recruit someone who is even more talented than you are. But remember that they’ll never have the same passion for your business as you do.
So why do so many resist learning the tools of the sales trade?
Well, number 1, it’s hard. Especially for specialists or technical people who decide to start a business... and if that's you than this might feel familiar... but sales is the antithesis of perfectionism. It’s something that almost no one is good at. So in order to get really good at sales you really have to either naturally be totally numb to your own failures or if you're a perfectionist or recovering perfectionist, you have to learn to hack your brain’s natural response to failure. Because guess what - even if you have an amazing sales mentor, you have to practice to get good at it, and the first while you’ll just suck, to be honest. You'll feel like a bumbling idiot.
It reminds me of the quote by Will Rogers, American Humorist and old timey film star, “Good judgement comes from experience and a lot that comes from bad judgement.” So yeah - there is little room in sales for perfectionism... just throw that out the window right away.
So, to get good at sales, you have to get resilient and to get over your deep seated fear of rejection. You’re gonna hear a lot more no’s than yes’s probably, even if you're taking a really subtle relationship-building approach.
And there is a negative stereotype about sales. We've all been approached by salespeople who we knew were just trying to make a quick buck. You don't have to be that person. You don't have to be that pushy dishonest or manipulative sales person. So, don't even worry about that. No one is going to perceive you in that way.
You might think that your personality or communication style isn’t ideal for sales. I’m here to tell you, you couldn’t be more wrong. Every single person has strengths that can support relationship building sales and community building sales. Solutions sales.
You might be a humble person who has a hard time with self-promotion. That's OK too. You can be confident that you can help someone without coming across as braggadocious. You can feel confident in your solution, product or the way you can support people and there are some really awesome sales frameworks out there that can help you articulate how you support people without being sales-y at all.
Like the fear of rejection, the fear of not making a sale, not reaching a quota, or otherwise failing in a sales role can make the idea of selling daunting. But again, practicing is the only way of getting through to the other side.
And the most importantly - many people have a total misunderstanding of sales and view it as purely transactional, rather than as an opportunity to help customers solve problems or meet needs.
When I was in college, a million years ago, one of the courses I had to take as part of my business administration program was on sales, and I 100% felt the same way. I absolutely hated it. . Actually, most of what I learned in the third year marketing specialization of my program made me sick to my stomach. We were being taught - or I thought we were being taught - how to get inside our clients heads and use their innermost desires and human psychology to make a buck. It that is something that went really against my values. I didn't understand that at the time, I just felt sick to my stomach, but i understand now that it went against an ingrained value system that I have. It wasn't until much later, I had been carrying this feeling for about 15 years, and it was much later thanks to great mentorship and understanding that there was a different way of doing things, that I realized it didn't have to be the way that I thought. You could be a great salesperson WITHOUT taking advantage of your customers. Actually, the ONLY way to become a truly great salesperson was by NOT taking advantage of your customers and delivering them true value. Something that is going to enhance their lives.
If you’re a business owner or a business leader, then you probably have a sense that delivering value to your customers and creating raving fans is your #1 purpose.
That, my friends, is relationship-focused sales.
Relationship focused sales. It’s something that micro businesses (companies with less than 10 employees) and many small businesses (which is in the 10 to 49 employee range) usually do phenomenally well, because they have to. Small business relies on a smaller niche of customers so it's that much more important to make your customer happy. That gets totally lost in translation when companies start to scale and start to treat all operations like a conveyor belt which includes customer service.
Theodore Roosevelt once said, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." And this quote could not be more relevant to sales.
When we focus on building relationships rather than making sales, we create a community. And in that community, referrals happen naturally. Your customers become your best salespeople because they trust you, they believe in you, and they want to share the great experience they had with you. Cuz guess what - great experiences aren't that common. And this is definitely something that you can do at scale, if you put your energy into the right places.
How can you, as a business owner or business leader, become your company’s best salesperson and lead by example to everyone else on your team on how YOUR company approaches customer relations and selling?
First, assume your way isn’t the best way. Assume there is always a better way to do things, if only you can sharpen your senses enough and pay attention to the right things and get curious. That doesn’t mean you need to constantly be changing things that are working. Keep the things that are working but always be A/B testing - test new ideas and measure them against what you’re already doing. Get a little scientific about it.
Second, start to care a little bit more about your customers. Most of the organizations I have worked with get to a point where they have kind of forgotten who their target audience is because they’ve said yes to so many out-of-scope projects out of a fear of loss. When that happens, it's time to go back to the drawing board. What problems are you What problem are you really solving for your customers? What do they actually care about? Who are they on a deeper level? Sometimes we need to go back to the beginning to refresh our memories. It's important to do that relatively frequently I think.
Third, sales are completely emotional, because relationships are emotional. Trust is hard to develop because most people don’t genuinely care at all to be honest. If all of that caring sounds exhausting, remember that you don’t have to care about every aspect of your customer’s life - you only have to deeply care about the problem you’re solving for them or the opportunity you’re helping them create for themselves, their family, their business, etc, and that’s what you have to get consistent and focused on.
Next, be authentic. People can tell when you're being genuine and when you're putting on a sales persona. So, drop the mask and be yourself. Tell them the truth, even if the truth is ugly. They’ll respect you more for it. The biggest challenge here is that it takes time and energy and work to actually know what the truth is. So get real with yourself, so you can get real with your customers.
And finally - deliver value. Actually deliver value. Whether it's a product, a service, or a piece of advice, whatever it is, make sure it's valuable to your customer.
And if you want to get really good at this, there's lots of training and resources out there. You need to - I know it's going to sound woo - but put it out there in the universe. You need to want to seek out the knowledge. Check out courses on emotional intelligence, active listening, and consultative selling. These skills are not just valuable for sales, but for building relationships in all areas of life. Start to pay attention to the details.
Alright, my fellow weirdos, that's all for today. Remember, sales is not about transactions; it's about connections. It's about creating a community where people feel valued, respected, and listened to. So, embrace relationship-focused sales, and watch as your business grows, not just in sales, but in trust, loyalty, and community.
