C. Lee Smith, author of SalesCred: How Buyers Qualify Sellers, has been in sales for 35 years and has a passion for helping customers solve their pain points. He strongly believes that salespeople can create a positive outcome on prospects’ lives by helping them solve a problem and achieve their goals. Smith wrote the book for people with short attention spans as he understands that salespeople and managers are busy people. Their company time should be spent closing deals, so the book sums up 140 points – something anyone can tweet, and then ask introspective questions. His goal was to get readers to get through it quickly so it can create an immediate impact, improve their behavior and credibility in order to improve their sales.
Only 1 in 4 people in North America view salespeople as credible. While Smith laments that sales professionals are often judged by their worst practitioners, he insists salespeople should have a high degree of credibility to potentially attract higher-level clients, gain access to key decision-makers, and sell from a position of strength. He adds, “Credibility is a pre-requisite of trust. You cannot be a trusted advisor, and achieve trust unless you have credibility.” However, having credibility doesn’t mean people trust you. These are two separate things that people often put together as one when they should be separate. Smith also discussed the most common mistakes salespeople make, such as failing to update their LinkedIn profiles, and offers one key best practice for those looking to increase their credibility, “Act like you’ve been there before.”
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