Sales Bravery & Guts

Avoiding the Hard Conversations is Not Selling. - Matthew Neuberger

In sales, How much has wimping out cost you?

I've heard Courage referred to as Doing it Scared. Unfortunately, like many of you probably already know, I've discovered it's way easier said than done. Us humans are Typically our own worst enemy when it comes to sales success, but what if I told you there was a cure that would only take 5 seconds per application? You may be asking, What's the catch? First, Consider how we think about Sales Risk in 5 seconds or less:

1. We convince ourselves that there is a high probability of something going wrong
2. We exaggerate the consequences of what might happen if things go wrong
3. We give ourselves no credit to manage the situation if things go wrong
4. We discount the cost of inaction and sticking with the status quo

So why do we think this way? Simple, our Ego. We're emotional creatures and we're hard-wired with fear, doubt, and worry. A few specific reasons can be our high need for approval, emotional involvement in the sale, concept of money, personal buy cycle, lack of equal business stature, or our head-trash/record collection.

Here's an example of how our thinking about risk can get us in trouble: Let's pretend we have a poor money concept and we're not comfortable bringing up budget parameters during the early stages of the sales process because we fear the prospect won't share it with us and will likely get upset. So we skip the budget conversation and the prospect asks us to work up a quote and we end up investing hours of time gathering resources, data and case studies to put together a proposal for the prospective customer. The next week it's time to go over the proposal with the prospect, everything is going great, we reveal the dollar amount needed for the solution, and the prospect's smile quickly disappears and states "That's 3 times the amount we can afford!"...Clearly not an ideal, effective or efficient place to be in, even if we can recover...

You only have to be Gutsy 5 seconds at a time! Sales Bravery only takes short bursts of gutsy action like asking that tough question to qualify the opportunity, planting your feet when a prospect or customer is beating you up on price, or reversing a hardball question. In the example above, if we simply had the guts to be brave for 5 seconds we could of asked a question to start the budget conversation and properly set the stage for investment expectations before spending hours proposing a solution that should've never happened.

Here are some tips on how to be gutsy in sales:

• Be willing to die on a sales call, which simply means don't be tied to the outcome. You can't control the prospect's decision, you can only control your behavior and the sales process. We have a rule at Sandler Training - You can't lose anything you don't have. You must possess the mindset of I'm financially independent and I don't need the business.
• Earn the right to ask the tough questions by building rapport and trust, and setting the expectation up-front for what will happen during each interaction. Sales pros get paid to adjust, not to get people to see it through our eyes. To understand others, you must first understand yourself to be able to quickly build a comfortable environment to do business.
• Egoless Selling is about having no need for approval, no fear of being wrong and not knowing it all. We often say, when under attack, fall back. Don't be afraid to let your guard down, fall on your sword, and show humility and express candor. A prospect will respect you far more for being disarmingly honest instead of 'blue skying' everything like most salespeople.
• The Difference between Fear and Motivation is Action. The only way to conquer fear is action! Don't let fear, doubt and worry make you afraid to behave and take action. If you feel bad learn from it and let it go, if you feel anxious create an action plan and execute.
• Tonality and body language are everything. With the right awareness and technique we can say and ask any tough question. You may have heard the saying there are no stupid questions, Hogwash! How you ask a question can make a great question seem stupid, abrasive and intrusive. Struggle, soften and get permission.

No Guts, No Gain! The mindset and execution of being gutsy in sales conversations and having sales bravery during defining moments of the sales process are powerful concepts that can truly be differentiators in highly competitive business environments. Sales is a slight edge business and being gutsy can give you that edge to achieve greater heights of sales success.

So, how much has wimping out and not having those tough conversations cost you? Hundreds, Thousands, Millions? Lessons Learned have a price tag! My most recent lesson learned cost me upwards of $50k in gross revenue...A lesson I will be sure not to repeat.

Have a story where you avoided a tough conversation and it ended up costing you! Like and Comment Below!