The 2nd Most Important Thing in Sales

Immediately after graduating from college, I moved from Michigan to Denver, Co. It was a great adventure. I took a job selling furniture for a family-owned furniture retailer that was launching a new concept store that eventually evolved into what is today Furniture Row Shopping Centers. They currently have 330 locations nationally.

I didn’t move cross-country for the job. I was more interested in the mountains; snowboarding, mountain biking, and hiking. However, my hobbies didn’t completely distract me from learning a new craft. My early successes would have been impossible if not for the assistance of my first sales mentors, including a man named Peter Engel.

A year after my arrival, the company was ready to begin executing its expansion plans by opening its 2nd location across town. Peter was sought out and recruited from a local competitor to be the store manager.  I was chosen to be his assistant manager. We barely knew each other and had virtually nothing in common. Peter had 20 years of sales and sales management experience in the furniture industry and I had one. Peter was in his 40s, married with two teenaged children, and spent his spare time as an active member in his church and doing missionary work. Whereas I was 24, single, and spent my time in the mountains and playing hockey. I was well aware that we had an uneven relationship but I was able to still bring value to Peter with my knowledge of our back-office and who the players were within our organization. We got along well from day one because we had one common goal.

Opening a new retail store is a tremendous undertaking. We were working long hours, 7 days a week. Interviewing/hiring both sales and warehouse personnel while simultaneously wheeling around furniture, setting up vignettes, assembling accent tables, and placing lamps and assorted accessories. It was hard and dirty work but it was also fun because we could see the store coming together as we prepared for our rapidly approaching Grand Opening. 

One sunny afternoon, we broke for lunch. The crew: Mike, Cindy, Judy, Tom, and our warehouse supervisor Tim – had just returned from visiting our new friend Tony who recently opened a Subway sub shop two doors down. We had our sandwiches as we sat down to eat and casually chit-chat. Looking back, we were becoming a team, getting to know each other. Peter joined us and decided to use this moment to speak to the whole team.

“Do you know what the 2nd most important thing in sales is?” Peter inquired. 

I was taken off guard by Peter’s question, up until then the conversation was very light-hearted. I could sense Peter was about to make an important point. Looking around I could tell the entire staff was having similar thoughts. Mike, the former produce manager (who would quickly establish himself as our top sales producer), spoke up for the group:

“No. I’ll bite. What is it?”

“Sincerity. Sincerity is the 2nd most important thing in sales.” Peter proclaimed. 

We were puzzled. Immediately, he explained how important it is to genuinely care about our prospective customers, the value of qualifying their needs, and helping them to select the right furniture for their homes. He went on about how it was imperative to show empathy when handling customer care issues. Even if a client made a complaint about the most trivial item, it must have been important to them. Peter was very eloquent and passionate in his delivery. There was zero doubt in my mind that he was being sincere as he spoke making his words very impactful. I scanned the group gauging how they were receiving Peter’s message.  I could tell that Peter was getting the desired result. Everyone was taking his message to heart.

Peter had made his point and as we were about to drop back into our idle conversation when Peter spoke up again posing a follow-up question.

“Do you want to know what the most important thing in sales is?”

This time I spoke up before Mike had the chance. “Yeah, we ALL want to know.”

Peter looked at each of us one after the other, confirming he had our attention. There was a slight pause. Then Peter quipped:

“Faking sincerity.”

I laughed out loud, we all did. You just chuckled too if I am retelling this story properly.

We were had. Peter had suckered us in with his story of the ‘2nd most important thing’, just to make a joke. In my defense, I didn’t know Peter had a sense of humor.

However, Peter wasn’t done. He continued to explain how we all have our own personal lives outside of work and sometimes the lines are blurred. The day will come when you will have a bad day; your elderly mother is in declining health, you had a drag-out spat with your spouse, you have a sick child, the Broncos lost to the Raiders. This list literally has no end. However, the point Peter was making is: it is our professional responsibility to not let these negatives bleed over into our professional lives or to at least minimize the impact. He warned us about the day our dog dies and we are confronted by an upset client over a delivery issue, a damaged end table, or a fabric that doesn’t match the carpet as anticipated. He stressed how important it was that we try to set our feelings and emotions aside to best serve our customers. We may need to potentially “fake” sincerity to take care of the client in need.

So in the end, it wasn’t a joke. Peter taught us all an important lesson. Sometimes, for the short-term, it is OK to “fake” sincerity because we can’t be on point all the time. We can be both human and a professional without being the clichéd dishonest snake oil salesman.

Twenty-some years later this is still a valuable lesson that I try to apply to both my professional and personal relationships. People are people and when interacting with clients, prospects, colleagues, spouses, siblings, friends, children, or neighbors alike sometimes we have to fake it till we make it. This doesn’t diminish from our passion or sincerity we feel for our clients or loved ones but more indicative of the realization that we are entitled to have off moments or even off days sometimes.