Be Authentic: Sell to Solve Your Client's Problem, Don't Sell to Sell

I’ve thought a lot about why I’ve been so successful in sales throughout my career and have decided it comes down to something simple. I’ll give you the recipe.

I learned to not care so much about the sale and instead focus on genuinely helping the person on the other end of the phone, or table, to make the right decision.

What if you cared more about helping people with their problems? It will get real interesting…

What if you start sending deals to the competition (if you truly can’t help someone), said no, or maybe this isn’t the best time? What if you really cared that they find the right fit for their business? Two things will happen:

1. You’ll close more deals today because people will trust you as more of an advisor or product expert than a salesperson trying to hit a quota.
2. You’ll close more deals in 6-12 months from all the people who thought it wasn’t the right time or the right fit, because now they trust you as an advisor or product expert.

Don’t Get Me Wrong, I’m in the Business of Selling

The differentiator between great sales and mediocre sales is that some of us sell to help solve a problem and some of us just sell. Some of us are really good at giving information, and some of us are really good at relating our products and services to the buyer needs.

It’s about positioning, it’s psychology, it’s confidence, it’s shaking things up when you need to because every buyer needs a different solution.

If you want to be great, you need to tune out your own motivations and tune in to your customers. It’s important to be consultative, but don’t get me wrong, you’re still in the business of selling. This may sound counterintuitive to the topic of this article, but if you sell something you are passionate about and really believe it can drive impact - it can make it easier to recommend it too.

I’m trying to point out that to really be trusted by buyers, you have to do more than give them information they can most likely just google. You have to bring value and opinions and if you truly believe your product and services are what a person needs, it’s our job to help them to that conclusion by aligning the value of our products with what they value most whether it be objective or subjective values. 

I talk a lot about A.I. and what sales can do to make ourselves A.I. proof. And my friends, A.I. is really good at information giving, not caring about people.

It’s Not About A Methodology. It’s About Authenticity

This idea of caring about who you’re selling to isn’t new, but for some reason it’s hard for a lot of salespeople to shift into this mindset. There are certain approaches like consultative and solution-based selling that sound very similar to caring about a buyer by the conversations you’re trained to facilitate. But I’m talking about more than a methodology. I’m talking about being authentic. 

This is a disruptive “sales trend” that should be on everyone’s radar as buyers gain more power from sellers and look for partners over reps. But my friends, we have to start shifting or more sales will be lost in 2020 to the salespeople who have already adopted this mindset over methodology. 

How can you be more authentic? It’s simple. Care.

Stay tuned for next week’s I Don’t Care About The Sale. I Care About You… Part 2. We’ll talk caring about YOUR people.