CONVINCE But Never Confuse or Corrupt

It's a famous saying: If you can't convince, Confuse!

Sounds good in political world, where diplomatic statements play a vital role.

But slowly it entered, corporate world and took a shape of 3 C's by so called sales experts or better to say sales folks with political mind set.

If you CAN'T CONVINCE, CONFUSE and if you can't confuse, then corrupt

I heard this many times by many sales folks, as an advice to advance in sales profession (with a cunning smile and ending the statement with a low pitch for the word corrupt)

But, as an intellectual professional, it’ll always be difficult to digest this advice.

Few questions that will hound in the background:

• Am I more intelligent than the customer who is investing to buy what I am selling?
• Will they not come to know in future that, what I told them about product/services was not true?
• Will they not spread the pessimism about my product/services which I sold to them?

As a sales professional, whoever will ask these questions, he/she will never be able to follow this black magic to bankrupt the organization which they represent.

But, more strange part is- There are many sales professionals who hold the crown of Sales Superstar, following this principal.

Let's understand the impact of this quote in two steps:

• What it does to a company?
• Why standard organizations never confuse or corrupt their customers?

1. What it does to a company?

This statement has gained miraculous popularity in small businesses, where numbers are everything, where year on year revenue growth, sorry, in many cases, month on month or week on week revenue growth may be the top priority. And such organizations, consider their best sales performers, not less than a MESSIAH for their organization. And if such sales professionals hold the decision making position then slowly they transform the entire Company into a Casino. And short term growth is achieved keeping aside the long term business impact.

Organization is all about people, and managing people is one of the most complex roles in this world. Any company wants to help their good employees, who may help the organization to grow. But many times it becomes a political competition in sales to prove that I am everything, and without me, the company will collapse in a fraction of seconds.

Here we need to understand one thing - We as an employee, simply represent our company and vice versa. Customers are more interested in understanding what business problem they may resolve for their company if they collaborate with ours. And no Sales person can take the guarantee to provide complete customer satisfaction, because it’s always a collective approach, where every department and every employee’s contribution play a unique role in overall customer satisfaction.

Coming front for taking Credits and finding faces for blaming, may help in climbing the hierarchical ladder, but this philosophy has never made a single leader in the corporate world. A leader, who inspires to learn, motivates to do better and helps to grow others.

In Steve Job’s way :

Management is all about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could

So in simple words - It destroys the vision of company in a long run.

2. Why standard organizations never confuse or corrupt their customers?

By Standard organizations, I don’t mean the size of any organization. Standard organization is more about company’s culture, values and vision.

And role of a Sales Person is sometimes easiest and many times the most difficult.

Why it’s Easy :

Customers never expect any in depth technical knowledge of a particular product or services from a Sales Folk. All they try to understand is about the organization which he represents and how his product or services may help to resolve their business challenges.

Why it’s Difficult :

Most of the time, sales is really tricky. Customers see Entire organization from the eyes of the Sales person who is talking to him. Here is what any customer might be looking for while interacting with a Sales Rep:

• Does this gentleman, made me understand what his company is all about and what provoked him to approach us?

As a sales person, the basic and mandatory skill is to find the target customers.

For a simple reason - I can’t sell anything to anyone.

• Is he able to sense my level of interest for his product or Services?

If someone is least interested, then sales person’s effort in convincing, will have no conclusion. It’s just like - a sales person of a Luxurious Car showroom try to convince me, explaining all the great features of the new model, without understanding that I am not his target audience, and simply stepped in to see the new model, with no intention and no money to buy it.

• ?Is he forcing me to buy?

This makes the situation worst if someone keep on trying after seeing the disinterest of the customer. Whatever may be the reason!

It may be due to any senior's or so called experienced sales person forcing to his junior to follow up till the customer doesn’t use any harsh words or it may be because of the sales persons’ insensitive CROCODILE SKIN (strangely this has high demand in the market today)

Because company thinks, this sales person is really concerned about our organization and trying so hard to sell, even though customers are unhappy with his continuous gentle push. And it' s a common belief that - In sales you need to be rough and tough. Someone may behave unprofessionally but you should not get hurt by their behavior. But, I have never seen anyone misbehaving or talking unprofessionally to a True Sales Person.

In reality, any push to a customer who is not interested, spoils the organizations’ Name, Fame, Reputation and everything they can, because if the customer is not interested then any push will result into Irritation and Frustration, and nothing else

Based on my very little experience in Sales, I have always felt that - Sales is the only profession where highly sensitive people are needed. If we know - why we are selling and why we have requested to a customer for his time, and make him realize that someone has utilized his time to help him learn, understand and think something new, then unknowingly, a great respect arises for the sales person.

• I really want to give a try to his product or services by the way he convinced me but …?

This “But” holds the customer till he experiences the product or services sold to him. At any moment if he feels that the explanation given by sales person about the product or services is not authenticated by the sale, then a great sales person is seen just as a great Bluff Master, and his organization may enjoy the short term win but …? As I said, this “But” doesn’t leave anyone.

That’s why Standard companies rarely find any sales superstars, because sales is always a collective approach for a long term business.

A great Product, A great Service, A great Customer Care, A great Commitment, A great Respect, A great Business Value, can only make A Great Sales and finally it makes a Company Great !!

Hope it was a good read. Your views are most welcome !

** Photos in this article are from web communities, who allow their work to be embraced by everyone for FREE. Thanks to all such people out there !

Best Regards

Ravi Singh

Client Partner

Sasken Technologies Ltd.

www.Sasken.com

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Founder & Customer Service Evangelist

SalesMatinee

www.SalesMatinee.com

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