Crossing The Line? When A Prospect Lawyers-up!

Let's face it, selling is tough. You deal with endless rejection from the people you seek to help; very few of your friends and family understand the level of difficulty or complexity, nor do they respect what you do. To be successful you need to operate with gravitas and be a leader, warrior, engineer, entertainer, evangelist, consultant, accountant, administrator, fortune teller (forecasting), physiologist, comedian, lawyer, project manager, and talk the language of leaders.

Your frustration levels build when buyers are not honest and your boss fires-up the blow-torch in sales meetings when your deals slip away. "Don't hope!" they say, "Get it closed, tell them the price goes up or the discount goes away if we don't have their purchase order by the end of the month." Crazy trust-destroying stuff if the customer's timing and process does not allow them to comply with your demands.

Should you do whatever it takes and to hell with your values?

You don't want to be someone who lacks integrity. Your personal brand is everything! You must be able to look yourself in the mirror and respect the person staring back

Doing what it takes, rather than merely your best, should never make you aggressive, annoying or immoral in the eyes of partners, colleagues or customers. 'Doing whatever it takes' should relate to your commitment to working hard, personal learning, development and change. It should not result in you violating your personal values.

• Never sell something that you don't believe in.
• Never push someone to buy something they don't need nor can afford.
• Never manipulate someone into a buying decision you know they'll regret.

The main photo in this post is a social media share image from Grant Cardone, legendary sales trainer in the USA. He specializes in driving sales people to hustle, crush it and knock it out of the park so they 10X their results. In one of his videos he celebrates a sales person who received a 'cease and desist' letter from a prospect they were pursuing and they mock the fact that the complainant is from a car dealer. My friend Will Barron  from the UK publishes a video podcast and interviews the best sales leaders in the world. In the video below he provides insightful commentary. 

As a manager, Grant supports his sales person in front of the team and Gary Vaynerchuk provides some good advice without pulling the person down. Grant, Gary and Will all make valid points and everyone is driven by their own values.

Anything that causes a potential client to dislike you should never be celebrated. Negatively motivated people have a huge voice in the era of social media and can do horrendous damage to your personal brand

Sales people drive the economic engine of most businesses. They provide the jobs for everyone else. Celebrate the success of sales people and have empathy for the challenging environment in which they work and their courage to operate in an environment where they fail publicly and are constantly rejected by the people they seek to help.

For every sales person reading this; have belief in what you do and be energetically motivated. But don't cross the line ethically. If someone is genuinely not a prospect because they have other priorities or prefer to do business with someone else, then respect their right to make that decision. Bow out with good grace.

Grant Cardone provides a huge amount of good advice and coaching for free with his YouTube videos. He is the real deal and does everything he teaches. Grant has built a very successful business and significant personal wealth, including his own jet which I'm sure he will 10X.

His high energy and uber-optimistic style can work but don't try to be someone you're not. Stay true to yourself as you strive for success. Seek people with matching values but far better skills and experience that your own.

In contrast, I've worked with sales people who are fans of Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, but I'm not interested in taking advice from someone who does not share my personal values.

Don't lose your soul in selling. Success is who you are, not merely what you have.

You can be an epic winner in your career and life but you must follow people with good values and who are the 'real deal'. Find a sales mentor and coach who shares your values. In the field of business-to-business selling these people also include Jim Cathcart, Anthony Iannarino, Mike Weinberg, John Smibert, Jim Holden, Keith Eades, Jason Jordan, Mark Hunter, Tony Robbins and others.

Thanks Will Barron for producing your video and commentary! You can subscribe to Wills' salesman.red free video podcast here. This is my latest conversation with Will Barron and we discuss "your message in sales".

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' button and also share via your Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Facebook social media platforms. I encourage you to join the conversation or ask questions so feel free to add a comment on this post. Please follow my LinkedIn post page for all my articles and visit me at www.tonyhughes.com.au if you are looking for a keynote speaker go to www.RSVPselling.com for sales methodologies that generate pipeline and manage complex opportunities.