KEEPIN' IT REAL

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," the Rabbit asked, "or bit by bit?" 

"'Real' doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept."

                       - The Velveteen Rabbit

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Everyone believes they are a guerrilla marketing sales ninja, swimming with sharks, winning friends, influencing people and drinking coffee with closers. 

But business cards are not talent.

So forget all the crap on the airport bookshelves. It's not about "systems," "secrets" or "tactics." What truly makes someone preeminent in sales is their asymmetrical skill around something that I call..."people."

20 years of selling to the most sophisticated customers on the planet has taught me many things. But chief among them is that there is no master template. Each client is different. Each situation is different. And not all salespeople are equal to the task.

A REAL THING

True salesmanship is a legitimate talent that requires the ability to forge emotional connection with strangers. You must have the EQ to build rapport and position solutions that truly "connect." It has nothing to do with power-pitches and closing tips. 

ITS NOT NUMBERS. 

First and foremost, sales is a people game. Yes there is a numbers element to it - but only in the planning stage. The majority of folks do not understand that it is not just about math - or the field would have been conquered long ago.

Recently, I walked a client through all the behind-the-scenes tinkering that happens with every brokers' technology. For those of you outside the trading world, this is akin to Budweiser tweaking their brew-formula and Hershey's altering chocolate viscosity by season. (Yes, look it up). A similar thing happens with algorithms.

And the client was dumbfounded. 

"I've never heard of this before," he said, incredulously. "Why are you sharing this, when no other broker does?" 

"Because transparency builds trust," I responded.

He squinted at me for a moment, sizing me up. And then he nodded and said, "Please...continue." Immediately following this meeting, that client executed their single largest day of business ever. 

But it wasn't my sales pitch. It wasn't my marketing brochure. It wasn't my rugged good-looks. It was that funny little "trust" thing. Because sales is about people, not spreadsheets. 

THE TALENT IS REAL

Salesmanship is a real talent. It is a skill, like acting, music, art or athletics. Some people have degrees of it. Some people don't. But it is not some fabricated fluff that you can pretend to have. There is a raw skill with people. Yet the understanding of this fact has been tainted by too many slick idiots with zero ability. Remember, when lies and deceit are being deployed, it is no longer about people skills. 

INTENT IS PALPABLE 

Intent matters. ACTUALLY giving a crap about your customers really matters.

Lehman brothers went bankrupt on a Sunday night. 3 days prior, I ran a list of all my clients who had paid the firm in advance for research reports. These sales credits were large. $250,000 dollars in some cases - money the client would lose if Lehman went bankrupt. I called all my affected clients and told them to request a check THAT DAY, just in case. By Sunday night, I was unemployed with a wife and 2 babies under 2 years old.

But I was never concerned. Because 35 of those customers I had contacted called back to thank me that following week. Several told me that I likely saved their jobs. ALL of them wanted me to ping them when I landed. 

LONGVIEW PREVAILS

Longview and patience trump short-term profit. Caring is a tried-and-true customer strategy. Looking out for your customers' best interest is always in YOUR best interest. It worked in the bygone days of the small town because everyone knew each other. Unfortunately, this approach was abandoned in the era of the mega-corporation.

Now the social networks are bringing sexy back. It's a small world again. So guess what? Caring is now the winning approach once more. But the sad truth is...NO ONE is deploying this. 

PEOPLE OVER ACRONYMS

Sales is a people game because the customers are still, in fact, people. All the A.I. and RFID and VR still starts and ends with people. And here is the kicker - it ALWAYS will. Sales skills are for all-time. Technology changes. 

PRODUCTS NEVER LEAD

Products are the tail, the customer is the dog. Entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and Henry Ford get credit for creating their market. But that's horse-crap. Steve merely formalized the music pirating that Napster was already front-running. He did not invent that music demand. He merely serviced it.

Likewise, Henry's mechanical horse was predicated upon the actual horse that had been in use with his customers for thousands of years prior. He didn't invent transportation any more than Uber did. Ford, Jobs and Kalanick for that matter, simply leveraged off the existing customer demand in a novel way.

No salesperson invents demand. The CUSTOMER drives that equation. The quality salesperson is simply creative enough to tee-up the solution in the optimal manner. 

SALES SECRETS

Each "client" is simply a person deciding whether or not to buy. And each person is different. So the mass application of a universal sales approach is a flawed concept peddled by gurus and life coaches. The truth is that rapport building takes place up close. It is a 1-on-1 thing. And any REAL talent in the sales business will tell you this. 

YOU

So here is the question for all the presumptive Sales Jedi out there:

What are you doing to develop your real skill here?

How are you building customer rapport? How are you broadening your innate talent? How are you tightening your approach. How are you establishing yourself as a trusted resource? Do you truly care about those you serve? You don't need to answer that last one - your customers already know.

But the more competitive your industry, the more all these answers matter. 

THE REAL DEAL

Helping people and truly caring is the real deal. It works. In up markets and in down. With big clients and little. In good times and in bad. And while it will build you a commission run in the short-term, in the long-run it builds friendships, reputation, career and ultimately....legacy. 

And isn't that the real, real deal?

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"Everyone's a superhero. Everyone's a Captain Kirk."

           - 99 Red Balloons.