Passion will kill your deal

Another day, another interest rate hike. Let's focus on hiking your buyers' interests.?

Today we will be covering:?

- Misconceptions about passion and your tone of voice

Reading time: 3.5 minutes.

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I remember one of my sales directors advising me to increase my "passion" during a sales call.?

Turns out that too much passion is a turn-off for your buyer.

Here is a quote from one of the 428 buyers I interviewed for my research:?

"If the salesperson is too passionate, my scepticism kicks in."

Wait...what??

But we're taught that passion creates momentum. We're taught to convey a sense of passion in our voice to express our belief in the value of our products and how they can help a buyer.?

Well, when you look at it from the buyer's perspective, you start to realise why too much passion is not a good thing.?

Act like an Executive

It is very easy to get caught up in our own story within the pressure of our daily work environment to hit our numbers and the narrative for why our products and company are so great.?

This environment almost brainwashed us into thinking that our buyers would be grateful for our discussion if only we could get through to them and convey how great we are.?

This may have been true in the 80s, but it is not true now. LinkedIn research in 2020 found that 40% of buyers believe the sales profession to be?untrustworthy,?and 25% of buyers believe that the sales profession is "morally and ethically challenged".

This means that your buyer is not neutral, they are sceptical when you speak with them. High levels of passion in your tone of voice heightens that scepticism and they feel as if you are more passionate about yourself than about them. When you factor in the fact that a lot of buyers view a significant lack of homework conducted by buyers, you can now see why they are so sceptical of too much passion.?

There is no buyer-centric substance to the passion.??

Steve Jobs did not talk in an overly excited way. Neither does Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Elon Musk or any other titans of business that I can think of. There might be a few outliers here or there, but the majority do not speak in an overly passionate way.

Contrast that with Steve Ballmer of Microsoft. He is renowned for being a little "over-excited" in his speeches, and there is one particular speech he made at Microsoft that shows this side of him. It did not go down well.??

I am not saying you should not be passionate about your product or have a high sense of belief in the value of your product and how it can help your buyers.?What I am saying is that if you want to be seen and treated as a peer by an executive buyer, you want to talk as they do. You want to act as they do.?

Executives have a huge amount of responsibilities on their shoulders. If they are an executive in a public business, that pressure is heightened even more because all eyes are on them.?

When you consider all these pressures and responsibilities, you get an understanding of why they communicate in a certain way and why they appreciate certain characteristics in others.?

Executives communicate in a?clear?and?concise?manner. They don't have time for "waffle" and are focused on results. Their tone of voice is usually?firm,?professional, and?assertive, reflecting their authority, but they are also?calm?and?composed, demonstrating their control of situations and their confidence in navigating the chosen path.

If you look at all the words I highlighted in bold, you will realise that passion is the antithesis of all those things. Executives are passionate about their work and results, but they value being in control of a situation and the ability for them to think critically about their approach and to be the steady rock even when things are choppy.?

To be seen as their peer, you need to embody those attributes.???

Never split your tone

In Chris Voss's book, Never Split The Difference, he talks about the importance of your tone of voice in a negotiation. He describes the right tone of voice as the "late-night FM DJ" voice.?

You don't have to be smooth, but your tone should convey the impression that you are?calm,?composed,?professional?and?clear.?

Such tones will give executives the confidence that they are dealing with someone who is experienced and competent.?

Too much passion, and they will translate this as you being self-centred and sales-hungry. Our passion tends to come out in periods when we are talking about our product, or we smell a sale, and we're going in for the kill. Experienced buyers know this and will subconsciously raise their defences.?

The secret is to remain professional and consultative. Research conducted by the University of Gottingen found that the tone of your voice reflects the perception of aspects of your personality.?

This does not mean you are monotone. On the contrary, you should vary your pitch in order to maintain and increase the buyer's attention. You need to inject some emotion into your voice to be heard and remembered. But, it is the emotional memory of the buyer that is key. You want your buyer to remember you as someone whom they can relate to, not someone whom they should be sceptical about.?

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