Redefining Sales: The Art of Helping Over Convincing

"Selling is never about convincing, it is always about helping… putting yourself in the shoes of the person you're selling to and figuring out how you can make their lives better. How can you reduce their stress?" – Mark Cuban

This couldn't be more accurate and wholesome, and while it's a great quote— I can't help but focus on "The Why".

Ever Since I Can Remember: Sales Has Been About Helping:

For me, it was always sales and sales was always about helping others. In the early 2010s, I sold classic cars up and down the East Coast and I single-handedly put customers into their dream cars and watched them ride off into the sunset in that classic Porsche they've wanted since they were a kid. I bring this up because the sleazy car salesman stigma is often the first, inaccurate cultural stereotype that people come to understand. Now, I saw right through this because I knew how much I helped people as a car salesman. But not everyone has this empirical data and “understanding of sales” and is left in a place of uncertainty—with the only sales related empirical knowledge being the telemarketer that mom just hung up on or the used car lot where your one friend Mike felt as if for some reason he got swindled on his Buick, when in reality, it was buyers remorse and overthinking that lead him to question the salesperson who made it all happen.

The final nail in the coffin comes after graduating high school and realizing that you can pursue business and marketing, which comes with a sales additive, as if it’s the high fructose corn syrup of the bachelor’s program.

The Evolution of Marketing and Sales:

It’s more than just semantics for me, and even though I studied marketing and recognize its value in business, it’s ultimately just another part of the sales cycle.

Think about the early days of newspapers, radios, advertising, and other broad-based PR. It was essentially unstructured marketing without a target market.

At its core, marketing crafts the message, generates awareness, and creates baseline interest in a company's products or services. It’s a method of branding that attracts potential customers. A method of branding so powerful that over the past few decades, universities have increasingly integrated marketing into business degrees, often positioning it as more sophisticated or desirable compared to sales. This shift has contributed to the perception that marketing is more crucial than sales, as universities and business schools inadvertently over market their marketing-related courses.

Sales and marketing serve distinct and critical, but complementary roles which then manifests the cycle into a final transaction: It's the act of closing the deal, securing revenue, and building relationships that fuel continued growth. Without an effective sales engine, there is nothing to market or advertise.

The Essential Role of Sales in Business:

For me, sales is where interest is converted into revenue. I have never confused it as a manipulative exercise in persuasion, rather, the essence of selling for me has always focused on genuine assistance and solving problems. It's not merely a function within an organization; it's the very essence of how businesses operate and thrive. Whether we're conscious of it or not, every exchange of goods or services, every drop of liquidity, every aspect of asset transformation, any alteration in the balance of wealth and resources—from the most basic to the infinitely complex—represents a sales transaction at its core. Macro to micro, private to public, business to consumer. Without buying and selling- derivatives, swaps, exchanges, brokerages, arbitrages can't exists. I emphasize financial markets because it's easy to forget that when you buy a share of a stock, there is someone on the other end of the computer selling it to you.

Restructuring the Curriculum: Highlighting Sales and Studying Prospecting:

By creating a labyrinth of semantics, curriculum builders, and credit certification boards fail to recognize key progressions in the sales cycle and fail to incorporate them into their marketing-friendly bubble.

My restructured model maintains that business is the umbrella (which I could also argue is sales), but nonetheless, the first pillar of business is sales & prospecting, and right below that, is marketing & advertising.

Prospecting involves identifying and reaching out to potential customers, building relationships, and guiding them through the sales process. Prospecting is vital because it goes beyond general marketing campaigns, focusing on specific leads and tailoring interactions to their needs. It requires deep knowledge of the product or service being offered and a clear understanding of the customer's pain points. By concentrating on a smaller, more relevant audience, prospecting can yield higher conversion rates and foster stronger customer relationships than traditional marketing and advertising strategies.

Macro and Micro Perspectives: The Sales Experience:

Restructuring the curriculum is step one to spotlighting sales on a macro level to where it’s once again looked at as the firefighter for customer issues, the medical doctor of solutions, and the lawyer of client best interest. There should be a universal standard of practice that's upheld by sales professionals in all fields.

On the micro side of things and arguably more fundamental is the consumer's ability to leverage a salesperson’s knowledge and let us help you. Unpopular onion but resist the initial urge to shoot the messenger and instead take responsibility as a consumer.

Addressing Misconceptions: The Perception of Sales:

If I were to buy a car, I would know prior to walking into the dealership who I was planning on talking to, what cars I am planning to look at, and what price I’m looking to pay (negotiate/settle on). I would’ve vetted the dealership on the backend and chosen the one that I thought could provide me the most value in terms of their inventory, reputation etc. By the time I arrive at the dealership, the salesperson is my resource, not my enemy. I’m asking them a multitude of technical and opinion-based esoteric questions that only they can answer for me. I’m picking their brain and I’m helping them help me.

If I were to buy a house, I'd canvas the area with and without my agent and I'd make sure they knew the exact filters and profile of the property I was looking to purchase. I’d set alerts on Zillow and drive around the neighborhood texting my agent so we could line up showings. I wouldn’t come to my agent without anything for them to work with. I’d let them help me and I’d see the value in their service instead of fixating on ways to cut them out or complaining about the 6% that they're more than entitled to for bringing the deal to fruition

I mentioned earlier about how it’s all about asking ourselves the why. Why someone like Mark Cuban worth billions would even feel the need to explain/justify sales as means of helping people rather than convincing people, but it makes sense now. When people enter this world and go to buy a car they’re warned of the sleazy salesman, or when they buy a house, they’re warned of the greedy agent, or they get into college and can't even choose sales as their major. These trends, macro and micro, have led people to believe the art of selling relates more to convincing than it does to helping. While I’ve never had this problem, a lot of people do, and it casts a cloud of derogatory perception over a pasture of opportunity. It's not about me but the next wide-eyed kid like me, who was ready to sell but got pushed off the career path by misconceptions.

Selling vs Convincing:

In my 10+ years as a sales professional here is what I've seen: Dedicated sales reps who are eager to discover problems that they can solve based off your particular situation. They are passionate, and confident that they can provide value so they are focused on determining how they can or can't help. Here is what I haven't seen: relentless convincing at the end of a presentation so the prospect buys something that's not beneficial to them. Eliminate the stereotypes and you'll come to notice that salespeople really just want to get to know you and create a connection, as it's part of our entrepreneurial spirit. If either of us, at any point, determine it doesn't make sense to continue to our conversation- it often stops there. There is no extra layer of relentless convincing once we are determined to not be a fit. Furthermore, the salespeople I've worked with will often be the ones to identify this to the prospective buyer and if there is nothing there, they are more than understanding. Consider salespeople to be a helping hand, an open door, a contact for your safekeeping. We are not focused on convincing, but rather understanding, and a well executed value proposition based on a strong discovery is a process that's ultimately designed to sell itself.

Empowering Future Sales Professionals:

For all those who recognize sales for what it is and realize that it’s all there is. There are a couple of things you can do in order to set yourself up to be a successful in this world of confusion.

Aligning with Purpose:

If you've chosen sales, find an organization whose mission you can champion with unwavering belief. An organization with a strong reputation that is capable of providing a diverse set of tools to help you navigate complexities. In order to help people, reduce stress, and make their lives better the company you represent should be is reputable, resourceful, and dedicated to company culture and customer service (the sales cornerstone).

Mastering What You Sell:

Develop an intimate understanding of your offerings—not just features, but the core problems they solve and the transformative value they deliver. The technical aspects of the product, the added benefits to the solution— why your offer is competitive/advantageous when comparing comps.

Embracing a 'Help-First' Mindset:

The discovery runs deep and some problems take fact-finding. Transcend transactional thinking and shift your approach towards problem-solving and long-term relationship building. Approach each interaction as an opportunity to identify a buyer's needs and tailor solutions that genuinely improve their situation. Let referrals and word of mouth become your passive pipeline and always ask for an introductions after solving problems.

When you operate from this place of service, sales become an act of both professional and personal fulfillment. You'll foster lasting relationships, drive growth, and discover the profound satisfaction that comes from making a tangible difference in the lives of others.

"Selling isn't convincing; it's helping… putting yourself in the shoes of the person you're selling to and figuring out how you can make their lives better. How can you reduce their stress?" – Mark Cuban

Let us help you, help you help yourself, and together, let's all help the next generation of sales professional's as we reshape their perspectives on sales to where it's redefined as helping rather than convincing.