The Sales Advice No One Wants To Hear

The best people to have in your life are people who will tell you what you need to hear----but you don’t want to hear. These valuable truth tellers CARE. And because they CARE, they SHARE advice you may not want to hear. Because….

• Denial is a very comfortable place to reside.
• Change is difficult.
• Blame is easy, responsibility is not.

Fortunately, I’ve had great mentors, colleagues and friends in my life that have shared truth-telling advice that wasn’t always easy to hear or apply.

One of my first bosses met with me after an internal company meeting. He shared that my approach and problem-solving skills were very good. He also shared that my approach to sharing my ideas and solutions were not good. 

I was brash, so I often put my peers on the defense.

When others in the room challenged my perspective, I got defensive.  

And I was a little too attached to being right, rather than getting it right.

Ouch!

This boss CARED and SHARED. As a result, I changed my approach, which produced better results.  

Let’s take a look at sales advice that no one wants to hear.

#1. There will be times in your life where it is out of balance. There are hundreds of podcasts, articles and blogs talking about the importance of work-life balance and the steps to achieve it.

We teach emotional intelligence skills so we know and believe that balance is important However, there will be times in your personal and professional life where you will be out of balance.

Here’s the advice you don’t want to hear. Get over it. Stop resisting it.

In every role that I’ve had as a new salesperson, new sales manager and new entrepreneur, I was overworked and underpaid. Why?

Because I wasn’t that good in my new role! 

When I started my career in sales, I made a boatload of prospecting outreaches. It was a lot of work. I had no connections and no customers. Many days the only words I heard were, “No...not interested.”

I attended hundreds of networking events in order to build relationships and knowledge. My workday started with an early morning breakfast event or meeting and wrapped up with an after-hours event.

Long days...no balance.

Today, I enjoy balance and success in my professional and personal life because I was willing to be out of balance for a certain period in my life.

#2: Your company is not responsible for your happiness. What? Say it isn’t so.

What a company can do and should do is provide a great working environment that sustains and encourages happiness and happy people.

For example:

A company can provide training to their sales managers to help them be better leaders, teachers, coaches and mentors which in turn creates healthy sales cultures. 

A sales organization can live their values by practicing the golden rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated.

A company can provide day care, workout facilities or free food for employees. 

Here’s the advice you don’t want to hear.

A company or sales manager can’t make you happy.

You and you alone are responsible for your happiness.

#3: You’re not the most important person at your company. Wait a minute. You’re the top salesperson at your company year after year. Or, you’ve earned the award of sales manager of the year for the second straight year. Maybe your company has been named one of the best places to work.

Here’s the advice no one wants to hear.

The most important person at the company is the customer. The customer is the “person” who signs each and every employee’s paycheck. No customer, no revenue, no business.

Ask these questions at every meeting to remind everyone who is the most important person at the company. 

What do our clients need?

What do they value? How are we providing that value?

How can we walk the extra mile in order exceed expectations? 

Find and surround yourself by truth tellers. They will give you the advice you don’t want to hear.  

Good Selling!