The Thing Nobody Ever Told You About Being a 'Natural'

“Nature never over-endows a species beyond the needs of everyday existence.”

-Alfred Russel Wallace

If you want to be successful in sales, you need to develop your skills beyond the needs of everyday existence. Unless you've had to influence and persuade others in order to survive up until this point in your life, you don't have the skills necessary to succeed. The game is changing in sales. Today, salespeople have more tools, more information on their prospects, more points of contact than ever before, and yet, as a whole we get in touch with our perfect customers less and less each year. 

You Can't Show Up With Your Existing Toolbox

Why do you show up to work every day with the same set of tools you were born with? If you were a mechanic, how many cars from 2019 could you fix with tools from 1987? The difference is that a mechanic knows when a tool doesn't fit or doesn't work for the job. I'm convinced sellers have no idea their tools are ineffective. When I say tools for sellers, I don't mean your precious Salesloft account or your LinkedIn page. I mean your mental models, your selling strategies, your talk tracks.

The skills you use every day to make an impact on your customers' lives, earn a commission for yourself, and increase value for your organization. I see it in every group I've worked with, salespeople showing up every day without any new tools in their toolbox. They're trudging into work on Monday morning hoping a rusted wrench from 25 years ago is going to fix an electrical issue on a 2019 Lexus.

There is No Such Thing as a Natural Salesperson

Have you been called a 'natural salesperson'? Feels good right? To know you were born with the skills to influence and sell? I have news for you. There is no such thing. Sorry. That's like saying someone is a natural physician. Or a natural electrician. Or have you ever heard someone say "he's a natural-born engineer!" No way. I don't care HOW good you are with anatomy, nobody is going to let you operate on them unless you have a medical degree and license! I don't care how many erector sets you put together as a kid, Lockheed Martin is not going to hire you to be an engineer unless you've gone to college and gotten the right degree and training.

This happens in sales because we deal with other people. Our projects are people and conversations. Human interaction. Due to humans being a species that relies on social impact and cohesion, it's incredibly painful to think we don't know the best way of interacting with others.

Stop Saying "Well if I Were a Customer..."

Effective selling is counter-intuitive. That means that what you would do if you were a customer is bullshit. You don't know what you would do because your brain runs 95% off of programmed and autonomous responses. The fact that you think you have control over every decision you make or desire you have is an illusion that gets exploited every day to influence you without you even realizing it. Want it to stop? Throw away your smartphone, don't ever go on the internet again, and move out into the woods to live the rest of your disconnected days. Oh and then? You still won't have much control over what you do and what you think you want.

This is the reality of being human that a well-skilled seller can use to help us make good decisions. That's what you're there to do. Help your customers make good decisions. You must realize that your opinion of what would or wouldn't work to influence you does not matter. What matters is the science behind how influence really works. And where can you learn that? Books, courses, and organizational sales training. 

Like the quote above says, you never have more than you need. And unless you've been a high performing seller since you were in diapers, you don't have what you need in everyday existence to survive in sales. You need to develop those skills through learning, practice, drilling and rehearsing.

If your organization does not currently provide sales training for you, reach out to me and let me know. I'd love to have a conversation with the leadership there about your company's future.