Issue #84

Selling Without a Mask Is a Competitive Advantage

You can’t sell with power until you know who you are - without the mask.

Sales isn’t just techniques, objection-handling frameworks and checklists (they are useful, though).

Those are all just tools. But they’re not enough to close deals. Ultimately customers are buying you.

In high-stakes enterprise deals, people need high levels of trust in the people they are dealing with. Their careers depend on it.

And trust starts with congruence, what you say and do matching who you are.

I relied heavily on having a global brand backing me up for the first part of my sales career.

But I realised that whilst that often got me through the door, it never closed the deal.

That always came down to being able to look people in the eyes and assure them I would deliver what I had promised.

So how do you get there? Here’s a five step outline you can follow to align your talk with your walk.

Let's look at each step in turn...

1. Audit Your Patterns

Look at your past sales wins and losses and ask yourself - What felt natural? What felt forced?

Where were you in flow, and where were you performing someone else’s script?

Keep a ‘Sales Debrief’ journal on your phone, it doesn’t have to be any special software, but having a template helps (just a few headings).

After each sales meeting, sit for fifteen minutes and ask yourself these things:

1. What did I do well?
2. What felt fake?
3. What did I avoid?

This creates a feedback loop between self-awareness and sales excellence.

Then use this coaching tool I use with my teams, it is the ‘Start, Stop, Continue” framework.

This is:

• What you can start doing that would have helped,
• What you need to stop doing,
• What you did well that you should keep on doing.

2. Define Your Core Beliefs About Helping People

Enterprise sales is more about service than persuasion. You’re providing multiple stakeholders with the arguments they need to convince themselves and their teams that moving ahead is the right thing to do.

But what does that mean to you?

Is it about giving people clarity, protecting them from bad decisions, unlocking growth they can’t see?

Write it down. Make it your personal code. Then measure every sales action against that code.

When you violate it, you’ll feel off. That’s good, because it is your compass.

The truly great sellers do not measure success by the car they drive or the size of their house. They measure it by how well they rate against their own internal values.

They do this because there’s only so much money you can make before it gets boring - you have to have a benchmark that goes beyond such obvious and ultimately dissatisfying ways of gauging success.

That is how great sports people carry on competing long after they have achieved financial security or the first big win.

3. Use Techniques as Templates, Never as Scripts

Read the best. Steal from the best. You can have my experience for free (you’re welcome).

But break it down and rebuild it in your voice. Otherwise it won’t work because your context is different, your personality is different and your customers are different.

I remember reading “SPIN Selling” by Neil Rackham (great book, get it if you haven't already read it). It says to use “Implication” questions, (that’s the “I” in SPIN).

(Situation, Problem, Implication, Need - in case you need reminding).

I could never figure out how to do that until I realised it mostly meant the results of not buying, rather than the implications of the problem itself.

That’s how techniques become truth.

4. Tell Stories From Your Life

Stories sell. Your own experiences, personal or professional, are more persuasive than any case study.

Use numbers - this is business, not Disney.

Use telling details that show you’ve been in the trenches. Show your thinking in a clear and linear way.

Throw in the learnings you earned along the way and even a few you missed. They show you're a human like your customer.

Let the customer see how your brain works when solving their problem.

5. Reflect and Iterate Relentlessly

The real discovery process isn’t just for the customer.

It’s for you.

• You’re discovering your own voice.
• Your own methods.
• Your own value.

Sales becomes joyful when it stops being a role you play and starts aligning with your purpose.

I had to figure it out the hard way, but now you don’t.

Here's a video about the stories that you need to build in order to be prepared for the sales front:

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Ready to take a step up in your sales career?

I can help - get my foundations course here or drop me a line for a chat about your needs.

If not there yet, then just tell your friends about the newsletter (simply forward it on), so I can reach my goal of helping another 1500 salespeople succeed this year.