When I say salesperson, salesman, etc. what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Does your skin crawl?

That’s the question I asked my coaching students a few weeks ago.

In addition to running a global coaching business, I’m a faculty leader at Coach U, one of the preeminent ICF accredited coaching schools in the world. It’s where I received my formal coach training.

One of the classes I lead is Situational Coaching.

We explore 10 Situational Coaching client types:

• Entrepreneur
• CEO/Executive
• Professional
• Career Employee
• Sales Professional
• Work Team
• Creative
• Intellectual
• Leader
• Parent

For each type, we discuss:

• What makes these people tick?
• What’s their motivators?
• What are their challenges?
• What are they afraid of?
• As a coach, what skills can I bring to support their success?

One of the most misunderstood types is the sales professional.

When you think of a salesperson, I’ll bet your thoughts are 180 degrees from the complimentary seats.

Many people think of a used car salesman when they hear the word sales. (God, I can’t stand shopping for a car!)

When I asked my coaching students, “What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word salesperson?,” here’s what they said:

• Slimy
• Calculating
• Dishonest
• Self absorbed
• Arrogant
• Slick
• Money hungry
• Commission
• Pushy
• Your personal favorite?  ——-> ______________

Many times, the aforementioned adjectives are the spinoff of the moronic behavior of the salesperson themselves.

Having had a successful 23 year career in sales, I’m living proof you can become a sponge and absorb the habits and behaviors of the best and most respected sales professionals in the world to boost your performance.

Today’s guest post is provided by Steve Keating (CME, CSE,) Selling Skills Manager for Toro Company. 

The alphabet soup following Steve’s name says he’s a certified marketing and sales executive. A respected pro.

I can almost guarantee, when you incorporate Steve’s thoughts into your selling process, you’ll:

• Consistently sell more
• Have more fun in the field
• Gain respect from customers
• Be healthier and less stressed
• Feel great about your profession

One more thing. When you apply these principles, customers will adopt the mindset that they’d be out of their minds to do business with anyone but you.

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How To Sell More Of Anything – by Steve Keating

Next week in Baltimore I’ll present a “How to Sell” class to a group of professionals. Not sales professionals, in fact, these professionals may very well have a certain disdain at even the thought of selling.

As I prepared for the presentation I knew instinctively that a traditional sales training session was out of the question. No sales process or technique would be of interest or value to this group. While “selling” is important to their profession it is not something they are comfortable with and not something they do on a daily basis.

That got me to thinking about the essence of selling and what it really takes to sell effectively. The answer that popped into my head was trust and relationships.

People buy from people they like and trust. People don’t buy from companies or machines. Yes, we sometimes buy stuff online and through vending machines but usually even then someone, a person, has previously convinced us that it would be a good purchase.

The presentation morphed into a “Building Trusting Relationships” session and it quickly occurred to me that this isn’t just a great topic for non-traditional salespeople, it’s a valuable topic for all sales professionals.

Salespeople, at least less successful salespeople, tend to focus all their energies on “telling” their prospect about the product. They spend far too little time on building the type of relationship that will help the prospect trust them as a person and as a result the prospect remains suspect about most everything the salesperson says.

The most successful salespeople don’t focus on themselves or their product, they focus on their customer and their customer’s wants and needs. They start that process by learning about their customer’s goals and objectives and it is from those conversations that a real relationship blooms.

The most successful salespeople treat people with courtesy, politeness, and kindness. They listen to what others have to say before expressing their own thoughts. Successful salespeople do not insult, disparage or knock another person’s ideas. Even if that other person is a competitive salesperson. Especially if that other person is a competitive salesperson!

The most successful salespeople have long ago thrown out the Golden Rule and replaced it with the Platinum Rule: Treat others as they wish to be treated.

The most successful salespeople don’t play the blame game. They accept responsibility for their actions and they honor their commitments. They share credit for their success knowing full well that no salesperson can succeed long-term without a lot of support from others in their organization.

The most successful salespeople avoid wasting time and are consistent planners. They are genuinely interested in other people and believe they can learn from anyone. They smile often and always, always, always maintain control of their attitude. Simply put, they are the type of person we all enjoy being around.

Now, for those of you who have never sold a thing or are in a position that requires a non-traditional sales approach, just remove the word “sales” from every sentence above. What you’ll discover is that the way to sell more of anything is to be a successful person.

Once you have developed the skill of building trusting relationships, sincere relationships, well then you can sell most anything to most anyone.

You see, great salespeople are also great people.

Photo courtesy of Ray Moore