The Sales Archaeologist

First of all I want to start by saying that this is not a political post. This is a post based on some recent observations.

Neither is it limited to the U.S - I believe you can draw sales lessons from just about anything. A few posts ago I even drew a lesson from the release of a new video game.

I was in Houston this week to meet with some clients and I was able to spend a quiet evening watching the political debates on CNN  (something my family hates to watch but since I was alone) and noticed there were numerous sales lessons – after all wouldn’t we all agree that all of these candidates are trying to sell their potential candidacy to the American Public. It appears that the behavior and what was said had an effect in some of the post-debate polls so certainly any observations we make had an impact. There were things that were done well and things that were done poorly – something we often find is the case when we debrief after a sales call.

Perhaps you would expect a post like this to focus on things like the way Rick Perry blundered here or the infamous Bachman mix up - but those events are obvious disasters and I wanted to talk about some of the more subtle messages that have been conveyed.

• Honest talk got people to listen and facilitated better discussion (Huntsman, Gingrich)
• Avoiding the issues makes you look like you are avoiding the issue (Perry)
• Polarizing the crowd is not an effective way to win (Bachman, Santorum)
• People expect balance and are willing to take some bad with the good (Gingrich)
• Charm, poise and calm delivery still can often hold their own against substance (Romney)
• Knowing the facts is one thing (Ron Paul) delivering facts in a way that is eloquent and clear is another (Huntsman)
• Skeletons in or out of the closet will warp and impact anything else you might say (Caine, Gingrich, Romney)

Of course body language and facial expression also played a role – the point that we want to remember is that on a sales call we can be impacting the prospects view of us and our solution on multiple levels, for many reasons all at the same time. Too often as sales professionals we walk away and surmise the meeting one dimensionally – don’t do that. There are multiple levels of impact and in order to improve we need to be looking at everything we do.

I heard Brian Tracy speak about a sale call and he made an excellent point – there is no neutral ground. Everything we do will either add or subtract from our status with the prospect (just as the debates seem to do for these candidates)

Create a checklist and start de-briefing after your calls not on one level but on many. Look for the gaps and get an understanding of all the ways you might need to improve your effectiveness. You might also enjoy reading this article on the impact of body language on a sales call or this one on how prospects hear you differently than you hear yourself.

Additionally Dave Kurlan has this excellent post on what empathy and ego might be communicating to your prospects.

Bottom line in selling - if you are not getting better you are probably getting worse.