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- One of the questions that we get often is,
am I here to hit my number
or am I here to make a difference to the clients?
Is it the money or is it the meaning?
- Right? Are you here for the transaction?
Are you here for this larger purpose?
And it's such a false dichotomy at the end of the day.
- Well, and I think one of the things
we want to make clear to folks is
you really in that moment
when you're in front of the customer,
you can't have two conversations
- Right? You only get to pick one.
- And if your conversation in your head is about
"I'm here to close a business.
I'm here to close a business",
you're going to be regarded as a transactional seller.
But to become a more authentic seller,
one that's well received by the customer,
you've got to get the conversation in your head to be about
"I am here to make a difference to this customer."
And that's the conversation
that will actually help you close the deal.
- Right. But I feel like keeping that conversation
alive in your head, that customer focused conversation,
the impact focus conversation is really challenging
in most sales ecosystems
because you've your manager asking
when the deal is going to close,
you have your CRM asking about pipeline predictions,
and then you have the entire organizational narrative
that's usually pretty inwardly focused on inward metrics.
And nowhere in there is customer impact a lot of the time.
- Yeah, it is.
And I think what happens is, as a seller,
and I know in some of the work we've done
it's been really helpful to help sellers quiet
that chatter in their head because your whole ecosystem is
close the deal, close the deal.
But if you come across that way to your customer,
you're going to be very transactional.
- People are so good at reading intent.
- They are.
- So when you have a singular focus of customer impact,
your customer picks up on that
through your body language, through your questioning,
through how well you listen.
It becomes really obvious.
- Yeah. And when we say customer impact,
I think it's important to clarify here.
We're talking about your focus is
how can I help this customer?
- Right.
- How can I have a bigger, bolder impact
on this customer's life, their business, their job?
And being really proactive in assertive about it
- I think it's interesting that you brought up assertive,
because I feel like in sales,
everyone's afraid to be assertive
because they don't want it to come across as aggressive.
And you did some writing
about the little nuance between the two.
- I think it's important.
And I've struggled with this as you know myself, too.
- Yeah, me too.
- Aggressive is when you're on behalf of yourself.
Aggressive is when you are, I'm going to close it.
It's all about me.
Assertive is when you're on behalf
of something bigger than yourself,
in this case, the customer.
And so if you really believe and understand
that I'm here to make a difference,
you can be assertive about it.
- Absolutely. And, you've done this before.
I remember when we were doing this project
with a leadership team,
we worked a lot on the strategy.
We worked a lot on the leadership purpose,
the behaviors that went along with that.
And they wanted to wait two years
before they rolled it out to the sales people,
just like decades in sales people time.
And both of us knew that that would be a huge mistake.
And that waiting to roll these out to the sales people
would cost the leadership team
all the work they've done.
It was just erode.
And you got on a plane and you were assertive.
And you flew up there, got in that CEO's office and said,
"Listen, this is what's up.
Here's what's going to happen if you don't do this.
It's going to cost you tons of money and time.
And we really believe
that we can impact this with sales training."
And that was assertive.
- It was aggressive.
Yeah. And it wasn't aggressive
because it wasn't on behalf of myself.
And I think one of the lessons
that I hope people take away from this is
the reason I had gotten to the point
where I could be very assertive
and not just react and say,
"Okay, we'll do whatever you say"
is because I had a very deep understanding
of the value that we add.
And I knew that they would get a 10 x return.
And so I was very assertive and very proactive about that.
And so people get confused sometimes and they think,
"Oh if I'm an authentic seller
that means I just do whatever the customer wants."
No - Not the case.
- No, you do what's best for the customer.
Even if they don't know that.
- That reminds me of this Henry Ford quote.
If I asked them what they wanted,
they would've said faster horses.
When you have client impact as your North Star,
you are able to be assertive about that impact
- You are. And so I think the thing I want people
to take away from this is the money
and the meaning they're linked.
You don't have to choose.
If you're there with the focus,
I'm here to make a difference to my customer
The money will follow.
And so when you focus on that, the profits follow.
You choose one conversation in your head
and that conversation is "I'm here to make a difference".
And you'll make more money.
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