Sell is a four-letter verb that I avoided as a career CIO. I hated the concept of selling until I was asked to join a large corporation years ago to help a sales team achieve a higher dominance in a competitive industry. My recruiter, later my mentor and VP, promised I would not be selling because he has a sales team. He simply needed my experience and know-how to be a true advisor to the clients. He said! Prasoon was the ultimate selling executive who sold with integrity. He opened my eyes to the old profession practiced by everyone knowingly or unknowingly.
Who wants a four-letter verb associated with what he/she does? With sell comes other four-letter verbs such as Hear and Care, Fear and Dare, Ride or Hide, Wine and Dine, and much more. My new leader showed me the real art of selling. He understood relationships, value, communication and invested in the team that applied discipline to the art, heart to the mind, and a method to the madness we call lifecycle. While the sales team applied what he preached I was to take it a step closer to value and validated the offer. He called me the chef in the kitchen of technology that took all the ingredients we had and made a 5-course meal tailored to the palette and appetite of the client. It was to be satisfying, delivered with finesse, and paired with the perfect wine without maxing their credit card. To do that, one must know how to solve technical problems but has to apply all the sales techniques and the art of listening. To succeed I had to apply a balanced IQ/EQ combination style that leads to results without the pressure of selling. It was successful selling without trying to sell. This of course was a success because I was part of a team, a machine that produced the right ingredients in the technology kitchen.
I am a strong believer that each job has a sales component. I also realized that as a CIO I was the Chief Sales Officer for IT. I had to sell the value of IT to the organizations I worked for. I also had to sell my IT organizations my vision and hope to make it a better place to work and thrive. I knew that the Chief Information Officer Job has shifted to the Chief Innovation Officer or simply to Career Is Over.
A priest sells salvation, a politician sells hope and dreams (or what you want to hear), a doctor sells a promise of better health. As a parent, I sell my children values I hope they buy into as they become part of their character. Everyone sells and everyone buys or refuses to buy what others are selling.
While I was turned off initially by the idea of selling, I realized how naive I was. I projected my own experience with bad salespeople on the concept of selling. I judged selling by those who were chasing me with the products and services I had no value for. They embodied the stigma of the “used car salesman”. I used to have two sets of business cards one I gave to salespeople that went into an email monitored by my secretary and a phone number that went into a voice mail until one day I met a salesperson who became my friend. He was then able to come to a highly secure building with no appointment to see me just to have coffee at times. He truly became a trusted friend. He was always making his brightest team members available for brainstorming sessions where we solved real problems. He brought value I could not buy. I trusted him and his intent. Mark was not trying to sell me, he was trying to figure out how to help.
Like many of you, I meet "salespeople" of all cultures, backgrounds, experiences, and success stories. I am amazed at how some of them are ill-prepared for the job. They go through the motion of selling but they fail in the art of it. They go through the techniques and fail at the basics. Some of them closed large deals with pure luck and on the shoulder of others but they can do so much more.
I don’t pretend to be a sales expert to write on how to sell but I felt it is worth writing about some observations. This is meant as a reflection. I am writing this for my children to become the best salespeople in whatever path they choose. If they don't learn how to sell with integrity, they will never reach their full potential. Selling is part of every job as it is in communicating value while listening to needs, wants, and dreams.
The following are some observations and recommendations thorough relations with sales makers that I had the pleasure to work with successfully. I welcome any addition as this should be a crowd-developed best practice.
May the best person win
When you lose, act like the Japanese sports team and lose with grace. Accept defeat as a learning experience and applaud the winner for they did a better job or simply had a more tailored value. We all hate to lose and I was taught that Second is the First loser but I was also taught to learn why they won. Being Humble is a human character, being arrogant is a human fault.
Open your eyes, ears, and heart
We learned that when we communicate, we must be mindful of the body language which tells us what the other person is not saying. We are told to be fully aware of the non-verbal messages, the tone, the facial expression, the eye movement. I learned to listen with my eyes.
Listen to what they are not saying and don’t just hear their words. My mom told me that hearing with my ears is not like listening with my heart. If you like to hear yourself talk please stop. Give them the chance to talk; better yet, let them do most of the talking and now you are on your way to winning.
Open your heart genuinely and empathize with them. If you don’t genuinely care why should you deserve to win their trust?
Be extra Prepared - No Guessing
This sounds like the basic fundamental building block but I am amazed how many people think they can wing it. When given the chance to sell if you give less than 100% in preparation you fail. Real Effort is simply key.
If you are not respectful of other people’s time why should you ever be given the chance to present them with anything? If You are not prepared you failed. Just because you got lucky a few times does not mean you will always.
If you have not tried to anticipate their questions you failed. If you have not learned about them, their company, and their industry you failed. If you have not learned about their interests, successes, and lifestyle, how do you expect to connect with them?
Today, with virtual everything, you better be even more prepared as you cannot read their body language as well, you cannot be at dinner with the client and you don't have the many non-verbal communication data to build upon. Being prepared in a virtual world requires we are much more creative than ever before in our approach and communication style.
With preparedness comes clarity. Preconditioning is key to a successful outcome. With good preparedness, you can make it personal and purposeful and hence can connect. Are you fully prepared for the End In Mind?
Know your audience
If you don’t know your audience then what are you doing there? If you don’t know how to deliver what message and what questions you may be asked, you lost. If you cannot plan for the right audience then you think the world should buy a one-size-fits-all t-shirt.
Not knowing who will decide, who influences whom, who is a supporter, and who is not becomes an invitation on a blind date hoping for the best. Do you think someone is paying you because they hope for the best?
My toughest sales act was selling my father-in-law that I was a good choice for his daughter. As a father now, I know no man is good enough for my daughter! This is not like selling a pair of shoes that you can return at Costco. What made it a challenge was my wife's refusal to marry me without her father’s blessing! This cultural insight was critical in knowing my audience. Knowing that meant failure was not an option and I had no backup or backout strategy. I kept trying after he said no a few times. I kept trying to win him leveraging his sphere of influence through his spouse, his kids, his best friends, his religious leader, and more. I was ready to make it impossible for him to say no. When I secured his sphere of influence I appealed to his immense love for his daughter and explain that her happiness rests in his hands and he was the only obstacle between her being happy with someone she loves or spending life resenting his decision. Knowing him and what influenced him was my saving grace. Knowing my audience was most critical to my success.
Selling is a team sport
I have yet to meet Superman. Selling is a team sport no matter how much of a superstar one thinks they are. You represent an organization, a team, even a concept. You rely on those that make you look good without them you have nothing to talk about. Without the team that sets you to take the winning shot, you will never become a star. Protect and reward your team, as they Like the old saying "Alone, I will go fast but together we will go far"
Don't Rush to Figure things out.
There is a fine mix of IQ and EQ. Especially in the technology field, we are fast at solving what we think the problem is. Often, we fall short in our solutions because they were not tailored to the real problem. One of the reasons IT projects fail is because the solution was not right in the first place. We rush to the solution, especially in the sales cycle. It is like buying a house. Many realtors are just about finding you a house to buy not a home to live in. This is why many of us perform the search because the realtor did not spend enough time trying to understand what we want and what we need. An order taker does not do their profession justice. They need to understand the why, how, where, when, and who. If a realtor ignores my wife, he will never make the sale. I may appear to be the decision-maker but she is the boss. While I focus on the yard, the garage, and cost, my wife will decide on the location, size, features, rooms, etc. She knows what the solution will be when she sees it. Even though I always have a clear budget in mind that I communicate to the realtor, my wife always finds a way to exceed the budget and picks the right home. I can negotiate but she always wins. The solution was always what she wanted and I am the happier man to have a real home.
Above all, be Genuine
Unless it is an acting gig, don't try to be someone you are not. People can be fooled but most decision-makers have seen it all. If you are not, ask yourself about your character, would you buy from someone like you? Do you have the best interest of your client at heart? Mark used to come to find ways to cut down on cost and I was surprised. His business with me grew the more savings he provided. With savings, I started to focus on innovation instead of the operation. With Innovation, I gained the trust of the business that in turn, injected me with a larger budget because IT was transforming the business. I was consuming more services because I was providing more value to the business by solving business problems. This same approach is what keeps me happy in my current job as I am trusted by my clients to be truthful and have their best interests at heart. I will disagree with them one-on-one and will tell them why. I will support their decision and advocate for their success. I have lost opportunities that were not the best fit but I have gained friends from those losses. Some of these CIOs still call me today and ask for my opinion because I became their Mark.
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