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01670 284135
Everyone I speak with tells me that they want to win more sales for their business. Most also tell me that they worry about being perceived as one of those pushy, overbearing, salesy salespeople.
When I ask people what they mean when they tell me they are anxious about appearing to be “too salesy” they usually tell me about an experience they have had with an old fashioned salesperson. You know, one of those typical used car sales people = usually a bit overbearing and too familiar, not particularly interested in their customers wishes and just focused on making a quick sale to help them achieve their sales quota for that week. We’ve all met them at some point, haven’t we?
These are what I call the Predators. We’ve seen their like on a David Attenborough programme – the old alpha Lion, skulking around in the scrub, waiting for it’s next prey to appear before pouncing. I’ve met more than my fair share of predatory salespeople who would fall into that category.
However, what if you were to adopt a more modern, empathetic, customer-focused approach to selling your products & services and allowing you to grow your business? I call it the Customer First sales approach and it’s how I have conducted myself over my 30-year career in Sales, Business Development and Operations.
Since moving into consultancy and developing my suite of selling skills training content and business growth coaching services over the past 6 years, I have taught countless clients to adopt a very different approach to generating sales. The Customer First approach. Most of the people I work with have the foundations of a successful business. They are good people who have a great product or service that they have nurtured from concept to production. Most of them, like myself, have had a previous career, many in the corporate sector, then have moved into building their own business. What almost all of them have in common too, is that they have never had to directly sell, promote r market their product to customers before. Sound familiar?
When we haven’t experienced a challenge before, such as selling a product, we tend to draw upon the experiences and influences we have around us – such as r own experiences of being the customer buying a car, furniture, holidays or your house. And how did that go for you? Then we tend to look at the influences around us in the media, on TV, in movies, social media – and what reference materials do we have to draw upon there? Del Boy, Arthur Daily, Alan Sugar, Slick Tony… getting the picture now?
So when people tell me that they feel anxious about not wanting to be pushy, overbearing or salesy, I believe what they are really telling me is that they have images in their mind of the negative, uncomfortable experiences they have had in the past when making significant purchases, or that their idea of selling comes from what they see on social media, on TV in the Movies. I’ve lost count of the times that people start telling me how they loved watching Glengarry Glen Ross and the Alex Baldwin monologue.
The real danger with such thoughts about sales and selling is how our brain interprets those anxieties and perceptions, then turns those thoughts into behaviours & attitudes. Without delving too deep into psychology, our brain has a habit of playing tricks on us and turning our fears & anxiety into reality. It all happens within out subconscious brain – the part of the human brain we use most of the time and which stores out learned behaviours, practises and drives our behaviour. Our subconscious brain acts a bit like the magic genie from Aladdin; it reads our thoughts and turns our thoughts & wishes into actions. There’s only one problem though – our subconscious brain cannot process a negative thought. How many times have you found yourself thinking “I must not knock over that glass of wine” and what happens – yes you spill the glass. For the golfers amongst you reading this, how often have you been lining up your next shot and thinking “ I must not hit the ball into the bunker, I must not it the ball in the bunker, I must not hit the ball into the bunker…” But, your subconscious mind cannot process the negative thoughts, so what it hears is “hit the ball into the bunker, hit the ball into the bunker, hit the ball into the bunker.”
But what has this got to do with not being a pushy, salesy sales person. Well, so long as you are harbouring thoughts that “ you must not be pushy or salesy” guess what your subconscious mind does? Yes, it turns your thoughts into reality and you behave in exactly the manner that you wish to avoid – because you don’t know any alternative.
And that’s where I help.
I have been training & coaching sales teams to adopt the Customer First approach to selling for over 20 years. I developed, trialled and perfected my Signature Sales Process in real life sales departments and have taught my process to countless clients since launching back in 2017.
But don’t just take my word for it.
I recently worked with Louise who said “Barry Clark, you helped us create a sales process that worked for us and didn’t make us feel in anyway uncomfortable. In fact, it doesn’t feel like sales at all but it certainly works.” Gordon, a hotel General Manager also commented “Working with Barry is inspirational. Barry provides a no nonsense view of the sales world, with innovative coaching to inspire my team. Bary was instrumental in helping us build an effective foundation for corporate business, which has been a game changer.”
The greatest investment you can make in your business is to develop an effective and successful sales process.
