1.09 (V) Salesperson Vs. Advisor
One of the first exercises I do in my courses on sales, is to ask you to think of the first words that come to mind, when I say this word, salesperson. When I do this exercise, something interesting always happens no matter where I am in the world. I capture these words on a white board. These are the words people say. Aggressive, pushy, persistent, slick, relentless, hustles, sleazy, helpful, and manipulative. And then I ask one more question. Okay, do that again, but this time do it with this word. What about adviser? What words do you think of when I say the word adviser? And guess what happens, I get a totally different set of words. This time the words are, trusted, knowledgeable, empathy, listener, dedicated, words like that. Wait a minute, what's going on here? What's going on is that most of us have a bias against salespeople. We think these people are slick, fast talkers, who are going to manipulate us into doing something we don't want to do. That's not what a salesperson does. Are there people like this out in the world? Of course, there are. Every profession has people who don't do the right thing. But the sales people we want to be, are the sales people who combine the best characteristics from our salespeople list. Persistent, helpful, resourceful, and yes, even relentless. And then mix these characteristics from our adviser list. Listener, dedicated, knowledgeable, trusted. This is what salespeople are. What is selling anyway? Selling is helping people solve their problems. It's creating a strong, long-term relationship with people, based on great work together. Think of it this way, all relationships start like this, face to face. Almost confrontational or transactional. What selling is, is this. As I ask you questions, as I listen, and as I build trust, I move around your side of the desk, and I get on your side and guess what? Now we are looking at this problem together. And we can solve it together. This is selling, and this is why it's the best profession in the world.