I know many people who are spiritual seekers, and who look down their noses at people who sell. It’s all I can do to keep from saying, “Forget the mountaintop. Get a job selling cars, and you’ll be enlightened in half the time!”
The Soul of Selling actually parallels many approaches to personal growth and spiritual practice. Most spiritual practices include four principles:
- Quieting the mind
- Equanimity
- Balance of love and will, yin and yang, compassion and power
- Service
Here is how these four principles work in the Soul of Selling method:
Quieting the mind. The Soul of Selling asks us to manage our own mental chatter, and also to be compassionate with our contacts’ mental chatter. We are no longer the slaves of mental chatter; we become senior to it in order to contribute. We identify and release our own mental chatter before each selling conversation—and learn to hear other people’s chatter without necessarily believing it. Being able to rise above mental chatter gives us access to levels of strength and compassion that are simply not possible when we have to run after every thought in our minds—and other people’s minds.
Equanimity. The Soul of Selling teaches us to be the eye of the hurricane. Selling is demanding business. Yet in the midst of everything, we remain compassionate, committed, and calm. We are the grown-ups who are willing to make the whole selling experience rich for everyone involved—and to have everybody win.
Balance. Selling demands an amalgam of love and strength, generosity of spirit and steady will, humility and certainty, yin and yang. It asks that we guarantee two things that many people believe are mutually exclusive: 1) Specific results, and 2) Unconditionally honoring and appreciating our contacts. We bring the best we have to offer people, and we don’t get thrown off track by hearing “No.” We are willing to see beyond people’s crankiness, uncertainty, or defensiveness to the goodness in them. At the same time, we produce the promised result, every time. We merge personal effectiveness with contribution, and powerful results with personal meaning.
Service. The Soul of Selling is based on service. Our primary charge is to see the best in people, and this is the greatest service one human being can offer another. We make this the foundation of our conversations and learn to recognize and dismantle everything that’s in the way of that service.
So the next time someone snorts at selling in your presence (physically or mentally), just flood that person with compassion, take a deep breath, and know that what you’re doing is a walking, talking meditation.
