3 RADICAL IDEAS about SELLING

The Soul of Selling is based on 3 radical ideas:

1. You can get the exact sales results you want, every time.
2. You can do this while honoring, respecting, and appreciating everyone with whom you speak–whether or not they buy.
3. You can feed your own soul and have fun in the process.

Sales trainers usually say that #1 and #2 are mutually exclusive, or #2 and #3, or #1 and #3… or really, all of them. Not true!

THE SOS SECRET
Here’s the punch line, the key to opening all three doors at the same time: You make your sales conversation so connected, so clear, and so enriching for both of you that you actually look forward to having it as many times as necessary in order to reach your sales goal.

When you conduct the 10-Point Honoring Sales Conversation in The Soul of Selling book, it’s often the high point of the other person’s day—or week, or month. They know that they have been invited into a connection and honored as a person, not as a “prospect.” They haven’t been manipulated. Rather, they have been coached to clarity about whether or not they want to buy. Regardless of the outcome, they have been heard and respected for who they are.

You’ve had the lush experience of a deep connection with someone whom you truly want to serve. You know whether they’re in or out, and you respect their decision. You feel good about yourself for how you’ve interacted with them, and have enjoyed connecting with another human being in whom you’ve seen the best.

This conversation is fun, expanding, are richly rewarding. You don’t mind having it over and over—with everyone on your list, and with the new people you draw to your list. You can go on and on, until you reach your goal.

THE LONE RANGER AND THE RUBBER BAND
This way of selling gives us what we’ve always wanted, but were afraid we couldn’t have—the Fourfold Guarantee for Results, Integrity, Passion and Ease. (We become R-I-P-E!) The price of this Guarantee is that we have to let go of old, habitual ways of thinking and embrace some new ideas about what selling is and what is possible.

There are reasons we don’t just abandon our bad habits nad live smoke-free, broccoli-filled, yoga-stretched lives. Comfort Zones are comfortable! And our ways of thinking and acting are subject to the Rubber Band Dynamic: Unless we keep them stretched into the new shape, and give them some support, they snap back into the old shape. Before we know it, those sneaky old ways have rubber banded back into position—no matter how well the new ways are working, or how great the financial or psychological rewards.

What to do?

For whatever reason, we sellers tend to be Lone Rangers. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. We need people around us with whom to share our triumphs and tribulations, people who can give us high fives and listen when we need to be heard. The rubber band is less likely to snap back when we have people to help us keep it stretched into the new shape, and to remind us how great that stretch feels.

EMBRACE THE RADICAL
Find someone—or better yet, several people—who also want to be radical and to start enjoying selling. Set a time to get together, at least once a week. Tell the truth about what’s bothering you, but don’t succumb to whining. Let these meetings charge you up and send you out renewed, refreshed, and ready to meet the next person.

Re-read those three ideas at the beginning of this post:

1. You can get the exact sales results you want, every time.
2. You can do this while honoring, respecting, and appreciating everyone with whom you speak–whether or not they buy.
3. You can feed your own soul and have fun in the process.

Imagine what selling would be like if you lived all three of those ideas at the same time. Imagine what life would be like!