“Being good and doing well” is the magic bullet for those of us who sell. We all want to get great numbers, and also to thrive because we are feeding our souls with personal values, higher purpose, and contribution to others. We want to get people on board with our product, service, project or vision, and at the same time grow into the people we have always wanted to be.
HOW TO DO THAT?
This was the question I asked myself when I first started selling. When I looked for selling mentors, the only people I found were Wicked or Wimpy. The Wickeds got their numbers, all right, but they were willing to break people’s arms and legs to do so. The Wimpys loved you and “om”-ed you, but they never knew if they’d make their goals and you wouldn’t want to co-sign a loan with any of them.
I knew what I wanted in a selling strategy. It had to:
- Guarantee exact results. I’d sold enough to know what it felt like not to have guaranteed results—to wonder and worry about my numbers, beat myself up if I didn’t get them, and be afraid to pick up the phone again.
- Serve people. If I knew that each time I went out to sell, I was making people’s days better instead of worse, then I would want to go out and sell. I wanted to respect, honor, and appreciate everyone with whom I spoke—whether or not they bought! I had to know that I was acting with integrity.
- Feed my soul. It had to be fun. I wanted to have rich, intimate interactions with people, and to feel that I was growing as I sold.
YIKES!
None of the sales books or sales mentors promised these things. In fact, they looked at me like I was nuts. They implied that you could have fun and connection, or you could have numbers—but not both. I realized that I would have to make up a selling strategy, and spent the next few years developing, testing, and honing the model that ultimately became The Soul of Selling.
I had no idea what I was doing, and that turned out to be a blessing. I didn’t know what I couldn’t do, and so I made sure I had all three “must haves” in my sales strategy.
THE 6 STEPS
That strategy actually turned out to be very simple, but it involved a big switch in perspective. I began to see “selling” not as pushing, manipulating, conning, or pressuring—but as a way of contributing to life and feeding my soul. I thought of it as taking a stand for something that I found valuable, and serving others by offering it to them in a respectful, honoring way. When I started to see selling as service, I felt free to go all out. I could bring 100% of myself to the task, and that made everything easier and more fun.
But how to make sure I kept this perspective? I put together the six steps of the Soul of Selling to use as handrails through this process. I designed them so anybody could use them to sell with mastery, grace and exact results. Inspiration comes from within, from our own core values, and so we can renew it, reignite it, or realign it at will. We can finally be ourselves, get great results, and feel good about how we get them. Those 6 steps are:
- Put down your baggage (and fix what you can).
- Pinpoint your passions.
- Create your Speaking Bank.
- Promise your result.
- Conduct the 10-Touchstone Honoring Sales Conversation.
- Keep going until you get the result.
MY WISH FOR YOU
You do not have to be a natural seller, or an experienced seller, to succeed with this method. Selling is an acquired skill. I am not a natural seller. I developed the Soul of Selling out of my own desire to make the things that I loved and sold available to more people, and at the same time to succeed in the world, act with integrity, and feed my soul.
All you have to do to succeed with this method is follow the six steps. Whatever your dreams, your visions, or your goals, I hope that the Soul of Selling strategy will help you step up to the plate and make them a reality.
