It’s the Oscars – Should Successful Sales Pro’s Own an Academy Award??

Is the successful Sales Pro also an actor or actress? Hmmm.

I have never acted. I would be horrible at it. I wouldn’t like it. But I can sell and I appreciate the acting profession. I don’t know it, but I appreciate its place in society.

So, don’t we, as successful Sales Pro’s, need to be able to play actor or actress from time to time? I say yes, absolutely!

The world is full of different personalities. If you have a pipeline of 30 opportunities, I guarantee you that you have at least 100 different personalities on the decision-making end of those opportunities. Should you maintain your presence, style, process and charm with each one of these personalities? You better not!

Good sales pro’s alter their approach, delivery and even personality based on the prospect before them. It is why there are so many good programs out there like Myers Briggs and the DISC profile. These great programs help you to sort out the different personality types and how to interact with them.

I call it “dancing” with the prospect. I have also heard “pace-setting” and “rapport-building”. If you are dancing with one who likes to “take charge”, you better follow. If you are dancing with one who is “calculating”, you better know your steps. The roles you must play on the dance floor are numerous. You need to adapt as a successful sales pro. If you maintain your persona and style at every opportunity, your win rate will diminish. Guaranteed!

When it comes to inside sales vs. outside sales, the opportunities here are vastly different. How do you show your persona and style in these different settings? Most research will suggest that your prospect reacts to three different attributes in your presence:

• The spoken word
• Voice inflection
• Body language

Guess what gets hardly any attention? The spoken word. Guess what gets most attention? Your body language! Two of the most successful sales pro’s I know had this shared characteristic: when the prospect was talking, they leaned forward in their chairs, put a hand up to the chin, squinted the eyes a bit and looked as if they were “The Thinker”. Really cool to watch. And their intent was genuine.

For outside sales pro’s, and it is why you are “outside” sales people, you have this skill to master, body language.

An aside: as an outside sales professional, I sometimes look at these web-based collaborative selling tools as a threat to our profession. We do our best work in the face of a prospect, not across a computer. Having been on both ends of a web-meeting, I think they suck to be blunt. Is the world changing and should we? Sure, but there is no substitute, ever, ever, ever, for face to face contact with another human being no matter your intent, desire, objective, need etc. Body language is first and foremost in the mind of the prospect. Always will be.

For inside sales pro’s, you must rely on voice inflection. Your prospect will read the positive and/or negative inflection in your voice before they ever register the spoken word. Remember that voice inflection does not necessarily mean a high at every spoken word. We all see right through that. But at the points where you think you’ve matched your product/service features to the prospect’s needs, pronounce the benefit with huge inflection. You’ll get the sale and an Academy Award!

So why do I love selling but cannot act? How can these skills live together? I can act in the sales situation because the desire is genuine, to build a new relationship, to make a new friend, to try to find a way to solve the business challenge. I do not suggest that acting is insincere but Academy Award acting as we know it is for a different purpose. Just ensure that your desires are sincere for your client, you and your company! You will be very successful if you can adapt your approach to the prospect!