Why you could be missing out if this is not in your business vocabulary

Humility is not a quality that generally gets much airtime in business circles, particularly in sales. We grow up, work and play in competitive environments so we often feel the need to highlight our achievements and indulge in a bit of self-promotion. It’s natural isn’t it? We need to keep up with others who are doing the same thing, or give our fragile egos a stroke. Even the language employed doesn’t help – ‘winning’ sales, ‘top achiever’. Etc.

Too many people still believe that sales is all about being enthusiastic, passionate, maybe a bit of aggression thrown in if that moves things in the right direction.  If we think of the stereotypical sales person, those qualities often come naturally, they like to talk and enjoy having an attentive audience. Likewise business owners are passionate about their businesses, so while they may not see themselves as salespeople per se, they usually sound quite similar to a prospective buyer.

When we throw all this together we end up with a sales approach which is unwittingly self-focused and built around a ’just let me tell you why you should buy from me’ mind set.

So how can humility help? Well first of all it’s what might keep you reading to the end rather than dismiss the idea because what you ‘know for sure’ disagrees.  Secondly it’s a quality that the highest achieving sales people and business leaders possess. They use it to enhance credibility, relax their prospects and build trust. Consequently the conversations they have with their prospects are at a different level, one where they help the prospect to construct their reasons to buy, not the ones the salesperson thinks they should consider.  Generally buyers value their ideas above those of others, they buy for their reasons not yours.

Prospect conversations based around these principles will be ones where you give away minimal information, your prospect is doing the talking and you are using your knowledge to frame questions and work from the responses you are hearing. The process allows the prospect to discover your expertise and knowledge for themselves, again they will buy into to that much more readily than if you had told them.

This builds trust and through trust the buyer will feel comfortable working with you as a partner to identify the best solution. As a salesperson you are not having to deal with the diversions and other tactics that buyers employ to protect themselves and so your whole sales process can be more effective, significantly so.

Passion, enthusiasm, assertiveness and competitiveness have their place in the business and sales world, in fact successful people often have these qualities, however they also know when to switch them off.

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