Every year at BOOM! we work with hundreds of sales professionals across many industries.
In my travels I meet some astonishingly talented individuals, and some hmm… they need a bit of work. Of course, I learn from both sides of the spectrum.
I often get asked, ‘Trent, just cut to the chase and give us your best advice, what’s your #1 sales success tip? I may ponder this question for dramatic flare, (thumb on chin) but I always have a short answer to share: Do more of what works.
So what works? There are a number of consistent themes that emerge with high-performers across industries, I’m talking about the top 5%, whom consistently achieve over 120-150+% of their target. Guns. Hunters. Relationship builders.
For the sake of brevity, I will focus one core high performance trait in this blog, with more to follow over the coming weeks. I’ll shed some light on a suite of specific characteristics that drive extraordinary sales performance.
High-performance sales trait 1: Ability to disarm and build trust quickly
This trait links to building rapport and is essential to developing trust and setting the tone for a mutually beneficial relationship. To disarm you must possess something unique, interesting or indeed quirky. This ability to disarm is also brought to life through negotiations and objection handling.
This doesn’t mean you’re a weirdo. It suggests you have something different about you compared to your competition. This difference disarms and helps the customer feel safe, at ease, and not threatened by you. It creates buy-in to move the conversation forward with confidence.
When you enter a conversation, face or phone, and give a customer something they weren’t expecting, something positive, it disarms them. When you add credibility and capability to this mix, you become vastly more influential. Equally so, this applies with objection-handling when you help the customer find a place of acknowledgment and understanding to gain clarity.
When you’re a little different or outrageous, you can get away with saying things to a customer (others more straight-laced) can’t because they come across as arrogant or pushy. Now, I’m not suggesting you portray someone you’re not, that’s inauthentic and will work against you. What I’m encouraging here is to be more of yourself, if you’re a little humorous, wacky or wonderful — embrace it!
Give your customers more, because it adds light and colour to the customer experience. And maybe they really dig that about you, so don’t hold it back, drop into share mode.
When you embrace your uniqueness, not only are you more real and influential, you’re ultimately more trustworthy. Put your quirkiness out there, share it with the world and you may be surprised what comes back to you.
Trent Leyshan is the founder of BOOM! Sales and the author of OUTLAW and The Naked Salesman.
Trent Leyshan is the founder of sales training company BOOM! Sales and the author of Outlaw and The Naked Salesman.
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