From “sell” to “tell” to “listen”…

Modern sales practices often fail to follow the most basic rules of communication and engagement.

If you watch the video on my previous post about the twins who talk to each other at age 17 months, you might see what I mean. These twins actually listen to each other. Their reactions convey a deep level of understanding of what the other is trying to communicate and what they care about. They share commonalities that you and I may never share, and perhaps through that they are able to truly understand each other without using language that is understood by others.

Selling is no longer what it used to be. Just read this great article to see how many people who claim to understand sales truly don’t. And when one fails, what do most do? Throw more bodies at the project doing exactly the same thing. Not only will this simply aggravate the rate of failure, it is a symptom of organizations that fail to truly understand the opportunity they have to engage and invoke loyalty in the age where “friend” is more often used in a facebook context than what its historical meant.

One of the best salesmen I ever met is Neal Greenblatt. Although we didn’t end up doing business together, he is someone who truly cares. And I would say that a “facilitator” who understands the challenges of his clients and then tailors his offer to address those is the best way to qualify him.

It’s no longer by telling our story that we can engage and gain enrollment. In the modern-day era, people are using modern techniques that go beyond what was used just a few years ago. Somebody lamented to me the other day that a CEO they were trying to get to buy their video promotion service brought in a couple of 20 year olds into the meeting. My answer was “did you ask them how facebook or twitter or foursquare could be used as promotional tools to their advantage?”. He said “no”. I responded “then you haven’t bothered to listen and understand all of the challenges of your CEO, including why he chose to bring two 20 year olds into the meeting. You failed to read the landscape and adjust accordingly. You could get them to be your greatest allies and remove the barriers that the CEO wishes (at least perceptually) to deal with.

When it comes to sales, remember why G-d gave us two ears and only one mouth…

Sass

2 Comments

  1. Hi Sass –
    You should be teaching at The Harvard Business School.

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