Heart and Sell: 10 Universal Truths Every Salesperson Needs to Know

ISBN-13: 9781632650740

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser

Publication Date: 02-20-2017

Pages: 240

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

Shari Levitin is recognized as a global expert in sales training and corporate sales strategies in over 48 countries and in seven languages. In 1990, she joined Marriott's Vacation Ownership division as a new, untrained salesperson. One year later, Levitin was named the top salesperson at her site and soon thereafter the top salesperson companywide. She is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business teaching the first ever graduate sales course, "Pitch Perfect." In 1997, Levitin launched her own training company, Shari Levitin Group. Companies such as Hilton, Adobe, Hyatt, Sprint, Jaguar, RCI, Wyndham Worldwide, financial service groups, and countless individuals have attributed hundreds of millions of dollars of ROI to the unique Third-Level Selling. Shari Levitin's specialties include keynotes, presentation skills workshops, custom sales design, sales training, and sales strategies. To learn more, go to www.sharilevitin.com.

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CHAPTER 1

Success Starts With the Growth Equation

Universal Truth #1: Top salespeople share a willingness to take responsibility for their weaknesses, a deep curiosity about their customers and the world, and a desire for mastery. They commit to using what they've learned about their processes to continue improving. When you master this "growth equation" you will not only improve your sales record, you will transform your life.

When I was about 30, I heard about a sales opportunity at Marriott. Fortunately, I was hired, because it was there that I met my first sales mentor.

Motivational speaker and author Marcus Buckingham, formerly with the Gallup Organization, once said, "People don't leave jobs, they leave managers." As for me, I stayed and thrived with Marriott because of one man: Greg Willingham.

Greg grew up in the land business and was what Bostonians call "wicked smaht." It was because of Greg that I was able to rise through the ranks at Marriott, eventually becoming the top salesperson and going on to help lead the top sales team in the company.

That didn't mean working for Greg was easy — far from it. There was no messing around in his salesroom. Sales meetings started every morning at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you weren't in your seat, you got no customers that day. That's right, not one lead. The reason for your tardiness didn't matter. One day, a company bulldozer rammed into my colleague's Subaru while he was pulling into the parking lot.

No leads.

Greg wasn't interested in reasons. "I hire the best salespeople I can find," he said. "I don't want to spend my time listening to excuses." Greg taught me the most valuable lesson of my career — the three goals of any sales encounter:

1. Make the customer feel better about you and your company than they did before you met.

2. Make a sale.

3. If the customer doesn't buy, find out the real reason. Learn from it, accept responsibility, and don't make the same mistake again.

It's the third rule that I've found to be the most important and, often, the most painful. The moment you really start to take responsibility for your actions, you will feel the pain of failures more acutely than before. But you will also learn from each experience so you'll never make the same mistakes again.

This willingness to look at your mistakes requires curiosity. The most successful people I've encountered aren't afraid to say, "Yes, I messed up, but what did I do wrong? What's the lesson? How can I get better?" They know they might not win back a lost sale or fix a mistake, but they do commit to changing their behavior next time.

How? By taking a good look at their habits and by being vulnerable enough to admit what's working and what isn't. The willingness to learn and grow is what leads to true mastery.

The Growth Equation

Responsibility, curiosity, and mastery make up what I refer to as the growth equation — and top performers understand and practice this universal truth.

Why is a commitment to growth such a necessary component of selling with heart? Because when we take responsibility, we draw people in rather than pushing them away. Increased curiosity creates more authentic relationships. By mastering sales techniques, you will live in the moment with your customers and be present to their needs and emotions.

Work on all three of these things and your connections will be deeper and your paycheck will be bigger. Of course, you have to first believe that this kind of growth is even possible.

Make a commitment to growth — and surround yourself with others who've done the same.

For years I thought that sales skills were either something you were born with or not. I figured that my talents, much like my frizzy black hair, were facts of life.

In her bestselling book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Stanford Business School professor Carol Dweck presents a powerful way of looking at success. High achievers possess more than intelligence and talent. In addition, they all have a commitment to growth and continual learning.

Dweck says that people have either one of two types of "mindsets" that have a powerful impact on how they conduct their lives. The first group of people — those with a fixed mindset — believe that their qualities and abilities are static. They think there's a limit to their basic talents and nothing can change that. As a result, they feel a deep urgency to prove themselves to others.

We all know people stuck in a fixed mindset. They say things like:

• I'm not good at math.

• I don't remember people's names.

• I'm not a natural salesperson.

• I don't do technology.

• I'm not interested in politics!

• No one finds me attractive.

• I'm not the athletic type.

Because those with fixed mindsets aren't curious to learn more and often don't put in the effort to become masters in their fields; they hide behind false bravado. They try to mask their deficiencies, instead of trying to overcome them.

People with growth mindsets, on the other hand, believe that their basic qualities "are things you can cultivate through toil and persistence." These people are energized by learning and invigorated by overcoming failure. To them, life is a journey of gathering new information, making new connections, asking for constructive feedback, and learning from painful lessons.

A passion for stretching themselves is the hallmark of those with a growth mindset.

A perfect example of someone with a growth mindset was Benjamin Franklin. The consistent theme in Franklin's life was self-improvement. As the brother of seven, and the child of a poor candle maker, he had less than two years of formal education and yet he became one of the wealthiest, most respected intellectuals of the 18th century.

From an early age, Franklin read everything he could. He loved the knowledge he found in books and in 1727 formed a club called the Junto, a structured forum to discuss and debate intellectual and worldly topics with fellow club members.

Learning about the world was obviously important to Franklin — but so was spending time with other thinkers and community leaders who were as curious and committed to learning as he was.

Think for a moment about the people you surround yourself with: Are they people who inspire you and fuel your energy, or do they just suck the life out of you?

My (former) friend Cindy always had a health issue, a problem with her ex-husband, or a gripe about her mother. I somehow became her sounding board and her bartender, listening to her sob stories over too many bottles of wine. Alas, Cindy would never do anything about her situation. She preferred complaining to therapy, and victimization to optimization. When I finally realized there was nothing I could do to help her until she started to help herself, we parted ways.

The next time you find yourself feeling stuck in a fixed mindset, think about what you might do to step outside yourself and learn from your mistakes. Think about those colleagues and friends who strive for improvement, and ask yourself if you're spending enough time helping each other grow.

This commitment to growth and the bonds you form with other growth-minded colleagues will pave the way for you to master the growth equation.

Responsibility

At one of my consulting workshops, I kicked off the first morning by greeting each salesperson by name. They all replied with the same good cheer.

All but one.

Instead of saying hello, Linda was quick to make excuses as to why she wasn't having any luck with the previous day's assignments.

"The prospects are terrible," she said. "They don't buy."

The second morning, it was the same thing.

"Good morning," I called out. "What a grand day!" But it was never a grand day for Linda.

"These leads are NQs!" she hissed. (NQ is short for "not qualified.")

Who does that, I wondered. Who blames everyone and everything but themselves for their lack of sales?

Actually, a lot of people do. Many salespeople blame external circumstances for their lack of success. But when we do this, we erode our own power.

We've all met chronic blamers — reactive people who limit their ability to take control of their lives. Reactive salespeople are easy to spot. They use phrases such as:

• I can't help it.

• They didn't have the money.

• It's marketing's fault.

• I don't have the time.

• I never get any support.

Often, chronic blamers are fearful about their job security — and for good reason. Take Linda, for example. Her organization had more than 500 salespeople who all worked together at the same office. Every month they had awards for the top three salespeople. Linda had never been close to the top; in fact, she was always in the bottom 10.

But an interesting thing happened during the course of the seminar. The techniques I was sharing resonated with Linda and, just two weeks later, she went from number 125 on her team to number two. Around the time the awards were announced, I noticed Linda in the back of the room on a little brown chair, writing feverishly on a yellow pad.

I asked her what she was doing.

"Writing my speech," she said. "I'm going to share with everyone what I did to win the number two slot."

I congratulated Linda for improving her sales record, but I also told her what I tell salespeople all over the world:

We can't take the glory for being great if we won't take the responsibility when we're not.

Remember: Linda wasn't blaming herself for being number 125 — she was blaming the customers. So although I was thrilled to congratulate her for her victory, I warned her that she needed to be equally willing to take responsibility the next time customers weren't buying.

Top salespeople never blame external factors for their lack of success. They know that, even as a veteran, you can go from having a great month where everyone's buying to one where you can't sell anyone anything. You try everything, but you can't even talk your dog into going for a walk. As Eric Greitens writes in his book Resilience, "While fear can be your friend, excuses are almost always your enemy. Faced with a choice between hard action and easy excuses people often choose the excuse. ... Excellence is difficult. An excuse is seductive."

People who sell from the heart never blame external factors for their lack of success. They hold themselves accountable and, as a result, they consistently improve.

You can have the greatest sales system in the world, but if you won't take responsibility for your own success, in the end, it won't matter.

When Organizations Play the Blame Game

If the failure to take responsibility can prevent an otherwise talented salesperson from growing, it can mean the death of an organization. Yet, in too many companies, the blame game runs rampant. A single chronic blamer can turn an entire culture into a game of finger pointing and "It's your fault, not mine" thinking.

A few years ago, I sat with a group of senior leaders who weren't meeting their quotas. They were struggling to get salespeople to prospect correctly and to isolate objections.

I met with the leadership team separately and asked them to identify what they saw as the major issue.

"The salespeople just don't listen," they complained. "We tell them over and over again what to do and it goes in one ear and out the other."

"Really?" I said. I was shocked. "Who's in charge of training here?"

There was an awkward silence.

"We are," one of them responded.

"They're looking to you for leadership and direction," I said. "They rely on you to provide mentorship and accountability! And you're blaming them?"

Next, I met with the sales team. Their biggest beef with management was that they weren't providing enough support or guidance about how to close.

"It's their fault," they complained.

Really? Doesn't anybody in this company want to accept some responsibility? Apparently not.

No matter where you sit in an organization, blaming others is always a bad idea, not simply because it alienates people, because it's lazy, or because it robs you of respect. There's a deeper reason — one that won't just cause short-term problems, but will destroy your organization's chance at long-term growth:

Blaming other people and external circumstances prevents you from learning, and it prevents your company from growing.

You can start to take more responsibility immediately by changing your self-talk and the questions you ask yourself. Consider the following alternatives to some old standby excuses:

• "They didn't have the money." Instead, think about where you could have improved. For example, "I didn't show them the value. Did I find a problem? Was it big enough?"

• "They're indecisive." Maybe, but what could you have done differently? "I didn't make enough of a connection. What else could I have done to build trust?"

• "Someone gave them a better deal." Instead of blaming your competitors, keep your focus on you. "I didn't differentiate our offering. What are the power statements I could have used to better differentiate my offer?"

Despite years of training myself to take responsibility, I still find myself asking accusatory questions like "Who took my car keys?" or "Who left the milk out?" My default mechanism is often to blame. I sometimes think that's why I seek advice from so many people when I'm going through rough times. That way if the advice doesn't pan out, I can abdicate responsibility. I'm not proud of this, but I am certainly aware of it.

The truth is that it's easier to blame than it is to accept criticism. Here's how to catch yourself in the act. If someone asks you why something went wrong, do you start a sentence with the words "He," "She," or "They"? The very use of those words suggests that someone else, somewhere else, is in control. The sales gods must be against you!

As soon as you say "I," you've taken back control for your failures — and your successes.

Curiosity

Years ago, the manager of a European conglomerate asked me to help out a struggling new salesperson. Buzzcut Bruce, we called him. Now, Bruce was new to sales. It turns out he excelled as a private investigator in Louisiana, but after having just moved to Colorado he thought he'd take a whack at a career in fractional real estate sales.

Whenever I coach a new salesperson, I focus on the discovery questions they ask their clients. Bruce asked the right questions all right, but his questioning quickly deteriorated into interrogations. Not a good idea. Here's an example:

"So Charlotte, you just mentioned your last holiday in Montana," Bruce would ask. "Do you and Brad always vacation in the summer?"

"Yes," the prospect would reply. "That's when the kids are out of school."

"And what month do you travel?" he'd ask.

"Usually August. It gets pretty hot in Texas, so we like to head north."

Painful pause ...

"Hmmmm ... but you said that Christmas is when you take the most frequent breaks. So which is it, ma'am?"

Yikes.

I couldn't tell if he was trying to get a signature on a contract or a confession.

Now, this is an extreme example of what not to do. Not every novice salesperson is going to grill their prospects as hard as a former private eye. But my point is this: Unless salespeople are truly curious, the discovery process may feel like an interrogation to customers.

I've watched thousands of salespeople go through the motions of asking the right questions, only to completely annoy their customers along the way. Why? Because they display a lack of genuine curiosity. When objections arise, instead of asking questions that will put the customer at ease and create a connection, they go on the defensive. It's not enough to ask questions; you actually have to listen for the answers!

As an alternative approach, I love the quote from the book Just Listen by Mark Goulston and repeat it to my son frequently: "Be more interested than interesting." The more you listen, the smarter people think you are. Why start talking and louse up their positive impression of you?

The Five Attributes of Curious People

Consider some of the habits of truly curious salespeople:

• They ask questions that help them better understand their customers — not simply those that allow them to elbow in their point of view.

• They do their homework before they meet a prospect. Who is this person? How long has he or she been with the company? (What they don't do is prejudge.)

• They dig deep in order to find out what really matters to their customers at the heart level.

• They want to get to know their customers' inner worlds and discover how it affects their outer worlds.

• Instead of reacting negatively, they seek to understand why a prospect might be putting off a decision.

Curious neuroscientists are studying the brain to uncover the neurological impact of, you guessed it, curiosity. Some of the most recent findings support a theory developed by Carnegie-Mellon's George Loewenstein known as the "information gap."

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Excerpted from "Heart and Sell"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Shari Levitin.
Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction 13

Chapter 1 Success Starts With the Growth Equation 29

Chapter 2 Emotions Drive Decision-Making 49

Chapter 3 Freedom Lives in Structure 65

Chapter 4 In Sales, No Never Means No 87

Chapter 5 Trust Begins With Empathy 105

Chapter 6 Integrity Matters 125

Chapter 7 Anything That Can Be Told Can Be Asked 143

Chapter 8 Emotional Commitment Precedes Economic Commitment 163

Chapter 9 Removing Resistance Takes Persistance 183

Chapter 10 Looking for Wrongs Never Makes You Right 207

Notes 227

Index 233