The secret to sales and marketing
Okay, not so much rules, more like guidelines or suggestions.
A rule is a hard and fast set of beliefs to follow, a rigid set of “you must.” This is life. Life is open more to interpretation. Guidelines are looser, freer, and not a one-size-fits-most. Sorry, my title was a bit clickbait, bad marketing approach.
Speaking of, good marketing is much like selling. Marketing and sales are interrelated. If you’re in marketing and don’t think part of your job is selling, you’re fooling yourself. Either way, this article holds some truths and potentially valuable information for really anyone in either camp — marketing or sales.
Why am I writing this
Recently I was reading articles and posts by some people I admire and respect on LinkedIn. As is the internet, a confused person chimed in, believing sales is to force the buyer into a compromising position. Pour boy needed some correcting, and boy howdy, did many come down, rightfully, on him.
My short and sweet, upvoted reply was simply this:
Sales are something you do with people, not to people.
That truism, which I learned long ago from mentors of mine, got me thinking, followed by me falling down a rabbit hole of thoughts about what sales and marketing is, or rather, what it isn’t.
If you want to skip right to the 8 rules guidelines for selling, blowing past a sort-of preamble about who salespeople are, I wouldn’t blame you. If not, stick around.
Sales, marketing, and bad reputations
Marketing and sales can, at times, seem like dirty words to people. Look, I get it, truly. I’m a veteran of marketing and have seen it most, including tens of thousands in shady marketing campaigns, accelerated in our digital age. Behind every scummy marketing campaign are scummy marketers looking to profit off fooling people. Full of false promises of hope, and downright dishonorable falsehoods.
Same for salespeople without morals or ethics, the kind who, be it by email, phone, or in person, instead of reaching out and giving a handshake, think it’s about dazzling people with their verbal skills. It’s not. It’s not a who talks the most wins. An any warm body is a mark, or hidden agendas, or haphazard bullying.
Marketers can usually hide, but salespeople can’t. If they’re putting themselves out there, which, believe me, isn’t always easy for some. Depending on your personality or even mood in the day, it’s a feat they stay sane trying to find people and talk to them to see if your services can help them.
Good salespeople, the ones with souls, morals, and values, to them it’s more than just trying to make quotas and bonuses, it’s knowing their entire career is often bigger than the company they’re currently at.
The best salespeople I’ve met are just great people. If one employer doesn’t value their time, dedication, or service, they know pretty much everyone in their and adjacent industries, so can easily call this or that person and switch jobs.
Job titles are meaningless
Of the many issues with our modern world of work, predicated on numerous woefully outdated systems, such as resumes, cover letters, and job titles are right up there. One can make the argument, “well, without some hierarchy; manager, associate, assistant, director, AVP, VP, how would we know who’s in charge?”
I’d counter that with at the best companies, in a sense, everyone is in charge of something, and the best CEOs I’ve spoken to. While they absolutely feel like they’re leading their organization, they’ll be the first to say (again, great leaders, not bad bosses), if they do their jobs right, they give their people the best tools, back them up, then let them do their jobs.
Sales, which as words as titles go, is accurate to some extent as a role or function, but there’s much more to it, even marketing. There’s so much nuance to the roles of customer attraction in 2023, almost none of which is straightforward. From the rapidly evolving digital tools, to what’s a legit KPI, how to reach audiences, all growing more and more complex.
There are still many outside of sales and marketing who try to lump the roles into a simplistic “why can’t you just sell more,” or worse, “if you’d just work a little harder.” Like most things, working harder has diminishing returns, only working smarter and evolving in your role will net you and your company the intended results.
The question then is, what would you call the roles as titles if not sales? Relationship Builder? Friend Maker? Human to Human Business Lubricator? A title with “connector” in the title is more accurate in 2023 for a salesperson or marketer. Connecting is the core essence of the role; everything else is semantics.
Sales is about making connections
Done right, a sales process begins as a human-centered relationship connecting audiences to sellers, and filling needs.
Ideally, the seller-buyer relationship is truly a win-win.
Sure, in selling, there’s always the want, in fact need, to close deals, definitely, but equal parts are being human, being curious, and working out what’s best for the seller and consumer.
It’s symbiosis. A great salesperson learns from their customers, even if they don’t close and at least start a relationship. Same goes for the customer, if the salesperson is good, the customer should learn and be better for the interaction, regardless if they buy immediately.
Bigger than the sale
Selling or not, buying or not, there should always be mutually beneficial exchanges.
Think how all the rage (for now) is having “free” information on sites where you exchange an email, phone, and other information about yourself as currency to download a guide helpful for you to learn about what’s happening in your industry.
You get some information that, if it’s written well, sure will try to sell whatever products are offered on a site, and the company has your information to learn more about you.
A person doesn’t download a free white paper or industry report because they don’t have a problem to solve or concerns about their business, or they wouldn’t be getting free information.
Regardless of how the seller and buyer connect, the entry point is all about doing one thing; entering into a relationship.
Relationships that may not produce a sale today, done right— are cultivated, nurtured, and maintained. Could mean a sale tomorrow, or a sale to someone that person knows who may be in greater need of the solution the salesperson is offering.
Never discount relationships because, as I’ve said, relationships are everything.
8 Rules guidelines for selling
1. Build every relationship by being of service
Period. Seriously. When it comes to sales, it’s not just about pushing your products or services first and foremost. In fact, if you go in with that mentality, odds are nothing good will come of any selling situation long term. You are there, first and foremost, to ask questions and listen. You are there to build relationships with your prospects.
Be their partner in crime, their confidant, and their go-to person for solutions and ideas, even ones they may not have thought of. Start by being of service, even if it doesn’t immediately translate into work for you. Nine times out of ten, it will pay off in the long run. If it doesn’t? Still okay. You’re growing your network, and in sales, you’re only as good as your network.
2. Manage your time, energy, and attitude
Time is money, they say. But it’s not just about the clock ticking away; it’s about how you use it and your thoughts about the energy and the attitude you bring to the table. Are you pumped up and ready to go? Or are you dragging your feet? Are you dreading the next sales call or meeting? Or are you generally curious and open to taking some time to get to know your customer?
You know who will know the difference? Right, your customer. If you’re low energy, or you’re looking at your watch or smartphone screen checking the time, or you go in for the pressure move because you think being aggressive will still win you a long-term relationship, think again.
There’s a reason many big car dealerships adopted an “if you buy, you buy. If you don’t, keep in touch.” There’s an attrition of car dealers in the US, and the majority that is drying up had the ol’ lock the customer in an office until they sign the papers. In the internet age, where bad or good reviews last forever, which would you rather have, good interactions saved for prosperity or bad ones?
3. Sales are helping others solve their problems
Everyone’s got problems. Your prospects are no exception. So, put on your problem-solving hat and get to work. Help potential clients and customers — your prospects — find solutions to their pain points. Be their hero. They’ll love you for it if, IF, you go into it, not as an aggressive Glengarry Glen Ross coffee is for closers asshole, but as a person curious about helping others.
An acquaintance of mine brings in several seven, and eight-figure B2B accounts a year, but he’d never call what he does selling. He knows his company’s products, high-level enterprise software solutions to large 1,000+ employee companies, and his niche, older blue-collar, meets tech conservative industries. Sure, he has massive contact lists, he makes calls, and drops in on both existing accounts and prospects, but he never leads trying to sell. He leads with curiosity and a drive to help others.
4. Build rapport into every conversation
Use communication skills, listening, and conversation starters to build rapport. Start with questions, working your product and service into the conversation, but let the prospect talk. Get to understand, sincerely, the client’s needs and pain points. To best understand how your services can help your prospect, and feel like you’re mind reading their needs, is through rapport.
New to talking to people? That’d be an entirely different article, but here is some advice: YouTube, online courses, and/or shadow an experienced salesperson. If you’ve done your homework, you already know two things:
- A good deal of knowledge and expertise about the services you’re selling and
- If you’re any good, you’ve done the homework and have a general sense of your prospects’ need for your product or service.
With that, you already have a great jumping-off point. Begin by, with honest curiosity, asking how things are working out related to what your offering and genuinely listening. Listen to the good and the bad, and use it as an educational tool. Initially, more for you as every story you hear from every customer helps you build a wealth of knowledge, good and even potentially bad, for them and for you if you don’t offer a service they really need.
When the time is right, work your product or service into the conversation. But remember, ease into it, not to suddenly turn into a pushy won’t take no monster. Lead the conversation along the lines of the truth: You have potential answers and solutions to their problems.
5. If they already have a person? That’s okay. You can still be helpful and provide expertise.
If clients already are buying services or products from someone else, be honest with them. Offer what you know, and how you can help, and ask how the current service they’re getting from a competitor is working out; and again, listen. You may have solutions, skills, and information their current rep doesn’t have. If not, leave them with the offer to be there to help.
Follow up with them periodically, especially if you have intel on the customer’s area of business that may be of use. Perhaps a service perhaps your competitor doesn’t have, or even just things you’re seeing in your travels about your potential prospect’s industry and their competition. Be a without peer advisor to their business needs in the area of expertise you have.
You should absolutely continue to offer them better service than whomever they’re with. Offer trials, helping them to test your products, incentives if they switch, and even a small portion of their business to win them over.
If they switch right away, great; if they don’t, they’ll continue to be a prospect and use, even if it’s automation, to follow up every now and again. Often, eventually, your competitor, the one with the business, is going to either slip or start to take your prospect’s business for granted. Ask me how I know.
6. Make time to work on your skills, growth, and productivity habits.
We could all use a little me-time, right? You will not branch out or level up your abilities if you never take time out of the selling cycle to go outside of yourself, what you know, and even potentially your industry to learn new things.
Discover and tinker with sales AI automation tools, read books and articles, or better yet, one way to lock in what you’ve learned this far, write. Write a book or white paper on sales, and even ask your clients to help by contributing. Teaching and giving back are powerful for learning and growth.
And remember yet another truism: nobody is capable of doing great work for 18 hours every day. Block off to change gears, to rest, to hydrate. I’ve seen salespeople in their late 30s that looked almost 60. The life of a salesperson isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. Train accordingly.
7. Organize your day around energy levels
Planning and organizing your day is crucial. Maybe you’re thinking, “duh,” but you’d be surprised how many people I’ve run across that still don’t or don’t make it a habit. Planning your day around times you’re at your personal best for doing what will help maximize times when you’re at peak energy and attitude.
As we’ve established, is key to sales success is being able to both bring actively converse with prospects and clients about products and services and also listen, and listening takes energy. Make a schedule, and stick to it.
If you know you’re better at doing outreach, be it emails, calls, and outreach during the morning, schedule those outward-facing tasks in a time bracket that you know you’ll be at 100%. If you lack energy right after lunch, try not to tackle difficult clients or stubborn problems that will take a lot of brain power.
Temet Noscé… know thyself!
8. Becoming a subject matter expert makes you invaluable.
Whatever your product and service may be, the only way you’ll have the edge over the competition is by continuously learning about what it is you’re selling and marketing. Go further and continually gather information on your audience. Research not only your industry, but adjacent industries, the sellers and buyers. Invariably you’ll find key takeaways that can make you better at your job. A little valuable information with powerful outcomes for your client’s business can be worth millions to them and millions to you in commission.
The biggest secret to being great at sales is knowing your customers’ why. There’s a good chance many of your customers don’t even know, and probably not much of your competition. Use new helpful information that, combined with your services, can help others and solve their problems. Even better, it gives you a reason to reach out to contacts, current or prospects.
Use what you know, a growing wealth of information gleaned from your company, industry, and customers, to build great relationships for your job, your income, and for life.
There you have it. Eight key concepts and takeaways that’ll make you a sales and marketing superstar.
Key takeaways
If your eyes glazed over, remember and do these four things:
- Sales and marketing are about relationships; focus on being your best at building rapport
- Selling is a conversation
- Be and stay curious in the process of pursuing sales and marketing
- Listen and pay attention to the customer’s needs and wants
- Embody being a genuinely good person; by doing so, people will want to work with you.
Go forth and be awesome!