Being a sales company, we read a lot of sales articles.  There’s a lot of information, advice, and good practice out there to be gleaned from reading and researching; unfortunately there’s also a lot of sales jargon.  OK, so it’s not jargon to “salespeople” but how about the small business owner who wants to sell more, the mum who wants to find new customers for her business, the MD who needs more customers?  What do Insight Selling, The Challenger Sale, Hunting, and Farming, and many of these terms really mean?

And does it really matter?  Of course if you’re in business or sales it’s important to know how to make sales calls, how to sell, and there is no one right way, so training and techniques are a great way to prepare and decide what may work for you.  But what is sometimes neglected during sales training is the most important bit, in our opinion. BEING YOU.  Because if you’re not being you on your sales call, you’re being a salesperson, and this is a bit of a barrier.  These days people don’t like sales calls, if they ever did, so you need to stand out from the crowd, be unique, authentic.  That means being the perfect YOU that you already are, without embellishment or addition.  If you’re being the sales person you are placing barriers in an otherwise uncomplicated conversation. Which is possibly the next most important bit.  Can we forget this is about sales calls, and instead make it about TTP?  Talking To People. We’ll come on to that in a moment….

How do you go about being yourself?  Think about who you are normally; are you extrovert, introvert, chatty, formal, professional, friendly?  What words resonate for you?  How do you communicate when you’re not under pressure, with friends and family for example? Take some time to consider who you are, and then take the robes off (metaphorically speaking of course), get bare and vulnerable, and be the same person during your business communications. (If you swear a lot or make loud surprising noises you may want to leave these bits out at first at least, but hopefully you get the point).  After a lifetime of not being you, it may take some time and practice to do this, but it is worth the effort.  It’s such a well used saying, but we do have to say it; people really do buy people, and they do so because buying is about emotion and not logic. It stands to reason that when they experience the real you, the emotional connection is much stronger.

There are many people in business who freeze at the mere mention of a sales call, who groan. “Oh I’m rubbish at those”. “I hate making sales calls”. Well if that’s you, call it a conversation.  Because that’s what it is.  You’re going to pick up the phone and Talk To People. Change your mindset so your brain doesn’t go into a tailspin at the thought of picking up the phone.

If you can pick up the phone, be yourself and talk to people, why complicate things?  We like simple!