If You Want To Be Successful In Sales, Don't "Sell" Anything

I recently had the honor of being a part of a women in sales leadership panel and the moderator stated, “Someone posted on your LinkedIn that you’ve cracked the formula for success in sales, so what is it?” First, I’m still learning every day and I may never agree that I’ve cracked the formula. Second, my answer may surprise you and sound completely counter-intuitive. I believe that to be successful in sales you shouldn’t “sell” anything at all. Sales is the wrong word for what I do in my profession. What I do is become naturally inquisitive about my customer’s business, genuinely interested in the problems that they’re looking to solve and provide advice and solutions that can help. To be successful in sales, you need to spend more time listening and being inquisitive, and less time talking and “selling” your product or service. Take a customer-centric approach by putting your customer’s needs at the center of all you do, working to earn and keep their trust.

I started my career at KPMG as a Sarbanes Oxley Auditor. My job was to meet with senior executives of companies and better understand their business processes to ensure they had proper internal controls in place. I’ve always been a naturally inquisitive person, so this came naturally to me. When I transitioned into a software sales role, I used these same skills. Today, when I look to build world class sales teams, I look for individuals that have the intrinsic qualities that you need to be successful in sales. These qualities include curiosity, drive, passion, perseverance, determination, grit, and the ability to think creatively to overcome challenges. I can teach sales process and product knowledge, but I can’t give someone the drive that it takes to set up 7 senior level executive meetings a week and the perseverance that it takes to overcome the 15 rejections that you may get in the process of setting up those 7 meetings.

In addition to having the qualities that make people successful in sales, it’s important to focus your time on fruitful activities. Quite often, it comes down to a combination of working smarter in addition to working harder. In my first sales role, I had several key phrases posted on my cube wall. The first was, “Is this a revenue generating activity?” I wanted to make sure I was focused on the right tasks to help me achieve my revenue targets and not just busy work. The second was, “Today is a beautiful day to sell software.” I wanted to remind myself that having a positive attitude on the phone with customers was key to any conversation. People naturally want to speak with others who have a positive attitude and high energy. Finally, I had several key phrases from my favorite sales book written by Dale Carnegie, such as, “Bait the hook to suit the fish,” “Talk in terms of the other person’s interest,” “Be a good listener,” and “Become genuinely interested in other people.”

At the end of the day, people buy from people and the ability to build genuine relationships with your customers is key. The best way that I know to build these relationships is to become invested in what’s important to your customer. I’m grateful for the relationships I’ve built with customers over time and I pride myself that I have often spent so much time with my customers that they are inviting me to their executive team happy hours or for pizza parties at the CIO’s house. When you become a member of your customer’s team, then you know you’ve earned their trust and respect and that is an important part of the formula for success.