I have the pleasure of being a guest blogger over at the Consultative Sales and Sales Management Professionals of Canada site. What a classically great example of the power of social networking through communities like LinkedIn. Marshall Northcott (editor) and I connected over LinkedIn. He liked my comments in groups and my blog posts and he invited me to join his team of guest bloggers. It may have taken me all of 5-seconds to say yes:). As a long time sales professional, Marshall has great insights about selling, but today he posted something just a little bit different. This one is all about what you are probably doing wrong if that job is still eluding you! The principles apply to closing deals by the way, so READ THE POST and leave a comment if you are so inclined. If you like…please pass on the love by ReTweeting!

I don’t know about you, but I feel like the societal pendulum has swung so far over to the me, me, me side of the spectrum that I wonder if it will ever swing back. Whatever happened to “give to receive”? Is it really that hard to make the time to extend a helping hand to someone else without expecting anything in return? For a large number of people out there, I guess it is.

I’m a big fan of Bob Littel who wrote a great book called The Heart and Art of Netweaving. The essence of the book is all about connecting others knowing that what goes around comes back around. Throughout my entire professional career, which included running sales teams in the technology sector, I’ve always taken this approach. Bob just gave it a wonderful name to differentiate the approach from traditional networking. The netweaving philosophy, I believe fits the essence of social networking perfectly. Unfortunately, there are legions of folks out there who just don’t get it. Here are a few recent examples:

• I followed a number of people on Twitter yesterday, although with a few of them I am now reconsidering…anywho…out of the 11 direct message responses, 8 of them were sales pitches. I hate that! Get to know me will you before telling me how you can help me make thousands a day selling products online.
• I asked a LinkedIn question about why so many people blatantly ignore community guidelines and hawk their wares in the discussion area anyway, which is supposed to be for discussing ideas and helping others NOT to push your latest tele-seminar. One respondent got pretty ticked off at the question. According to him, that is taking an elitist view, because after all – that’s what LinkedIn is for…selling.
• I received a business launch announcement in my email inbox from people that I do not know. It was the standard pitch with nothing really compelling about it. The kicker…they wanted you to visit their “community page” and when I did (because I was curious) I discovered that the page was still under construction. Big no no! First impressions count and this company scored 2 strikes against them right out of the box. I can think of no reason why I would buy from them.

What’s up? What’s behind the selfishly motivated behavior that seems to be pervasive? I can’t figure out if it’s desperation, impatience, cluelessness or insecurity. Maybe it is all of them. Investing time to help others first to get what they need goes a long way toward building your own reputation and brand. It means you must genuinely care about supporting the success of others knowing that your success naturally follows.

If you have something to sell – everyone does! – whether it’s trying to land a new contract, sell your book, secure a new job, get the kids to take out the trash, raise money for your charity or earn that big promotion – we all sell! When you come from a place of giving to others first, you will be rewarded many times over. It just may not be right this second!

To the folks who lack the patience or willingness to build trust and relationships with others…you’ll be rewarded too. Probably not the reward you had in mind though.

By the way, that’s Cody in the picture. Cody needed a helping hand. His previous owner was evicted from their apartment and abandoned him in the complex leaving him to fend for himself. Whatever the reason, I can’t comprehend the kind of person who could do this sort of thing, but I’m grateful that Cody landed at our vet’s office. It’s a big commitment taking on another doggie, especially a 6-month old Siberian Husky, but he needed the help. I’m glad we could give it! Cody has joined brothers Shorty and Murphy and though the household is in a complete state of disarray, I’m thrilled to have Cody here.

Take a minute to look around to see where you can lend a helping hand! It could be connecting a colleague to a new business opportunity, supporting a charity bake sale or rescuing a puppy from a life threatening situation. Go on – extend your hand! The return on your investment will pay you huge dividends in the end.

Me too. Haven’t you noticed how many so-called social media experts have come on the scene? People figured out quickly that social media is the buzz, so they figured they could jump on the gravy train and make a quick fortune. It’s easy to spot the wannabes though. Here are few clues:

1. They don’t blog or if they have a blog there isn’t much on it.

2. They have like 25 connections on LinkedIn and think that’s a big network.

3. They started using social media about 6 months ago, if that.

4. They think that email marketing is the same as social networking.

5. They are not getting business using social networking approaches now matter how much they trash talk about their expertise.

6. They can’t tell you the core differences between Twitter, Plaxo, Facebook, LinkedIn or StumbleUpon.

7. Their website has no social media presence at all.

What does this all have to do with sales?

I’ve noticed during the last two years how many coaches and consultants are now claiming to be sales experts with this or that program to help you achieve success. Talk is cheap so the saying goes. I’m about results. You can’t fake experience and a demonstrable history of success. People often get into sales training or sales coaching, because they smell easy money when they have little or no experience as a professional sales person themselves.

Case in point…

A few years ago, I met a woman at a networking event who said she was a sales coach. I said, wow – that’s interesting. Tell me about your sales background. You know the punch line, right? She had no experience. Zip, none, nada! But she thought that she could coach sales people anyway. There is no hard and fast rule that says you MUST have business experience in the area where you intend to offer your coaching service, but it certainly does help. And if you are going to coach or train sales people then you darn well better know what it’s like to walk in their shoes.

Sales (I believe) is a little different from other organizational functions. If you’ve never sold professionally, you will have a hard time truly understanding the challenges that sales people face. You won’t be able to fully know the motivation that is required to sell day in and day out. There is no way that you can feel the stress of being pressured by leaders on high to get the deal…now.

Oh boy, here it comes. I can hear all those wonderfully trained coaches out there just itching to challenge me on this point…please don’t bother! I’ve sold close to a billion dollars in products and services through the years, so I have a little bit of background in this area. And, no, I’m not an expert. I just have actual experience selling. If your paycheck has never depended on achieving a sales quota every month – you don’t know what it is like, and I don’t care how many powerful questions you ask…you don’t know! Moreover, sales professionals will not take you seriously anyway.

What’s my point? If you plan to call yourself an expert or offer sales coaching as a service, you darn sure better have the goods to back it up!

Perception is reality so the saying goes. Never is that more true than when it comes to the process of selling. How you view this critical business function will either help or hinder what you plan to achieve. It seems to me that more than one sales person out there needs this reminder. For the record, I’m calling anyone – that means you too Mr. or Ms. business owner who needs to sell a product or service – a sales person.

Great selling is an art. Those people who do it well understand that it takes a plan, it’s hard work, requires internal motivation, takes time, it requires consistency, and it’s about building relationships with people. Let me say that again…sales is a people business. You won’t get far if…

• You can’t get over your fear of rejection.

• You can’t check your ego at the door.

• You think “selling is bad” versus “sales is simply a way to help others solve their business problems”.

• As a business owner, you think that selling doesn’t apply to you.

To me, these concepts are blindingly obvious. Still, I am often amazed at the people I meet who have something to sell, but they insist that they “hate” selling or that they just don’t want to do it. To me this attitude tells me a few things about you:

1. You naively believe you can avoid sales and still succeed at hitting your revenue goals and personal earning goals. Not gonna happen folks! To be clear, marketing is not selling, so don’t delude yourself in thinking that sending out marketing emails or newsletters is all it takes.

2. Ego is in the way. In other words, the focus is on you – the sale you want to make – not on what is necessarily best for your prospective buyer. Go into each sales call determined to understand the needs of your buyer without pitching what you have to sell.

3. You don’t believe in the value of what you have to sell. If you don’t believe, no one else will. It’s that simple!

4. Fear of rejection is stronger than your desire to succeed. A “no” doesn’t mean never, nor is it a personal smack down of you as a person. No will happen no matter how good you are. Use it as a learning opportunity. Was the timing off? Was your value proposition confusing? Did your competitor offer just a little something extra?

5. You believe that one or two contacts means the sale will automatically close. Yeah, yeah, I know that a good many sales training programs out there will tell you that they can help you close the deal in two conversations. It certainly can happen IF you happen to meet someone at the exact moment they are ready to buy, you’ve established quick rapport and perhaps the product is at a low enough price point that there isn’t much worry about making a buying mistake. If what you sell is a complicated sale, it’s an intangible service or you are asking for a lot of money, prepare for the sale to take some time.

Sooo…do you have a sales mindset?

If you found yourself saying…ooppss, that’s me…when you read my list of 5 above then your sales mindset needs work! If you hope to generate revenue now and in the future, you need to develop a sales mindset fast. Love it. Embrace it. Enjoy it. If you believe that what you have to offer can help others get what they need…selling is not hard at all. What you focus on expands, so focus on success!

Now that I’ve given you a kick in the butt…stop making excuses. Get out there and get selling!