Advisors approach me about coaching. Rarely are the requests about improving their selling skills. Being better organized and more efficient and going to the next level are popular goals. But I cannot recall one instance where an advisor said to me, “I want to be better at selling.”
I don’t think that the reason for not asking me is that every advisor thinks he or she is a great salesperson. Rather, I think that "salesperson" is an image to be avoided at all costs. To many advisors, selling is a dirty word.
Rest assured selling is not a dirty word. The image of a salesperson has changed and the driver of the change has been the Internet. It used to be that the seller had all the information and could pull a fast one. Buyers were very aware that they could be ripped off and they often didn’t trust salespeople as a result.
As Daniel Pink points out in his book To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, 15 years ago the guy selling the Chevy knew more about the Chevy than the guy buying the Chevy. We lived in a world of information asymmetry. Not any more.
Now, if the salesman lies, the buyer knows it immediately. Thanks to the availability of information, salespeople can no longer be duplicitous. They must be capable. It is no longer "buyer beware." It is now "seller beware." The image of a salesperson has changed and for the better. With that change, sales has become a huge industry.
Today, according to Pink, one in nine Americans makes his or her living in sales, trying to convince someone to buy something. No matter what the other eight do, a great deal of their day is taken up trying to influence and persuade the other guy to do something. We’re all in sales, to some extent.
Get comfortable with the notion that you need to sell in order to grow your business. You need to sell yourself and your ideas. You need to persuade others that you are smart, that you are likeable and that you are trustworthy. You need to convince people that you can solve both their existing problems and the hidden problems you will surely discover.
The best way to sell you is to be yourself, warts and all. You are not Frank Martin and you are not The Most Interesting Man in the World. You are you and the real you is exactly what people want. Every client and potential client is looking for someone he or she can trust. Clients are not going to judge you on the quality of the information you put forth. Clients are going to judge you on the strength of your character.
Every word out of your mouth is an advertisement. Everything you do is a message. Conduct yourself in such a way that you become the logical choice for the wealthy folks in your town. Sell yourself.
As author Tom Peters says, "We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer of a brand called You."