11th June 2018

The most effective sales programme of all

I recently met up for coffee with a friend who runs a business networking group.

At one point our conversation drifted on to some of her members and what business they were in. She was telling me about one particular member who had a business teaching people how to sell.

The basis of this sales programme was that for every and any possible thing a prospective client could come up with, you would have a pre-prepared answer.

So, if the prospect said this, you’d say that. And so on…

The problem was, for this member, was that people did not really connect with her and she was not getting any business. Which is not great when you are teaching how to sell!

Here is an observation.

The more we fill up our minds with thinking the less able we are to connect, in a meaningful way, with other people. To connect well with others we need to be interested (in them), attentive, curious, willing to listen and unattached to the outcome.

This is impossible to do if we are listening to our own thinking at the same time – you cannot effectively be in two conversations at once.

This just is not possible.

Sales in an interesting activity. Although for many business people selling is an essential part of what they do, whether this is gaining new clients, continuing to add value to existing relationships or sharing ideas with co-workers, it is an area that holds more than its fair share of challenges.

Just the thought of it can send many otherwise high-functioning, confident, personable and potentially great sellers onto an emotional roller coaster ride of negativity.

Why does this happen?

Because they create all this thinking around selling that makes them feel bad – ‘I hate selling.’, ‘I’m just not cut out for this.’, ‘What if they say no?’, etc.

If it looks like the situation (i.e. selling) comes with all these bad feelings attached to it, then:

a) Sales situations are avoided

b) People force themselves to cope under the circumstances

c) People go on training programmes (like the one mentioned) that fills their mind up with even more thinking.

None of these will help but, thankfully, there is a far better approach.

The most effective sales programme you could ever go on would teach you just one single, but extremely important, fact - there is no link between our inner experience (the thoughts and feelings we have) and our outer circumstances. 

Selling cannot make you feel a certain way. Our experience comes from thought, not from our external world.

It would not teach you mind management techniques, sales techniques or closing techniques because doing so would be adding thinking to your mind when it is having less on your mind that helps you most of all.

Also, it does not matter if you get negative thinking or feel nervous about selling. What matters is your understanding of what is really going on if you do.

We do not need to afraid of our own thinking and when we see that our experience is coming from thought then the mind will self-correct back to clarity and presence. No techniques are required.

With a quiet mind, selling becomes the joyful experience of simply giving time to another human being and seeing if we can be of help or not.

Just imagine how much more business would get done. 

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John Dashfield 

http://clientcentredadvisers.com

John Dashfield, Dashfield Coaching & Development Ltd