4 Sales Myths We Must Put to Bed

8 minute read

Selling has been around since the dawn of humans. More modern history can teach us some valuable lessons to improve our craft. There are, however, some longstanding myths about selling that need to be put to bed. These myths limit our potential for success and greatly misunderstand, in my humble opinion, what selling is all about.

Here are my top 4:

Myth 1. Selling is a natural gift

Some people are naturally more comfortable in a sales environment. Does that mean they are a natural at selling?
Selling requires a multitude of skills. Many of those skills don’t complement each other. For example, the ability to build rapport and listen, compared to progression and closing. These are polar opposite skills.
Being great over the phone and being great in person – again, different skills.
Working through objections and retaining detailed product knowledge – once more, very different.
Accommodating customers who like lots of detail and assisting fast-paced customers – you get the point.
It’s incredibly rare, then, to see someone who is genuinely a ‘natural’ at selling. I won’t say it doesn’t ever happen, but it’s the extreme exception, rather than the rule. Usually, this ‘natural gift’ would stem from accumulating skills and experiences in life that transcend into selling.
Even then, if you have all the ability in the world but don’t have the dedication and work ethic, you won’t get anywhere. A master painter only stays that way by painting.

Selling is a learned skill.
It requires consistency, processes, and ongoing development. Anyone can be a great salesperson if they develop their abilities.
It concerns me when people put selling down to something in our gene pool, as though one burst from the womb with a commission check in their hands. In this way of thinking, if we don’t think we hit the gene jackpot, we write ourselves off and limit our potential for success before we even begin. We throw away all the personal accountability for our outcomes.
Conversely, if you approach selling as a series of processes, principles and skills that improve with practice, learning and dedication – you will keep getting better at it.

Myth 2. Selling is all about talking

Where did this myth come from?! I demand to speak to whoever decided the person who speaks the most is the best salesperson.
Like most things in life, if you’re doing all the talking you’re probably:
a. Trying to prove how much you know (which can come off as desperate). Sometimes this is a projection of personal insecurity;
b. Nervous and trying to fill the space of silence (because if the other person never gets the opportunity to speak, they can’t say no to you… sound logic);
c. Under the misguided assumption that your audience has come here for a live infomercial;
d. Blocking the ability for dialogue;
e. Boring your audience.

Of course, we can’t sit there like a mannequin never speaking at all. We still need to talk - present our product, sell on benefits and give our customer all the information they need.
To do this, we need to know what information our customer needs and what benefits they will receive from our product.
In order to do that, we have to listen.
In order to listen, we have to shut up.
The greatest salespeople in the world are great listeners who ask great questions and embrace silence as part of the process. Silence can be far more persuasive than words.
If you engage in a real conversation with your customer, there will be give and take. You will hold the space of communication together, and the customer will share things with you.

If you come to a point where you don’t know what to do, it’s not a signal to start talking more. It’s a signal that you need more information. So, ask another question, and listen to the answer.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a talker. Listening and restraint are not easy, and they take a lot of work. I still work on it, because it’s so important.

Too many people talk themselves out of sales all the time as a result of this myth. Let’s put it away.

Myth 3. There is a ‘perfect’ golden script that will give you all the riches in the world

I like to separate selling into principles vs. particulars. That is, the big, overarching principles as separate from the specific word tracks and responses.

We should always follow the big principles. You need to qualify your customer, ask great questions, sell on value and the specific benefits for the prospect - every time. You always need to handle objections using curiosity, positivity and problem-solving. You must know your product. You must work to progress the sale, through trial closing and closing.

The principles are the essential things.

There are salespeople out there chasing the perfect word track and script for every situation. When it comes to the particulars, there is no ‘perfect’ script. There are some questions and responses that will work better than others, certainly. There are some wrong approaches, definitely. But there is no ‘perfect’ approach. The ‘perfect’ one is the one that will reflect the circumstances, the customer, your product and your selling style. In short, the perfect phrase is the one that works for that moment.

Many questions pose potential advantages and disadvantages to your process. For example, a salesperson recently told me one of their big takeaways from a recent training was to start asking ‘How much time do you have?’ early in the process.

Someone else asked me what I thought of this question.
‘Well, the advantage of that question is the prospect is comfortable. They’re not in scary decision-making mode, so they’re less likely to throw up a defence-based answer like ‘I don’t have much time’ to protect themselves. This can be helpful later in the process. It also means, if they don’t have too much time, you’re able to adjust your process to fit.
The disadvantage is that it gets the customer thinking about time restraints. It could spur their defence mechanisms so they jump to ‘I’m in a rush’ out of self-preservation which means you speed up needlessly. You’d have to be careful that you don’t skip steps because you’re worried about that.
Ultimately, if it works for you – do it.’

Delivery is also crucial to everything we say. For that reason, scripted answers can work beautifully for one person and fall flat for another.
Finally, when we’re too scripted, it’s easy to focus too much on our response – rather than what the other person is saying. We have to be flexible and responsive to what is being presented to us. For as long as you are under the impression there is only one ‘correct’ response, you will limit yourself in sales.

If it works for you – and, of course, is professional and authentic, then go for it. I would encourage you to think of yourself as a student and find as many different scripts, responses, approaches and ideas as you can. In time, as you practise these different phrases and replies, you’ll come to find what works for you. This is part of how we build a personal selling style.

Myth 4. It’s only about relationships

Ah, yes. Sales theory, in my experience, works on a pendulum. We swing between ‘focus on closing, negotiation and going for the commitment’ to ‘build a relationship, and the commitment will come’.

At the moment, it seems our rhetoric is all about relationships (hence this myth). If you make friends, you’ll make customers for life, etc. etc.

Relationships are important. Building rapport and developing a real, meaningful relationship with a client are all fantastic aims to have in our process. Some of the most significant networks I now have begun with the aim of building a real connection. Most people won’t buy anything without trusting their salesperson.

And yet.

I’ve met many a sales rep great at making Facebook friends but not so great at getting results. This salesperson may have many new people to invite to their next birthday party... But a tiny commission check that month, so it’ll probably be some cheap wine with chippies for snacks.

A relationship is important. But a relationship, alone, is not a sale.

A friend is not necessarily a customer.

It’s important to understand the gravity of relationship-building without neglecting the fact that you still need to work to some sort of outcome – a transaction, commitment or change. Don’t remove your obligation to serve that customer by helping them make a decision at the end of the process.

When we focus only on relationships, we tread more lightly around commitment because we don’t want to compromise the connection we’ve built with the prospect. It can hold us back from being assertive, demonstrating leadership and coming to a mutually beneficial outcome for both parties.

So with this myth, selling is about relationships. But it’s not only about relationships. It’s about making things happen together. And if you make a lot of friends but you never make anything happen together, you’re not selling.

I’m sure that in another ten or twenty years we’ll have swung to the other side of the pendulum in sales theory again, and I’ll be writing about how it’s not only about closing, relationships are important. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

So there are my top 4 sales myths. What other sales myths come to your mind?

Sonia

This blog post was originally posted on my training website, Statusone.com.au, on Jul 23, 2019. I have since been moving some of my favourite blog posts from there over to here, as this is now my ‘content hub’ and I want you to have access to some of the cool stuff I’ve written about before. You can still check out the Status One site if you’re interested in corporate training if you want. Also, don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter below for updates and weekly exclusive content.