Have you ever had that nasty feeling that you are a fraud while selling and wondered if you should continue doing it? In this Expert Insight Interview, Annie P. Ruggles discusses what many salespeople had experienced – sales avoidance. Annie P. Ruggles is a Founder and Dean at Non-Sleazy Sales Academy and host of the Too Legitimate to Quit podcast.
The interview discusses:
- Things that hold us back from a successful sale
- Getting rid of sales baggage
- Virtual selling
What Holds Us Back
We all experienced selling that did not feel right with our ethics and morals. Either we tried to sell it that way because of the pressure, or someone sold it to us that way. The key is to fall back in love with what you are selling. You have to believe that what you offer to people creates value because people can notice when a seller is ambivalent about it. People want to see the seller’s passion for the product or service. Thus, set your mindset to serving and creating value for customers, and everything will come easier.
The Sales Baggage
People do not always recognize that they carry sales baggage with them. For example, people coming from corporate sales trying to succeed as entrepreneurs must realize that now they need a different set of skills. What sales baggage does is tells us that we are not good salespeople. However, instead of letting our minds come our way, we can use that baggage to our advantage as a learning tool. For instance, sales calls can create discomfort and confusion if a customer asks you a question you do not know how to answer. Our natural instinct would be to start panicking and bubbling. However, it is a better solution to stay honest and say how that is not your area of expertise but that you will find someone who knows the answer. It shows a certain level of confidence to stay calm in a situation like that, and it builds trust with your clients. Showing that you want to help even if you bring another person also enriches the relationship with your client.
Virtual Sales
Some people feel anxious about virtual selling. However, your best-selling lines, questions, and other tricks you use to sell to people will still work online. Remember your strengths and use them online as well. Also, remember that there are still two groups of buyers – emotional and analytical ones. Thus, the online material cannot go more towards one group of buyers. It cannot be super factual because it loses the charm of storytelling, but it also cannot be too glamorous without facts. Thus, find a perfect balance of story and detail.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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