Edgy sales conversations are probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the sales world. Dan Waldschmidt is trying to change that perspective by introducing a formula with four qualities that define greatness and success within salespeople. John Golden interviews Waldschmidt.
This expert sales interview explores edgy sales conversations with a formula for success that includes these four behaviors:
- extreme behavior
- disciplined behavior
- giving behavior
- human behavior
Four Behaviors:
“I wanted to get behind the thought process of why some people achieve greatness, and others don’t. What is it? What are they doing? What’s different? I created four qualities that define greatness and success in salespeople,” said Waldschmidt. These four behaviors are extreme sales behavior, including edgy sales conversations, disciplined behavior, giving behavior, and human behavior.
Extreme Behavior:
Some people might say that salespeople are already too extreme, but let’s clarify that statement. “When we talk about extreme behaviors, we mean that you’re willing to do what other people make excuses to avoid doing,” said Waldschmidt. “In our enterprise culture, we’re good at making excuses, but the reality is that success is a trailing indicator, it’s always the very last thing that happens. If you wait for success to happen, and then you try to execute something, you miss out on most of the possibilities.” This could look like putting in lots of time, be it 70, 80, or 90 hours a week. It could also look like trying something new without evidence or a fact pattern that shows it will be guaranteed to work. Salespeople who have never fought for anything can quit early because they don’t think being in sales will lead to success. And yet, they haven’t put in enough blood, sweat, and tears into their craft to find success.
Disciplined behavior:
As a salesperson, a disciplined behavior is crucial for every part of life. This includes emotional and physical disciplined behavior, in addition to work discipline. “Emotionally, sales is the most neurotic sport in the world,” said Waldschmidt. “Imagine being the Kobe Bryant of your team, and being told that you’ll only get paid if you make the jump shot with three seconds left on the clock. Even if you’ve played the whole game, and do all the training if you don’t make that shot, you don’t get paid, AND you get fired.” Sale is a lot like sports, and it’s necessary to practice, prepare, and discipline yourself to find success. “In this profession, most of us need a coach or a therapist or meditation,” said Waldschmidt. “Professional athletes take care of their minds and bodies, and yet salespeople are quick to dismiss it.”
Giving Behavior:
Giving brings tremendous value. Often in the sales world, standard practice is to trade. Giving, however, is different. Giving costs you. It even hurts you, perhaps. “Perhaps the greatest sales angle of all time is to give tremendous value,” said Waldschmidt. Ask yourself: “What could I do that would be so awesome that it would make people want to give me their business? What would be so breathtakingly amazing that people want to say, ‘I don’t know you or what you’re selling, but I want to be around you and be a part of what you’re doing.’” “If you can answer this question,” said Waldschmidt “you can unlock the importance of giving.”
Human Behavior:
A lot of what defines salespeople has nothing to do with the sales process. Much of it is the salesperson as a human. Their human nature has a significant impact on their skills and success as a salesperson. However, this great strength can also be a considerable weakness. “How many sales processes get gummed up because we can’t just say ‘thank you,’ or ‘I’m sorry.’ We lose sales in the excuses,” said Waldschmidt. He gives the example of the BlackBerry cooperation, who had a major outage about ten years ago – around the same time that the iPhone was being released. The organization avoided admitting their mistakes for three whole days. At the end of the third day, the CEO released a video that barely acknowledged the problem. “When you have these human problems, unnecessary obstacles are created,” said Waldschmidt.
About 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 is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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