The Most Essential Thing During Sales Conversations: Be Yourself!
Becoming a Better Sales Rep — Post #21
Introduction
You might have heard of the phenomenon of “presenters voice.” It’s that change in pitch and speaking patterns when people are presenting something vs when you have a normal conversation with them.
You can observe similar things with actors who do not yet feel their role and with people who lie.
And, no matter if you’ve heard somebody’s natural and honest voice or not, you’ll notice the presenter’s voice.
As we touched upon in many of the previous blog posts, being real in your sales conversations is important. Let’s take a look at why it’s so important to be yourself and at three things you can do to not fall into an inauthentic version of yourself.
Why It’s Important to Be Yourself in a Sales Conversation.
There are many, many reasons but the 2 top ones are:
- People Associate Any Sign of Inauthenticity with Something Negative: As mentioned above, people who lie oftentimes have an inauthentic voice. And, even if it isn’t because of a lie, people who use voices that are not their own, usually try to mask something. And, no matter what it is that you’re trying to hide — even if it’s just your insecurity and nervousness in the moment — you cannot assume that your lead will know. The only thing they’ll notice for sure is that something’s off. And, people don’t trust things that feel off. And, they certainly don’t sign deals if their gut feeling tells them that something is off.
- You Won’t Be Able to Connect with Your Leads on a Personal Level: We’ve talked about it before: Deals are rarely signed based on logic, they’re signed because of good relationships and feelings. If you’re not yourself, you’ll have a hard time connecting in a true and meaningful way. And, your lead will go to your competitor if they feel a closer personal relationship with them. Even, if their product is slightly worse than yours.
So, what can you do to appear more personal, more real?
#1: Embrace Who You Are in Virtual Meetings (Don’t Use Virtual Backgrounds.)
It’s been interesting to notice how, at the beginning of COVID, everybody was keen on getting a virtual background. Everything new is exciting. Especially, if you’re in lockdown and can’t do anything else, really.
However, the wheel turned quite quickly and smart salespeople stopped using virtual backgrounds after a very short time. Yes, some people do use the blurry background which is fine. But, if you can pull it off, don’t use any virtual modifications at all.
View the virtual environment as an opportunity to be more personal and more human.
Show people the space you live in. Don’t brag, be humble about it. Don’t reveal too much. But own your space. It’s a huge honor if somebody invites you to their house. It immediately establishes a more personal relationship. And, you don’t really need to do anything.
If you’re not broadcasting on national television, ask yourself if there are really any downsides of your cat walking through the background or if it might even be an asset? Maybe, if you’re talking to a 24-year-old lead or a cat lady at the brink of retirement, they might very much appreciate seeing your fluffy friend.
Even if you don’t want to go this far, placing a bookshelf behind you might make you appear more knowledgeable. Having a collection of any kind might show people that you have interests and therefore you’re a real person. Just having a view of a suburban neighbor can establish you as a caring and lovely family father or mother. No matter what it is, it’ll be so much easier to be seen as a person and not just as someone who’s trying to sell them something.
So, don’t hide who you are, embrace it. Let your leads into your personal life to build meaningful and personal connections.
#2: Be Honest. Share Weaknesses. Don’t Oversell.
Many salespeople are selling visions rather than actual products or services. I was guilty of it myself.
But, in all honesty, it’s stupid to do this to a lead. It can even be seen as insulting. In any case, you’re lead won’t buy again from you.
So, many salespeople are afraid that if their solution is perfect, nobody will buy it. But, leads are not looking for perfect things. Leads are looking for solutions that make their life a little bit easier.
So, say goodbye to the idea of things needing to be perfect.
And, second, rethink how valuable honesty is to your leads. If you tell them upfront that your product is capable of A, B, and C, but you’re developers are currently struggling with resolving X, Y, and Z, this will lead to one of two very valuable directions.
If your lead really needs A or B, they’ll value your honesty from the get-go. They’ll know that you won’t hide anything from them. They’ll know that you’re a trustful business partner for the long term.
Or, your lead will tell you that they’re looking for a solution that can do X. And, if you don’t provide it, you know early on that they’re not the right fit. You won’t waste valuable time on a deal that isn’t going anywhere. Or — even worse — that might frustrate your lead to a point that they’ll end up speaking poorly of you. And, hey, even if your product isn’t the right fit now, at some point your developers will have figured out how to do X, Y and Z. And, when you go back to your lead, her or she will see an honest and reliable person reaching out to them with something they need.
So, don’t try to sell something you can’t do or don’t have. Be honest, always!
#3: Don’t Use Sales Scripts. Just Have a Conversation.
Yes, you need to be prepared. Yes, you need to know your USP. Yes, you need to be an expert on your product or service. But, you don’t be the 4th-grader version of yourself who’s giving a memorized speech on mitochondria being the powerhouse of the cell.
Knowing and memorizing things are two vastly different things. Yes, they’re related because you need to remember something to know about it.
But, you have maybe the saying that you only truly understand something if you can explain it to others.
And that’s kind of the key: as a salesperson you don’t give presentations, you have conversations. You try to figure out what your lead needs, what questions and pain points they have, and if your solution might be valuable to them.
But, based on different business contexts or just based on different personalities, you might need to explain the exact same thing in very different ways. Some people need numbers, some people need stories, some people need something completely different. It’s your job as a sales professional to figure out what they need and how to deliver it to them.
So, be yourself in your sales calls. Have conversations with people. And, figure out what they need, rather than giving a non-personal speech for 15 minutes.
And If You Want Things to Be Personal from the Get-Go, Use Resonaid for Your Outreach!
Resonaid is a tool that provides you with automated and personalized sales messages for your outreach. It helps you to cut down the time spend on outreach from hours to minutes a day. So, make sure to give Resonaid a try.
Access Resonaid via the Chrome Web Store
Resonaid is a tool that helps sales professionals with writing personalized messages for their sales outreach.
We recently released the first version of our product as a Chrome extension in the Chrome Web Store.
As we just went live this summer, you can currently test Resonaid for free and get large discounts by being an early user.
About the Author
Teddy Lange is a co-founder at Resonaid and is responsible for business development and customer experience. Before joining Resonaid, he’s been a Sales Rep and Junior Sales Manager, and co-founded various companies. He’s currently finishing his graduate degree in Public Policy with a focus on communication at Harvard University. Feel free to reach out to him at teddy@resonaid.co.
