Chris Spurvey, Business Growth Facilitator and CEO at Chris Spurvey Sales Consulting Inc., joins me on this episode.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Chris shares his negative first exposure to sales. He doesn’t respect “pushy” salespeople. At university, Chris and partners started a business. When they sold it, he moved on to become a marketer, not a salesperson.
• After 10 years, he read a Robert Kiyosaki book and identified himself as an entrepreneur. That led him into sales. Chris’s first sales position was Manager of Business Development for an IT professional services company.
• Chris remembered the salesman that had sold his family a $3,000 vacuum cleaner; he thought that was how he was supposed to sell. He studied Zig Ziglar and Brian Tracy; internalizing their methods didn’t work for Chris.
• After months of miserable, determined, and unsuccessful efforts, Chris realized he needed a way of selling that was in line with his personality. The more he experimented, the more he found things that worked for him.
• Chris helps individuals who are not primarily salespeople build relationships and sell in a way that feels good to them, leveraging their strengths to become effective in getting results in sales.
• Chris’s clients take CliftonStrengths (StrengthsFinder) to learn their strengths. Chris shows people how they can leverage their strengths to sit confidently with a buyer and have a positive selling conversation.
• Andy quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson on life being an experiment; the more experimentation, the better. Chris quotes Price Pritchett on experimenting on one thing each day to test your limits. Experiments are deliberate.
• Take a weekly objective look at your accomplishments and decide what to change. John Maxwell advises you to focus on growth and you will meet your goals as you grow. Andy emphasizes reading every day.
• Companies need to help employees who desire to learn, grow, and flourish. A “sales kickoff” is not training or development. Bob Proctor said if you're not growing, you’re dying. There’s no standing still.
• Andy advises salespeople to follow the sales process as far as it works for you and to ask your manager for leeway in doing things that work better for you, as long as you hit your numbers.
• Chris shares a conversation he had with Wes Schaeffer about “sales initiatives.” Andy calls them trust breakers. Buyers can see through your end-of-month motivation, and that’s not the transparency you want with buyers.
• Find a sales environment that supports your developing in sales, even if it requires investing your money into it. Be about growth, not goals. Chris shares an observation about self-motivation. You need a compelling vision.

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Formerly the Accelerate! Your Sales podcast with Andy Paul