Lance Tyson, sales coach and author of Selling Is An Away Game: Close Business And Compete In A Complex World, joins me in this episode of the Sales Enablement Podcast!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Selling is an ‘away game’; it happens in the mind of the buyer. Away games are harder because you don’t know the obstacles on the field. Skilled players win more.
• Lance shares a recent coaching story. He told them your goal for an interaction will determine the approach you will use. Asking for their time is a big commitment.
• It’s important to be extemporaneous in selling interactions. There’s no perfect script for every situation. Selling is 50% process and 50% art. Be likable. Don’t be the person that lights up the room by leaving it!
• Actively establish credibility and build trust. Display understanding. Andy comments that a friendship of utility, as Aristotle described it, is what you need in sales.
• Andy discusses trustworthiness and what it means to ‘know, like, and trust.’ Lance talks about how humans judge one another, starting with appearances. Sam I Am had to build rapport before he ‘sold’ green eggs and ham!
• People see quickly if you lack integrity. Talk about values and character in sales. Lance talks about having the strength and honor to act and behave the right way, which is important both in his company and his family.
• “What you do speaks so loudly, I cannot hear what you say.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, as quoted by Andy. Lance coaches sales leaders around their values.
• Lance claims empathy is misused. Be sympathetic to other people’s ideas and desires, as Dale Carnegie taught. Gather your customer’s ideas and understand them. Andy lists types of empathy and which one works in sales.
• What is the value you are going to deliver in your next interaction that brings the customer closer to deciding than before the interaction? If you can’t answer that, you’re not thinking. Focus on the value.
• Ask the buyer, “What got you to take this meeting with me today?” Be in the moment and make sure they are satisfied with the value of the meeting. Ask what’s on their mind. Give them an authentic response.
• Sales is a series of guesses; you’ll get a no or a yes. You have to get several yesses before you get an order. The sales process is a straight line; the buying process is a handful of spaghetti thrown on a wall.
• Andy compares rapport to dating app etiquette. Lance concludes you have to be comfortable enough to ask someone what their thoughts are, going forward. If they ‘have to think about it,’ ask what they like and don’t like.

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Formerly the Accelerate! Your Sales podcast with Andy Paul