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This guest post is written by Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies.  She helps sellers crack into accounts, speed up their sales cycle and win more business.

Let's face it. As business professionals, we know we need to "sell", but we don't love doing it. With images of self-serving salespeople dancing in our minds, we vow to never stoop as low as those tacky telemarketers as we prospect for new customers.

Instead, we'll be paragons of professionalism. If we reach a prospect's voicemail, we'll leave a message, perhaps one like this:

As we hang up the phone, we pride ourselves on how gracious we were. Not one bit pushy either. In short, perfect.

Well, guess what?!

When your prospects hear that "nice" message, the first thing that pops into their heads is, "Another self-serving salesperson!" Then they hit the delete button as fast as they can. It happens with email too.

Or if you actually get a person on the phone, they'll brush you off right away by saying, "We're happy with our present vendor" or "We're not interested."

Why is this happening? It's simple. Your non-salesy message is "salesy." You may not think it is, but if you got dozens of near-identical messages each day from salespeople, you'd change your mind in a hurry.

In short, you have violated one of the 7 Paradoxical Sales Principles.

#1: To win more sales, stop selling.

When you talk about your own company, you're selling - even if you do it nicely. You'll really cross the line if you use any verbiage like one-stop shopping, industry leader, user-friendly, scalable, best-in-class, robust, or innovative.

In fact, if you say even one nice word about your company, you're seen as a typical salesperson - despite all your best efforts not to  be. So stop talking about yourself.

A Fresh Perspective

Focus on your customer instead. That's the antidote to "selling." In your next call on a prospect, think about how you can quickly:

• Demonstrate your knowledge of what's happening in their firm or industry. 
• Align your message with their issues, goals, objectives and concerns. 
• Bring them ideas, insights and information about highly relevant topics.
• Sound like a colleague who's been thinking about their business challenges.

That's what it takes to capture your prospect's attention today. Your "nice" spiel doesn't work anymore. It just gets you d-e-l-e-t-e-d.

Try this instead.

See the difference. It's palpable. You're a business peer. A real professional. A person who brings substantial value. Someone worth meeting.

One More Thing
Click here to download the free eBook: 7 Paradoxical Sales Principles.


Photo credit: Steven Brisson

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