Tweet

The difference between selling with 'desperation' and 'inspiration'?

Guest post by: Trent Leyshan

Article Overview: Being desperate is not pleasant and it's an exhausting place to be in all the time. To achieve and sustain long term sales success you need to sell with inspiration! If you can't get up every morning motivated by 'what' and 'how' you sell; you're in real trouble because no one else is going to do it for you. One of the biggest tests for any salesperson is how they perform under immense pressure - yet if you're resilient and made of the right stuff you may even thrive in it. Many salespeople crack under pressure. They have a couple of poor months and then get desperate. They start cutting corners and looking for quick-wins. This is the beginning of the end. The quick wins seldom come, particularly when you're desperate.

The difference between selling with 'desperation' and 'inspiration'?

What's the difference between selling with 'inspiration' and 'desperation?'



Inspirational selling comes from a place of contribution. Desperation is selling from a place of contradiction.

Selling in contradiction is when you sell a product or service without believing in it. What you say and believe is not congruent. In these sales models the monetary exchange takes priority over the value and benefits being created. Conversely, selling with inspiration means you dont need to sell, but the customer wants to buy. Why? Because your proposition adds real value and benefits you and the customer understand. Therefore the line between you, your value and the customer's benefit is congruent. This makes selling relatively easy if you're talking with the right customers.

Being desperate is not pleasant and it's an exhausting place to be in all the time. To achieve and sustain long term sales success you need to sell with inspiration! If you can't get up every morning motivated by 'what' and 'how' you sell; you're in real trouble because no one else is going to do it for you. One of the biggest tests for any salesperson is how they perform under immense pressure - yet if you're resilient and made of the right stuff you may even thrive in it. Many salespeople crack under pressure. They have a couple of poor months and then get desperate. They start cutting corners and looking for quick-wins. This is the beginning of the end. The quick wins seldom come, particularly when you're desperate.

When people get desperate they gamble, make poor decisions and take uncalculated risks - hoping to get lucky. Dont bank on luck, ever! It's impossible to replicate. Desperate salespeople rely on luck. They have no strategy and no passion and most certainly no interest in their customers best interest. How can they when solely focused on their own survival? Desperate salespeople simply sell to get paid.

If you're success relies on selling - you need to be a 'sales athlete!' To be the best you need to take an approach akin to any professional sportsperson. Elite athletes are dedicated to their craft. They are focused, passionate, determined and disciplined in their approach and they have a strategy and process refined and developed on an on-going basis. They have benchmarks, goals, and targets. And in highly competitive sports they spend time collaborating with team members and studying competitors to develop their game theory and relevant tactics.

Sales athletes compete at a small percentage of their time and then rest, refine, and develop skills. On the contrary most salespeople compete 48+ weeks a year and invest little, if any, time in reflection, refinement and skill development. Elite athletes seldom focus on the money - it's a by-product of being exceptional at what they do. And very rarely will an elite athlete not love their chosen sport, and when the love is gone they retire and move on. Now compare all the above characteristics to the average salesperson and you understand why most are desperate and ineffective. There is a proverbial chasm between 'sales athletes' and all-so-ran salespeople's mindsets, behaviours and habits.



Sales Tips to sell with inspiration instead of desperation:

•· Make sure your selling from a place of contribution - not contradiction

•· Become a 'sales athlete' and be focused, passionate, determined and disciplined!

•· Compete less and spend more time developing successful habits and skills

•· Take regular breaks (and holidays) to rest, recover, and rejuvenate

•· Understand your competitors and develop game theory and tactics

•· If you dont enjoy selling - get out of the sales kitchen

•· Train yourself to enjoy pressure - it's all in your head and part of the game

•· Dont bank on luck, ever! - have a process and continue to develop it



When all else fails just love what you do and have the passion and courage to see it through.



Oh and one more thing: inspiration is highly contagious, so when you catch it those you come in contact with will also.

Related Articles
  How to Use Inspiration or Desperation to Sell More
  What Exactly Are You Selling?
  Finding Inspiration
  Inspiration Is The Foundation For Motivation
  The Difference Between Moving Bolts and Moving People

Article Tags: sales coach, sales coaching, sales training



Related Forum Posts
Re: This is Marketing Warfare! - Hi GT Thank you for this information. I am sure that watching the video gives one a lot more focus than the review, but you have done a great job nevertheless in explaining that there is actually a difference between marketing and selling. I think that sometimes the lines become blurred between the two. MichelleJ
Re: Ideas For Business - Hi, I'm Lucy's partner for this project and I think I came up with an idea of how to attract people. Sure selling is one thing, but heres something that definitely attracts people and thats charity! Everywhere you look today, even in the subway their selling pizzas that cost much higher then what you could buy at the store, but mostly people buy them because they know their money would go to charity and that makes them feel good and makes them think that they have just made a difference. I still have not figured out the percentage but if we donate like 25% of the money earned to charity for example, more people would buy. Charity is used in business to help people out but as well as attract more customers to their business. I know this might sound like a stupid idea but hey you can never know for sure until you try your ideas. Thats what business is all about.
Re: Which is the best for beginners? - Hi Apu, I think one good way for Internet beginners to start is to experiment with selling stuff on eBay. In my own case I began by making a website about Japanese mahjong and then tried selling some mahjong goods on it. It worked! Actually, I remember that before I tried selling mahjong goods I experimented with selling other kinds of thing such as Japanese comics on eBay and things like that. I only got into affiliate marketing later on, and used the money I was making selling goods to fund my experiments with affiliate and network marketing.
Re: Ideas For Business - [quote="Stas Z":191lb7aa]Hi, I'm Lucy's partner for this project and I think I came up with an idea of how to attract people. Sure selling is one thing, but heres something that definitely attracts people and thats charity! Everywhere you look today, even in the subway their selling pizzas that cost much higher then what you could buy at the store, but mostly people buy them because they know their money would go to charity and that makes them feel good and makes them think that they have just made a difference. I still have not figured out the percentage but if we donate like 25% of the money earned to charity for example, more people would buy. Charity is used in business to help people out but as well as attract more customers to their business. I know this might sound like a stupid idea but hey you can never know for sure until you try your ideas. Thats what business is all about.[/quote:191lb7aa] Finding a charity that is important to the people you will market to is a big help. Its also good if you are personally enthusiastic about the charity. If you do a good size event with a charity, there are great ways to promote and lots of free promotion - but that would be a big event and you need the support of the charity. Shri
Re: What makes a good sales rep? - That's so true. If you don't truly believe in your product/s, I believe the average Joe can sense that you don't. If you aren't selling something you believe in, you should quit and find something you do even if it means a loss of income for a while. The overall reward will be greater in the end because you will end up selling more.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Bootstrapping Your Start Up Business.

12 Principles to Spark Innovation

Induction – your first management job

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.