One of the most brilliant people I've ever met is Ari Galper.
He's the only person I've ever known to so powerfully articulate the notion of removing pressure from sales (and to point out that pressure is THE problem in sales).
Read these words from his blog (and then go read the whole article) . . .
Dear friend,
During my teen years, my father who is a Psychologist, dedicated a few years of his career as a specialist helping parents get their adult children back from being brainwashed into cults.
He was one of a handful of experts who was skilled at “deprograming” these cult members and helping them transition back into a normal family environment.
I remember in vivid detail the amount of emotional energy my dad put into helping the parents of these kids (I call them kids, because their parents always talked about them as their children) cope with the dysfunction caused by the powerful “pull” that these cults had on their members.
My dad would spend hours, sometimes around the clock, helping these people break loose from the mantras and destructive thinking that was preached by their cult leaders.
As you can only imagine, it was a gut wrenching experience for these parents to see their kids lose themselves into a group that teaches breaking away from the people who care about them most.
Well, one thing my dad used to tell me, was that these cult leaders would indoctrinate their members with the same mantras and messages that have appealed to members in the past year after year.
Same messages, same thinking, same results, year after year, without awareness of the harm that it does to others.
The uncanny thing about all this, is that I see myself in very much the same role as him -- helping people who sell, that have been “indoctrinated” into old school sales thinking, break away from the same messages and old thinking that disconnects them – not from those who care about them – but from themselves.
You see, many of the old and newer sales “gurus” continue to pitch these same tired dictums: “Go for the close”, “Rejection is a normal part of selling you have to accept” , and “If you’re pitch isn’t working, it’s YOUR fault and you aren’t cut out for sales.”
And that type of thinking is what creates a wedge between how you’re “supposed” to communicate with a prospect and how you normally communicate with another human being.
It’s a new business environment out there, and if you’re not building trust, being completely authentic and helping solve others’ problems, then you’ll continue to be disconnected from true success.
Take a look at this article I originally wrote about four years ago, “7 Ways to Cut Loose From Old Sales Thinking”, it’s just as relevant today, as it was then:
to read the article click HERE.
