In this post, The Humble Sale explores how displaying vulnerability could actually be the key to lasting Sales success.
The Oxford Dictionary describes Herd Mentality as “the tendency for people’s behaviour or beliefs to conform to those of the group to which they belong.” You will be familiar with this concept and the classic example of lemmings following each other off a cliff. Another would be sheep unquestioningly following the flock no matter where they go.
A similar phenomenon is the Bandwagon Effect. This is described as “a phenomenon whereby the rate of uptake of beliefs, ideas, fads and trends increases the more that they have already been adopted by others”. As more people come to believe in something, others “hop on the bandwagon” regardless of the underlying evidence.
Consumer facing organisations readily take advantage of these examples of “group think.” They relentlessly poke our need to keep up with the latest updates or product releases. They even occurs when material differences between the old and new versions are negligible. What I find interesting is how this happens at the expense of our own thoughts and feelings.
We are in an age where we are all “connected” to more people through social media. However, despite having hundreds of “friends” on Facebook, studies show that people feel lonelier than ever before.
It’s this point that cuts to the heart of this post. With the sales profession finding itself in a hugely transformative moment, there is a real danger that our individuality as sales professionals will be compromised as we follow our own industry crowd. Over time, this could stifle the sales success of every one of us.
It’s Better To Find Your Own Style
In order to achieve personal goals through sales success, you should step back and question the conventions around you. Try to find your own sales style, adopt the ideas and techniques that work for you and ignore the ones that don’t. This can be hard, especially if your team-mates are using them around you!
You are aiming to establish an individual strategy that works and remains true to who you are. It should apply to all of your prospecting conversations and customer meetings. This will then allow you to use vulnerability to advantage.
To be clear, vulnerability in this context means any or all of the following:
– Being brave enough to shift the conversation away from expected norms
– Preparedness to always be yourself and not alter your core persona in a customer situation. Act as an individual rather than a carbon copy of your sales peers
– Challenging a customer or employer perception or idea as long as you think it is in their interests. This must always be backed up with a well thought out, evidence based argument.
– Operating at the periphery or just beyond your comfort zone as you try new ideas or step into the role of teacher with a customer.
Vulnerability is not often discussed as a key trait for sales people, but it is one that we will keep coming back to in my posts. To be a Humble Sales Professional requires a healthy dose of brave vulnerability. How can you be truly authentic without it?
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