[753] Viewing Yourself as a Professional

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the authentic Persuasion show. On this episode I want to replay part of a previous show. Maybe you heard the original full length episode and this could be a great refresher and reminder. Or maybe this is your first time hearing this content and the timing could. [00:00:13] Speaker B: Be just right to help you leverage. [00:00:15] Speaker A: Authentic persuasion today in your role, no matter what. Here's to your success. [00:00:21] Speaker B: This is the authentic persuasion show. Now here's the big thing I can always already imagine because this happens all the time and I know what a lot of people are thinking. And before any of the people tuning into this, want to type this into the chat, keep in mind, yes, I know that they are a doctor and they're dealing with either life and death or things that are serious. And most people in sales aren't dealing with life and death. Most people aren't dealing in something that is so dramatic where it's like what a doctor is dealing with. I get it. I totally understand. And what I'll tell you is, even if a manager makes it feel like it, getting that deal closed is not life or death. When I used to work in real estate, it felt like every realtor in the part of the transaction made it feel like everything was life or death. If that deal didn't happen, everything was dramatic. And so it can feel like that, even if it's not. And what I'll say is that the more in your mind and in practice, you can see yourself as a professional in the same way that that doctor views themselves as a professional. When you can do that for yourself and in your career, in your mind, in practice, in the words that you say, the actions that you take, when you can do that, then you will shift the way you sell. And again, it will go. I mentioned this before we even got into this discussion. It will make the difference and it will shift you away from feeling like sales is something I'm doing to you, to sales is something I'm doing for you and with you. The biggest thing you can do in your mind to help with that is to shift and see yourself as a professional and persuade like a professional. That's why I have a course called persuading like a professional. When conferences or companies hire me to speak and have me come speak to their groups, it's about persuading like a professional in different aspects within there. Because that's one of the biggest thing. The tactics, things you say, the strategies use, you use, those are all important. But fundamentally, if you view yourself as a professional, you're going to handle things differently, which is what I'm going to talk about today with the closes. Now, I just got done saying there's, you don't need to ask for clothes or essentially my rebuttal is that you shouldn't be asking for a close. A doctor wouldn't say, hey, is this, is this a tumor that you'd like to get taken care of today? They wouldn't do that. They would do different things. And if you are a professional and you realize that you're a professional, no matter who you are and what you're selling, how long you've been in sales, what level of product, again, you could be selling energy to consumers and helping them switch their energy company. You could be helping enterprise level organizations with a new ERP platform. Doesn't matter. Again, it's human to human. And if you are a professional and you are their guide, which I've talked about in many of these sessions, when you see yourself as a guide, then it's about guiding them. And guides don't always ask, guides assume. And that's the first thing. So there's two closes. I want you to focus on two strategies, and I call them closes because people can identify with closes and they think, oh, what's the best way to close deals? Like how do I ask for the sale? How do I move people forward? And for me, I label these as closes, but they're really just strategies and mindsets and processes that you're using with the authentic persuasion pathway. And remember, if you're new to this, if this is the first time tuning in, obviously make sure you catch out the previous 13 sessions because there's so much content in there. But the authentic persuasion pathway is a five step process to help somebody move away from the center of their comfort zone. So imagine a comfort zone, the circle, somebody safe and warm and cozy in the middle, near their heart, where it's all safe and predictable and danger is on the outside, right? Danger is the unknown. Danger is change. And so they're safely on the inside. Your job as a professional in sales is to persuade them to move out of their comfort zone to a safe resolution, a safe spot on the outside of that.