[E275] Being an Authentic Persuader

Jason: Hey there. Welcome back to the sales experience podcast. Today is August 28th. So glad that you're here. Today's going to be a bit of a different episode than the ones recently. If you've been Listening along with season three, there's been some amazing guests on the show. And for today's episode, I want to talk about what it feels like to be an authentic persuader. So I have a new book coming out. It's called Selling with Authentic Persuasion. And it's the culmination of what I've learned from my long career of being in the sales seed and leading teams. It's a playbook that I developed for myself and others in similar situations. Sales people who really might not have seen themselves being in sales or making a career of sales. And they fell into sales similar to I did and now they want to succeed. And maybe you're struggling with finding success initially and you're new in sales or you had success and maybe you lost it or you hit a plateau and you're trying to find something different. That's what I wrote this book for. It's people in situations like yourself and I have found when you sell with authentic persuasion, then it totally changes the game. If you're new to the sales experience podcast, then you might not know my background. So for the rest of you, this is going to be a reminder. The short version of my path is that I did not see myself working in sales. So much so that my bachelor's degree is in marine biology and I spent years tagging sharks and during college when I needed a job, I worked at a restaurant, but only wanted to be a busser because I didn't want to have to deal with people. I didn't want to deal with the public, especially hungry people. I'd always been pretty much behind the scenes, but then I found that I was good at dealing with people and it was just natural and had conversations. People liked me and then management moved me up to being a server. And I found that I really enjoyed that. I was really effective at it. I had a lot of repeat customers. It was really easy for me to do to combine the busyness and the operational side of waiting tables with dealing with people and managing that. And that was the theme for many different parts of my life where I resisted the public side dealing with people wanted to be more on the operational and then kept getting nudged in the direction of selling. Now. I never received formal sales training at any company I've ever worked at. Most were small when I arrived or they were starting new departments. And I was literally that department where I was hired. And then I had to figure out the job and then hire other people and train them. And so I have always had to figure out how to be successful on my own. In sales. And again, keeping in mind, I did not grow up in a selling household, a sales household. It was actually more of an anti sales household. So all of my sales training has been self taught from the school of hard knocks, books, mentors, friends, coworkers, listening to other salespeople on the floor or going to other offices and just picking up little gems from people who work for me in other locations and just putting together and mashing up everything that works and doesn't work. And when I started to write my book, selling with authentic persuasion, I spent months and months looking back at my career and what I did that worked really well in the lessons that I had learned along the way. And I realized I had become this term that I'm using now, which is an authentic persuader. I never had that term before. It wasn't something that entered my mind. I just did what I did. And so what I want to share with you is what that feels like. What does it feel like to be an authentic persuader? The first part is that a certain level of confidence comes in through the conversations that I have. Once I got to this level, it's not that I arrived. It's not that I'm amazing or perfect at it. It's just a different framework, a different frame of mind. And so I feel really confident in conversations and Jason: sales conversations. And it's not because of knowledge, but because of, I know that my goal is to help other people. It's to help that other person that I'm talking to. And it's definitely not because I think I know the answer to every question. A lot of times I actually don't, I don't know a lot of technical details or there's a lot of nuances to whatever you might be selling. And I've never really made it my goal to know everything about everything. Cause then you get really stuck in your head. I just know that I can find the resource and I know what my intention is. And because my goal is really to help that other person I'm speaking with, whether it's my product or service or to point them in the best direction. My intention is very clear, helping them get to a better place. And I'll tell you that will build a confidence in you. That is centered on wisdom, not knowledge. And wisdom is the application of information in the right ways to achieve a result. A lot of people get stuck on knowledge and they think they have to knowledge their way into a successful sales career. And it's really that wisdom. That's what people are looking for, especially right now. Everyone has knowledge at their fingertips. Everyone has information. They can google all the information they need. They're looking for someone who has the wisdom. And when you're an authentic persuader, then you're sharing that wisdom with the right intent, and you're helping people move forward. Now, being an authentic persuader feels very authentic. Of course, it makes sense. That's in the title, but let me explain. So when you sell from a place of authenticity, it means that I'm me, right? No matter what, not pretending to sell like somebody else, not pretending to use tactics I don't like. Now, pretending to be perfect, I stumble, I mess up, sometimes I forget things, I might skip over a part and have to come back to it. It's like this podcast, where sometimes I ramble on, sometimes I stutter and stumble, sometimes I get really excited and talk fast. And instead of trying to pretend something else or follow some rules or playbooks, and I've got to do this, and I've got to do that, and I've got to remember all these things, instead, I focus on being authentic. And again, one more time, I know my intentions are clear and I know that the more authentic I am with the prospect, the more they appreciate the real me. In fact, those stumbles and the stutters and the talking fast and getting excited when it's appropriate at the right time. Prospects really like that because they know that you're human being an authentic persuader feels so easy I'm telling you truly and again, this is not a giant sales pitch for the book I just wanted to share my feelings about this and help you understand a different way to do it because my goal and my mission is to help people make this shift and being an authentic persuader is It's easy because it's always easy to remember the truth And who you are and really are, and you don't have to remember different versions or different stories or different tactics and different things that you have to tell prospects versus what's real in your life. Also, being an authentic persuader feels like the right thing to do. This goes back to the intention part, but this is very important because this is referring to the persuading piece and not manipulating and not trying to trick somebody into buying and not trying to memorize slick closing tactics to get the deal done right. There's strategies and there's. Things that you should say and things that you should do. I'm not discrediting all of that. I'm just saying at the base level, it's about persuading and it's about doing some fundamental things correctly. And when you do those correctly, being an authentic persuader is understanding that it's my duty to help qualified people get out of their own way to buy from me, if I can help them get to a better place in their life or in their job or in their business, and they walk away without buying from me. I've let them down. Truly. I take that very personal and there's an internal pressure inside of me when I made this shift to being an authentic persuader that I know that if I can help somebody and I don't, then I've let them down. Now, this sounds very dramatic, but it's very true. I feel that there's a sense of responsibility mixed with joy when I'm helping someone find the best solution. And it's not always about saving someone's life, but it is really about helping other people, but using persuasion, which is all about proactively moving people forward. So it's not about sitting back and waiting. It's about moving the conversations forward. It's about helping people and making that happen. Now, being an authentic persuader to me also feels like the best path to long term success. The question non salespeople like to ask is how do you sleep at night, right? Like they lump all sales into the slick, sleazy manipulators that no one likes, the ones on TV and movies. And when you use authentic persuasion, then it's easy to sleep at night. I'll tell you the only times I've really not slept ever in my sales career is when I know that I could have done more. I could have helped somebody and then they disappeared and they're gone. They're in the prospect witness protection program as I call it. And I'm just imagining and thinking out what could happen to them longterm, right? So maybe they put their head back in the sand. Maybe they're struggling with their same situation and don't know where to turn. Maybe they bought from somebody else who didn't care about them and their results the same way I did. And we're after just the bottom line, just closing the deal and getting paid. And I don't know what will happen with that person because I'll never talk to him again. But for me, I know that becoming an authentic persuader, it was about the right way to close deals. And again, this right intention and the key again, this is not about just the easy deals. It's not the lay downs. It's not about being an order taker. It's about shifting from order taker to quota breaker. And using persuasion at a high level, again, proactively making the deals move forward and doing it consistently. It's about having a plan and having a strategy with the right intentions. Once you know somebody's qualified, once you know that what you have to offer could be a benefit to that person, then moving that forward and doing it for the right reasons in the right way and from a powerful place, right? So it's not about Hoping someone buys or trying to trick them or sitting back and just waiting for people to buy from you and using the excuse. People rather buy than be sold to that's correct, but it's your job to move them forward. And it's about owning the sales process like a professional. It's about being the sales professional that leads the prospect to their promised land of their goal or achieving their results. Or avoiding pain or getting out of their difficult situation. Now, there are a lot of sales trainers, authors, and speakers out there who teach summer things, right? In reality, there's very little information in the world, but if the concepts of selling authentic persuasion strikes a chord for you and what I was talking about seems to fit your situation or kind of your feeling about sales, maybe you're in a role where sales is a part of it, but you really don't like that part. You just want to do the technical thing, maybe a coach or consultant, and you just want to skip the sales part so you can do what you like doing best. Or you're in a sales role and you just don't feel like what's normally taught or what or what you hear from salespeople is the right thing for you. Then selling with authentic persuasion could be the tool to help you achieve your sales goals. And success in your career. And if so, if you want to find out more information, you want to order the book, go to authentic persuasion. com again, authentic persuasion. com. Now, of course, I would love everyone listening to us to check out the book, download it, read it, and apply that to your sales career and life. Since again, everything in life is sales. But more than that, what I want anybody listening to this to take from it is the feeling and the way that I described how sales could be for you and really focusing on creating that in your sales career or whatever role that you have that requires some selling and keeping in mind. And a lot of times you might be an employee at a company and you have to sell your manager on an idea or your team on an idea, or you're a manager and you've got a group of people and you want them to make the changes. It's all sales and so the key is if any of this resonates with you or vibrates with you and sounds like the right thing to do, make some shifts. Put some things in place to focus on becoming an authentic persuader in your sales career. All right, that's it for today's episode. I appreciate you for listening to this. If you are able, leave a rating, leave a review and share this podcast with anybody you know that's in a sales type role. Help me with my mission along with a lot of other great trainers and coaches and consultants out there. Of shifting the way sales is done and the way that people view their role as a professional and the way the public sees salespeople. Let's all shift that together. And if you want to find out more information about me or you want to reach out to me and schedule a time for us to chat, you can go to Jason cutter dot com. That's the simplest place to go. You can find all my links, all my information there. That's it for another episode of the sales experience podcast. Thank you so much for listening. If you find yourself on iTunes, can you leave the show a rating and a review? It helps other sales people and sales leaders find the show and please subscribe to the show and share episodes you find valuable with anyone you know in sales. Help me on my mission of changing the way sales is done. And if you're ready to work together, go to Jason cutter. com. Again, that's Jason cutter. com. To find out how I can help you or your company create scalable sales success. I will see you on the next sales experience podcast episode, and keep in mind that everything in life is sales and people will remember the experience you gave them.