In Sales Talk Tracks are great BUT…
We had such an interesting discussion in Sales Mastery last Friday. We were working on talk tracks for challenging budget situations and started to talk about whether or not talk tracks were the only answer. Spoiler alert….no they are not.
What about our ability to influence the emotions of the other person? Change how they feel about you, lower their anti-sales defensive barriers, and deepen trust and rapport. In high-value sales, where the quality of the relationships matters, this is probably the most pivotal part of what we teach the sales professionals we work with.
Mastering this isn’t easy. It’s the nuance of how you make them feel like they are in a safe pair of hands throughout the sales process - working with someone who will help them make the right decision. Showing that we are interested in them, their situation, what they need to achieve/change, helping them evaluate how committed they are to changing & acting now. It's how to live and breathe the Trust Equation - how to act with low Self-Orientation and develop Intimacy. To use Nate Nasralla’s language, this is when you get the shift from selling to them, to selling with them.
When salespeople master this, the change is wonderful to see. A massive shift in their personal confidence, their presence, how they are seen by their clients, their colleagues, their sales leaders, their suppliers. And of course, that leads to substantial and lasting change in their sales effectiveness and performance.
What does it take? Slowing down to speed up later on, getting beneath the surface, questioning more deeply, laser focused listening, using silence, tonality, setting and managing expectations, staying behind the pendulum, being prepared to ask the tough questions and challenge their thinking (nurturingly), being a leader in the sales process (guiding, recommending), being prepared to say no or push back when needed, equal business stature -its like a Sandler bingo list! And all layered with EQ - being able to read the room and adjust accordingly.
Mastering this is what makes high value sales a profession to be proud of. So if you are working on becoming better at sales or helping your salespeople become better, are you only working on developing your talk tracks or developing the skills that change how they feel about you/your salespeople?
(100% written by a human!)