ls sales acting?

as salespeople is to simultaneously assess the best way to make our customers comfortable, move them to action, and act-yes, perform-more like that. This is the difference between the social you and the sales you.

Is it easy? No. Most of us have a preferred way of communicating. While we have many facets to our personality, some are hidden deep inside. But as sales professionals, we need to delve into ourselves and exercise our full range (of personality).

How Bad Do You Want lt?

Hy Do wE Go to our favorite bar? We usually order the same drink, so what is the differentiator?

There are many factors, but they all add up to atmosphere. How the place makes us feel? How do we feel on our way to these places? When we're there? When we leave? Do we think about price when we are in these establishments? In retail, this feeling is called "The Shopping Experience."

Every time we interact with our customers, we have invited them into our "shop." We have invited them to enjoy (or not) our "shopping experience." As sales professionals, we have control over the atmosphere we create.

Are we giving our customers the kind of shopping experience they want? It is a shame to act the same way with every customer, when changing our "personality gears"acting a little bit differently than we naturally would, glving a bit of a performance-makes all the difference in sales.

The Social You vs. The Sales You

In our social life, we may be a laid-back person:

"I really don't care what movie/restaurant/bar we go to. I just want to hang out. There is usually someone who does care, so I just go with the flow. Why argue over trivial things?"

This is a great social attitude. This is an easy person to be with.

This attitude gets taken advantage of in sales. Customers will work this salesperson to death with little or no payoff. This kind of person is easy to say no to. In our sales life, we need to take more control. We must have a plan, follow that plan, and encourage our customers to follow our plan.

The flip-side of this personality-Mr. or Mrs. Controlwill struggle for different reasons.

Are we friendly, laid-back, serious, intense, detail oriented, open? Isn't everyone? No they're not. Our challenge

I have a customer. Let's call him Dave Dermansky. Dave is the president of a large trading company. Dave is a "button-down" kind of guy. He is serious, analytical and intellectual. Dave can have fun; his sense of humor is dry as toast, but would not be mistaken for the life of the party guy.

Dave told me a story:

The summer between his junior and senior year in college Dave was working a minimum-wage job when he got a call from the older brother of a friend of his. This guy ran a two-man show at county fairs that opened up for touring bands. They set up outside the main show and did a minishow to get people fired up to buy tickets. Dave did not have to sing. His friend, the mastermind, real talent, ran the board and the show-lights, music, timing, sang the tunes. But Dave had to be on stage. He had to fire people up, be an emcee, lip-sync the songs, and dance around like he knew what he was doing. It was an uncomfortable stretch for Dave. Dave was scared to death-but he was more scared of minimum wage and the money was three times as good!

Dave needed something. That's when he invented his alter-ego: Dwayne Lovechild. The Lovechild had no problem getting up in front of a crowd and firiqg them up. Dave's desire for success overcame his natural tendencies-that's what makes Dave a sales pro.

Whether we need to get in touch with our inner Dwayne Lovechild or a quieter version of ourselves-ves. act-to give our customers a better shopping experience, it is essential that we do so.

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