FEATURE | SALES BEHAVIOUR
ARE YOU THE BIG ‘I AM’? You must put your ego aside and show humility to optimise your sales, says GUY ANASTAZE
E
go, from the Latin personal pronoun, usually describes one’s self-awareness. Ego is often considered (especially in psychology) to be the foundation of personality, and sometimes (notably in spirituality) as an obstacle to personal development. Here, I will discuss Ego from the second perspective, distinguishing it with a capital E and referring to what one commonly calls “a big Ego”. This Ego causes chaos. Ego is pretension or belief that you are better than others and worth intrinsically more than they are. Positioning yourself by comparison to others, the Ego can be a substantial obstacle to self-development and reaching your full potential. Unfortunately, the management of political, military and religious systems, and many other organisations, relies on the Ego. This is one of the reasons that these systems lead to war, whether physical or economic; the Ego is the breeding ground for what psychologists call narcissists, perverts or psychotics. In sales, the Ego becomes a flaw when a salesperson judges that they know what is good for the client better than the client themselves. This flaw manifests itself as arrogance and it leads to failure. Arrogant salespeople talk too much and don’t listen, believing they already know and understand in the place of the client. The Ego is often closely associated with ambition. I’d like to make a key distinction here 36 WINNING EDGE
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between these two concepts. My view is that ambition sets the bar very high, helping you both to build your dreams and to shape your conviction such that you can achieve them. Relying on the conviction that you are capable, ambition does position you compared to where you are now; it leads you to say “I can do it,” acting as a positive energy which motivates you to strive to do better by working with others. To win business in sales, you need to advance with your team and alongside the client, collectively building the best solution to meet their needs. Ambition, then, is the booster of excellence. Ego is the destroyer of excellence. HARNESS HUMILITY Humility reminds us that we are not perfect, that we are perfectible. Associating strong ambition with great humility is one of the best ways to develop yourself and achieve your goals. It helps you to learn, to take a step back from your
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19/01/2016 16:57
