A Selling From The Heart Sales Professional Is Not An Empty Suit!

“If your goals aren’t synced with the substance of your heart, then achieving them won’t matter much.”

-Danielle LaPorte

Great sales professionals think before they act. They plan, prepare and progress as they build a structure of success. They lead with intention and become the example. Great sales professionals are precise with their decisions by aligning their vision and values to earn the respect of their clients and prospects.

With purposeful intent, they engage in heartfelt activities benefitting those around them. And this is what your clients and prospects want, right? They deserve a sales professional who is heartfelt, sincere and fills out a suit with empathy, emotion, and excitement.

A Self-Aware Sales Professional

A selling from the heart sales professional is self-aware and has a clear sense of identity and purpose. The way they interact with their clients is no different from the way they interact with their family and friends. I will sum it up this way… they’re consistently consistent with their behavior.

A selling from the heart professional has a clear sense of purpose. They know exactly who they are and what they want.  They take massive action, make strategic decisions, plan and set goals; all in accordance with a deep-rooted set of personal, professional and moral values. Moreover, they build a family of clients aligning to these values.

“The deeper your relationship with others, the more effective will be your leadership. People will not follow you if they do not trust you, and before someone will lend you a hand, you must first touch their heart.”

-Robin Sharma

Sales Professionals Are Leaders, Not Empty Suits

Sales professionals are effective in opening up business conversations as they speak the language of leadership. This language clearly conveys their ideas to their audience. They use language that precisely explains their thinking to the hearts and minds of those whom they wish to move to action, their clients and prospects. Sales professionals are not empty suits in the eyes of their clients and prospects!

A selling from the heart professional understands how to create and deliver their value proposition in a way that captures the heart and mindshare of their clients and prospects. Inside the book, “Creating and Delivering Your Value Proposition” by David Pinder. The first paragraph inside the introduction nails it, “The term value proposition is used ubiquitously in business today and its original meaning has been dissipated into vague sales and marketing notions that are a million miles from its intended meaning and use.”

If you don’t know the value you bring to your current clients then how do you know the value you can bring to your potential clients? Sales professionals know the “why” behind their value proposition and use this to create heartfelt alignment with their clients and prospects.

The reason why prospects, and yes sometimes clients, view you (a sales rep) as an ’empty suit’ as they pay lip service to you is you haven’t personally bought into your value proposition. How well do your clients know your value proposition? It’s about serving and delivering a measurable amount of value at all times. Live it, walk it, talk it and broadcast it for everyone to hear. This my friends is not an empty suit!

What’s an Empty Suit?

According to the Urban Dictionary, an empty suit is someone puffed up with their own importance but having little effect on the lives of others. A true empty suit conjures up the image of a business suit of clothing without a person in it who really doesn’t know what he or she is doing.

How well are you demonstrating competence as a sales rep? An executive appearance, presence, and attitude may open some business doors of opportunity, however; without competence, those prospects can quickly dissipate.

Think about this equation…

An executive presence – competence = an empty suit

What happens in that first meeting with a prospect, as they share their heartfelt problems with you, and all you can add to the conversation is a stream of buzzwords, canned pitches, and sales jargon? In a split second, it becomes painfully obvious you have no empathy and no clue about their concerns, issues or how you may even help to solve their problems. This my friends is an empty suit. You’re dead in the water!

Heartfelt Professionals Wear an Authentic Suit

An authentic sales professional leads with the heart by becoming open and vulnerable. They absolutely understand their weaknesses and are extremely comfortable in their own skin. Sales professionals who lead from the heart have courage. The courage to be human in a sales world full of facades.

These professionals acknowledge:

• the human aspect of sales,
• they must know themselves first, and
• credible relationships are the core foundation.

Viktor Frankl in his writings, The pursuit of true happiness: “Doing work that matters, loving without condition, and growing from adversity. We must end the artificial separation between these essential aspects of our being and show up as a whole person in all that we do – leaders who lead from the heart know this. ”

This my friends is an authentic business suit, not an empty business suit!

If you would like some inspiration, I welcome the conversation or send me a message to llevine@socialsalesacademy.net. Your comments are greatly appreciated.

This post originally appeared on LinkedIn Pulse and has been adapted for use on this blog with kind permission of Larry Levine.

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