There’s an increasing sentiment in the sales community that’s influencing salespeople to focus more on authenticity, relationships, conversations, and buyer-centricity, over tricky “sales techniques.”
Some call this mindset “fluff,” but I see it as a welcomed and needed disposition when compared to the corrupt “boiler-room” tactics of our recent past. With that said, I do feel there’s a potential misconception created within this sentiment that “selling is only about relationships.”
I say this because some of the messaging we’re seeing associates the language of “sales techniques” to underhanded, manipulative, and dishonest sales tactics — subterfuge most commonly associated with closing strategies.
This has me concerned that we’re misleading learners into thinking that you “only need to have conversations” while focusing solely on relationships to become a top-performer. I do believe those things to be essential, but they’re only part of the equation, a large part, but incomplete of the whole picture, which includes sales techniques and best practices to become a high-performance salesperson.
A brief history of sales techniques and tactics
For years, trainers taught closing techniques, tactics, and strategies during a period in time where “word-of-mouth” didn’t travel as far, and dishonest salespeople were more secluded from the public eye.
It was a time when sellers took an “us vs. them” mentality focused more on “winning, defeating, and conquering” their customers while relating themselves to “hunters and killers” set out to slay their prey.
It was a time where language like “technique, tactic, and strategy,” were used to describe the competitive nature of winning the deal. These same tactics were glamorized and given unusual names like; the Alternative Close, Door-Knob Close, Puppy-Dog Close, Columbo Close, and the Now or Never Close.
These were the “silver-bullets” that enamored salespeople into spending money on sales training seminars, books, and audiobooks — seeking to find the next strategy that would help them to be “closers.”
The modern shift from unethical sales tactics
It’s no wonder today’s training professionals and influencers are distancing themselves from the past “seller vs. buyer” mentality to a more “seller for the buyer,” customer-focused, relationship-based mindset, and message.
We’re in a time of transparency, where reviews are broadcast to highlight positive or negative customer experiences. A time where disgruntled customers can ruin a seller’s reputation if perceived as being dishonest or unethical. The availability of information today has educated buyers while giving them experience and wisdom to see through these old sales gimmicks.
To me, it makes sense for the sales community to shift more towards ethical, selfless, customer-focused, and relationship-based beliefs and principles. First of all, it’s the right thing to do, and secondly, they don’t have a choice – the boiler-room mentalities of the past won’t and can’t survive in today’s selling environment.
Not All Sales Techniques Are Unethical
While I agree with and teach relationship-based selling, I fear that some of the messaging around it’s becoming too extreme and neglectful when intending to support the philosophy.
Some of what I hear around relationship-based selling would lead you to believe that all you need to be successful in sales is to “be authentic, build relationships, have conversations, and solve problems.”
While these characteristics are foundational to sales success, I believe that we’re limiting our potential if we stop there. Neglecting to teach and learn sales techniques that advance customer-focused conversations into result-driven conversations is a mistake.
We could be more productive with the customer in front of us by knowing how to transition those excellent relationships into buying relationships, navigated by an intelligent seller who also happens to care.
Not all sales techniques are unethical and manipulative. Many sales techniques are productive and instrumental in moving the sales process forward. When using sales techniques honestly and transparently, they can be critical to motivating action. That’s what salespeople do, drive action. Otherwise, we would be marketers and order-takers.
So if there’s any question as to whether or not the sales technique you’re using is ethical, ask yourself a simple question; am I lying? If any part of the “technique” is lacking transparency or is untrue, then its manipulative, unethical, and dishonest. However, if you’re telling the truth and using sales “techniques” in a transparent effort to progress the sale, well, then you’re just intelligent.
Changing the Perception of Sales Techniques
Sales training, methodology, and the language we use in the sales community is evolving. We’re distancing ourselves from certain words that carry negative connotations associated with the underhanded, manipulative, and dishonest sales tactics of our past and present.
We see common language such as “objections” and “closing” substituted with “concerns” and “commitment” to soften the perception and transition our mindset to being more caring and empathetic.
So why don’t we change our perception of sales techniques and tactics as well? What if we didn’t view them as techniques or tactics at all, what if we saw them for what they are? Best practices.
And no, I’m not talking about clearly manipulative techniques such as the “Take Away Close,” which play on the fear-of-loss, but rather forthright techniques that help to progress the sale forward.
Instead of condemning all sales techniques and misleading our learners into believing they can become top-performers without them, let’s bring attention to the ones that work and highlight their effectiveness while helping customers solve problems and achieve goals.
Closing Techniques and Changing Perceptions
It’s about changing perceptions. If we were to substitute “sales techniques and tactics” with “sales best practice and mechanics,” would that change our perception?
To better understand how we can change the perceptions of old sales or closing techniques to effective sales or commitment gaining best practices, I’ve provided some examples.
The Alternative Close
A relative to the “Assumptive Close” where you assume the customer is ready to buy, the Alternative Close differs in that it provides choices to get the customer thinking in terms of making decisions and commitments.
An example of this would be scheduling a time to meet. If we were to ask, “when’s a good time to meet?” customers might only think of how busy their entire schedule is. Alternatively, if we were to ask, “Is Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning good for you?” our customer gets into action looking to see if they’re available.
Trick? No. Manipulative? No. Change the perception from sales technique to scheduling best practice and now we’re merely guiding the process.
The Benjamin Franklin Close
Nothing negative about the Benjamin Franklin Close, but if you’re not looking to learn about sales techniques then you might not even know about it.
Whenever Benjamin Franklin was unsure about something, he’d list the pros and cons of the decision. As sellers, when we walk through this exercise with our customers, we help them realize what’s to love about our offer while working through what’s not. If we can help customers see where the pros outweigh the cons, we can progress indecision into action, resulting in a sale.
Is this a sales technique? Or a best practice for decision-making that can be done with and for our customers?
I’ll Close With A Sports Analogy
A football player who’s a great guy, focused on the team, involved in the community, passionate about the game, always contributing, building locker room chemistry, a good sport in both winning and losing, who cares about his team and the game, is just that, a great guy.
A football player who possesses that same mindset and mental attitude while continuously perfecting his craft, practicing, learning, and applying new techniques is a great guy who can also play football.
Don’t sell yourself or your buyers short, be an intelligent seller who cares. Be a great person while also being a great salesperson.