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What is selling like when you are at your very best? How do you feel? How do you behave? How do your customers react? I asked a group of high tech salespeople and field service engineers those questions at an Orlando seminar. Here are some of their replies:
When I'm at my best, I:
- Feel connected with the customer.
- Feel valued.
- Use more gestures.
- Walk tall.
- Sell without a lot of effort -- it flows.
- Am energized.
- Find the right words without a lot of thinking or effort.
- Get the customer to participate and reveal real needs.
- Am in the zone.
Have you ever been in the zone? You were so focused on the customer that you weren't worrying about whether or not you would make the sale?
Chronic preoccupation is the new epidemic. Many of us spend more time thinking about what we aren't doing than what we are doing. Multitasking is the norm, and focusing is the exception. People talk on their cell phones while eating with their families and business associates. Wireless email interrupts meetings.
It's difficult to be there for people when you're available to everyone else in the world. And if you're chronically preoccupied when you're in front of a customer, then you won't reach the zone.
Being in the zone is Zen-like. Zen is a Japanese sect of Mahayana Buddhism that seeks enlightenment by direct intuition through meditation. Here's an anecdote from The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching Practice Enlightenment by Roshi Philip Kapleau:
One day a man of the people said to Zen Master Ikkyu; "Master, will you please write for me some maxims of the highest wisdom?"
Ikkyu immediately took his brush and wrote the word "Attention."
"Is that all?" said the man. "Will you not add something more?"
Ikkyu then wrote twice running: "Attention. Attention."
"Well," remarked the man, "I really do not see much depth or subtlety in what you have written."
Then Ikkyu wrote the same word three times running: "Attention. Attention. Attention."
Half-angered, the man demanded: "What does the word 'attention' mean anyway?"
And Ikkyu answered gently, "Attention means attention."
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines attention as, "the act or state of attending, especially through applying the mind to an object of sense or thought; a condition of readiness for such attention involving especially a selective narrowing or focusing of consciousness and receptivity."
My guess is that when you're in the zone with a client, you are paying attention. You are truly present. There is no past or future. There is only now. When that happens, it can be a peak experience because there is not a lot of effort -- things flow.
In his book, The Tao of Sales: The Easy Way to Sell in Tough Times, E. Thomas Behr says if we merge our goals with the client's goals, we will encounter less resistance. If we stop pushing, they will stop pushing back. If we don't insist on the sale, they will develop the courage to buy.
If we are anxious to succeed, however, our actions drown out our words. Whatever we may say, our actions shout, "I want this sale! I need your money!" No wonder we often scare the hell out of our clients.
When I do one thing at a time, I do that one thing better than when I multitask. When I read a good book, time slows down. When I read the paper, eat breakfast and watch TV, time seems to speed up, and I don't do any of the three very well.
When you get in the zone in selling, you are completely focused on the prospect. To get there more often, pay attention. You've done it before. You can do it more.
A very wise man once said, "The past is gone. The future isn't here yet nor is it guaranteed. Every day is a gift. That's why they call it the present."
The present is a very good place to be when you are selling.
