The next book I'd like to write is "PsychSelling" (just a working title), an overview of the sales concepts and strategies I've adapted from the mindset and practices of the Psychiatrist.
So as I prepare to gather the materials and put them together, I thought I'd share some of the background of how it began here on the blog.
I was born in a wooden cubicle, deep in the Colorado back-country...(just kidding, sort of)
Anyone who knew me back in the day, when I was first starting out in sales, knows I struggled quite a bit ...in fact... I sucked! Oh my managers tried sending me off to workshops and motivational seminars...and I would go out and try the new techniques...but clients just didn't seem to play along the way the seminar leader said they would. No matter how "motivated" and "pumped up" I was, when I used the strategies I felt like the stereotypical, pushy sales sleaze I couldn't stand myself.
If I was going to survive in sales I HAD to find another model...another approach. And I knew I wasn't alone...most of the salespeople I worked with also struggled with the "motivation-based" selling techniques. Maybe if I could discover it...others would have an interest too (hmmmm, idea forming there...)
There was nothing wrong with motivation...but motivation alone wouldn't work in the world of consultative selling! The day was dawning for the focus on the customer's needs vs the focus on the salesperson's bells-n-whistles.
I knew then that not only did I need to discover a new way to approach the selling process myself...I was also going to develop the concepts into a training model I could teach to other people (I always wanted to be the coach and not the star player).
I began to look for a model profession I could emulate -- one that featured the following core skill sets (which I felt were critical to successful selling in the future):
- Their primary task is to listen...probe..and explore...
- They must know how dig deeper to discover hidden levels of meaning
- They should be masters of observation and are especially gifted at sensing deception
- They should know how to control any number of situations with a wide variety of personalities
- They need to be detached enough to deal with volatile people without taking everything personally
- They must be experts at "reading" people in stressful situations, and able to control outcomes through techniques and strategies
- They must be able to get someone to take ownership of their situation and be able to guide them to an outcome without being overbearing or pushy
And while there were any number of professions that met several of these criteria (police officer, reporter, pastor, lawyer, doctor...just to name a few) I eventually focused on Psychiatry as the one profession that had it all. And not JUST Psychiatrists, but other mental health professionals as well -- Psychotherapists, Social Workers, Counselors, etc.
So I became a "lab rat" if you will...studying, reading, interviewing, pestering anyone and everyone in the Field who would share with me how they do what they do. Most of the people I talked to didn't really see what they were doing as "techniques" or "strategies"...it was just how they were taught and what they did to get the best results.
But I recognized all of it immediately as a fantastic mindset and role model for succeeding in sales.
Over the next several years I slowly took the concepts and mindset of the Psychiatrist and boiled them down into an overall approach to sales, and developed a series of techniques salespeople could use to control sales situations and get faster results, while building strong relationships at the same time! And that is how PsychSelling was born.
How it evolved into where it is today involved continued tweaking, testing, coaching, learning, and observing as I did hundreds of workshops with thousands of salespeople in all fields and all experience and income levels. Nearly 20 years of perfecting it on the streets, in the trenches!
I think salespeople really enjoy my PshcySelling approach for the same reasons I was attracted to it in the first place -- it's different than the normal "rah-rah" approach to selling...it's deeper, more relationship-based...the concepts are fun to master...AND...IT WORKS!!
I'll continue to roll out more of the evolution of PsychSelling and some of the techniques as we roll along...stay tuned..
GB
