What Are Your Motives as a Salesperson?

Today’s post is by LaVon Koerner, president and chief revenue officer of Revenue Storm.

 

In my view, U.S. presidential election cycles are nothing more than expensive and colossal sales cycles – creating an inviting landscape for learning which sales practices work and which do not.

As each candidate announces he or she is running for President, the question that comes to mind is, “Why are they doing this?” If the candidate does not state why, the voting population is left to deduct the answer from its own observations based upon what the candidate is saying. Does the candidate’s stated reason have the “ring of truth?” Do we deem the candidate to be transparent and well intended?

At the root of the U.S. obsession with knowing the candidate’s motives is a deeper and more relevant question – “Can I trust the candidate?” That’s why motives matter!

In the U.S. presidential campaign, as with all countries, the voters need to know if the candidate can be entrusted with their country and their future. That answer cannot be determined until it is known, at the very deepest level, what the candidate is trying to accomplish. To ascertain the candidate’s motives, we screen his or her answer through our cynical test question of – “What is in it for them?”

If the candidate’s answer is believed to be more about self-advancement, we are immediately disenchanted. If, however, the answer is the advancement of our country, we will be stirred to uncover the answer to the next automatic question – “Is the advancement of the country in line with our thinking and does it make intuitive sense?” 

If the answer to that question is also yes, we will go to the third round of questioning – “Do they have the plan and skills to pull it off?” 

If the answer again is yes, they have just passed the initial test, and we will then view the candidate as viable. Now, all we have to do is compare him or her to other viable candidates to make our selection. But the answer to that initial question of motive does not mean we will now vote for that candidate. It only means we consider him or her to be qualified – a viable candidate worthy of consideration.

What is so interesting about identifying  candidates’ motives to ascertain their viability is that it is identical to what takes place in every sales cycle in the marketplace. Motives matter – especially in those early moments of the sales cycle where the customer is qualifying you, not your product. This is the time when your personal feasibility and viability are being adjudicated.. If you pass the test, it simply means you are in the race. Now, we can talk about your solution.

This is borne out by science. In Revenue Storm’s large (17,000+) database of B2B sales professionals, it became indisputably clear that motives matter in all sales situations. The data gathered from our validated psychometric diagnostic instrument was revealing. The people with the highest and most intensive scores in the attribute cluster of “people orientation” consistently scored the highest in their individual ability to successfully navigate the perils of sophisticated sales cycles involving multiple calls on multiple people, at multiple levels, over multiple months. 

People Orientation Cluster
Client Oriented	The tendency to take a client perspective to anticipate and satisfy their needs and desires.
Socially Perceptive	An awareness of the appropriate behavior for a given situation because of a sensitivity to human dynamics.
Empathic	The tendency to relate to other people’s issues or environment and react with sensitivity.
Team Oriented	The predisposition to interact with others in a collaborative fashion in order to achieve a group objective.
Mentors	The inclination to spend personal time to help others develop their skills and potential.

A person who scores high in the attributes contributing to this cluster can be seen as an outward-focused individual who would be viewed as a loving and caring person with honest and trustworthy motives.

As an example, one of the attributes in this “people orientation” cluster is empathy, which is defined as a person who has the tendency to relate to other people’s issues or environment and react with sensitivity. Such a person would not advance themselves at the direct expense of their customer or voter. Whether you are running for President of the United States, or are a professional salesperson, your motives matter.

Any intuitive buyer and/or voter will be watching and making an initial judgment concerning you. And, if that judgment comes up negative, it may not matter very much as to what you are selling or saying. They won’t be listening – because motives matter!

Comments

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1019945783]

What I find rather interesting is how sales people who know and understand that a context of trust must be created, try to do so without considering whether or not their motive supports their outward actions. We're wired for energy. Some are better than other at spotting behavior incongruent with motive. Excellent article to send out a pure signal!

Melody Campbell
Creator of the
One Sale A Day Sales System for Merchant Services Professional

[Bobrickertpcs]

I love election season LaVon, because no one is better at capturing the parallels of selling and running for office. Trust is at the center of this election and I love how you delineate the attributes for selling effectively (and winning votes!). It all starts with exuding the right "motive".
Cheers,
Bob Rickert