Stop Trying to Sell Like Someone Else
Most of the sales advice out there won’t work for you.
It’s just not feasible to take someone else’s words, techniques, and swagger and try to make it yours. Sure, you can be inspired by it, but when you try to take that advice and use it verbatim in your own sales calls, it doesn’t tend to go very well, does it?
The average sales professional doesn’t realize this. So, back to the drawing board… following the influencers, picking up new tips, and trying to put them to use only to be frustrated once more.
Why It Doesn’t Work to Copy Another Seller’s Strategy
It feels like work. You’re making the effort. Why aren’t you more successful?
You’re missing a key concept: you won’t be as successful as you could be if you try to sell like someone else.
You can be inspired by the way someone sells, but you need to take it a step further. You need to think about why that particular technique was successful for them and understand the underlying fundamentals. If you just copy what they did, you end up missing the lesson.
Following a recipe with basic skills will usually yield a delicious meal, but knowing a bunch of recipes doesn’t mean you know how to cook, and it certainly doesn’t qualify you to be a chef. Professionals in the kitchen master the techniques that are adaptable for any recipe. Professionals on the sales floor are the same in their own right.
Master Your Own Brand of Selling
It’s a little extra work, but here’s the payoff (and it comes rather quickly): when you understand the fundamentals, you can develop your own techniques. Not only does your own style work better for you, but you’ll be more comfortable selling that way, and you’ll do it more often.
Selling more effectively, more often, is the key to delivering massive results.
Stop searching for quick tips and strategies. Seek frameworks instead that will show you how to work within them in your own way to achieve the success you’re looking for. For example, stop improvising your prospecting and start preparing. This post has some pointers for you. When you get an opportunity to further the sales conversation, start with a thorough discovery process.
Do the work. Take the principles, develop your own techniques, and take your results straight to the bank.
You can’t sell like me, any of my colleagues, or any of yours. We may be able to inspire you to do things or show you examples of how they can be done. But if you’re looking to truly succeed and join the ranks of top performers, you’re going to need to sell like you.
What do you think? Does this resonate? When you think back to your biggest successes, did you carbon copy someone else's advice, or did you make it your own? How much effort did that require? Was it worth it? Join the conversation in the Rethink The Way You Sell community.
Jeff Bajorek
Real. Authentic. Experience.
There’s a big difference between knowing how to sell and being able to. Jeff Bajorek spent over a decade in the field as a top performer. He’s been in your shoes. He knows what it will take. He can help you succeed.
Join the Community
Related Posts
