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The Essence of Sales in One Word
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Hey everyone, Adam Dewey, Director of Sales at Salesloft, and today I want to talk to you about the essence of sales, and what it means to me in one word.
I like to ask this question in the interview process, “what is the essence of sales to you in one word?” And this does two things, allows me to understand two things. The first thing is, how quick are they on their feet? It’s a pretty deep question that they have to think about.
The second thing it allows me to understand is, what really drives or motivates these individuals? So, when I ask this question, I’ve gotten a lot of various responses, like, relationship-building is the essence of sales to them, money is the essence of sales to them.
To me, the essence of sales in one word is trust. Every action or interaction that I’m having with clients, I want to be building upon that trust, because I’m going to be engaging with these clients even after the sales cycle is done. I want to build long-term, lasting partnerships, and be viewed as a partner and not a vendor.
I think people buy from people that they trust, first, and second, buy based on the solution that meets all of their requirements. A way I build trust with prospects is, if they ask me for a specific feature, I’ll tell them if we don’t have it, but I’ll dig deeper to understand why they’re requesting that specific feature, and how it relates to their goals. Then, if we have work-arounds for it, I’ll present those specific work-arounds.
I think it’s important for everyone to understand what the essence of sales is to them. For me, it’s trust, and for my team, it’s different things, but whenever we’re engaging with clients, we always make sure that we keep that as the end goal, and work backwards from there.
Thanks for listening to my tips today. If you want more tips, check out our blog, where we’re dropping content daily. Thanks, and happy lofting.
What’s the one thing that drives you individually as a modern sales professional? Is it relationships? Is it compensation? What is the one word that sums up the motivation behind your daily drive as a salesperson? This is your personal essence of sales, and every rep has a definition for it.
Identifying that definition is just the first step. Once you discover what it is that drives you, the essence of sales for your day to day, that’s when it’s time to get down to how you can use that definition to shape your actions and sales activities every time you interact with customers and prospects. If the essence of sales, to you, is building relationships, then you’re going to have that goal in mind every time you send an email, pick up the phone, or shake hands with a potential prospect, and that’s going to be the thing that ultimately gets you further in your opportunities.
Adam Dewey, Salesloft’s Director of Sales, is here in the first Sales Tips episode of the new year. He’s discussing what the essence of sales means to him, and how he uncovers this driving factor in interviews and coaching moments with his team. Watch the video above to learn more about Adam’s motivation in sales and the ways he uses that motivation to build trust with his customers and prospects.