Selling Without the Yuck Factor on the Leadership Powered by Common Sense Podcast

The key to removing the “Yuck” factor that so often comes along with selling can be summed up in three steps:

1. Figure out who your perfect customer is.

Picture this: you’re sitting on an airplane when somebody sits down next to you. Not just somebody – your perfect customer on paper. Picture that perfect customer. What is their world like? What do they need help with? If you were a fly on the wall while they vented to their best friend about their challenges, what would they be?

Now’s the next step: how are you uniquely able to solve those challenges?

Getting specific about who you want to work with, why you want to work with them, and what you bring to their table doesn’t just help you target the right customers - it helps you show up more intentionally to build long-term relationships.

2. Figure out what your strengths are - and how you can play to them.

Some people are, by nature, incredibly social creatures. They make friends everywhere they go. At the gym, in the Starbucks line, in the DMV… Other people are good listeners. They listen to understand, not to respond. They find that people open up to them easily. They always seem to ask the right questions.

Selling starts to feel less icky (for you and the people you’re selling to) when it’s grounded in authenticity. If you’re a social butterfly, that means playing into your strengths to draw people to you. If you’re somebody who listens first and speaks later, your power comes from your ability to make potential customers feel heard.

Both are effective. Both are important. Which one you are doesn’t matter – it’s selling in a way that plays to your natural strengths that does.

3. Unpack your mental baggage

Wolf of Wall Street is a great movie, but Jordan Belfort paints salespeople as greedy and money hungry at best and, well, a terrible people at worst. In fact, most movies about sales feed into this same perception that salespeople are highly competitive and desperate to win at any cost. Maybe that’s why so many entrepreneurs and salespeople find themselves turned off by the entire idea of selling.

Of course, selling is an absolute necessity for companies to grow and thrive, and while the Blakes of Glengarry Glen Ross do exist, they’re the exception – not the norm. Most entrepreneurs and salespeople believe in the solutions they offer to solve challenges - so reframing how you think about the entire selling process will allow you to push past the “yuck” factor, dive deeper than what’s on the surface, and learn what your potential customers are really looking for.

​To get more insights on Selling Without the Yuck Factor and learn more about finding new leads, discovering your sales strengths, and more effectively approaching sales, check out Karl’s appearance on Doug Thorpe’s Leadership Powered by Common Sense podcast.