August 10, 2025 • 20 mins
Vulnerability might seem like the last trait you'd want to showcase in sales, but what if admitting mistakes actually strengthened client relationships instead of damaging them? This counterintuitive approach challenges the pervasive myth of the "unbreakable salesperson" that creates unnecessary pressure and ultimately leads to more errors and potential burnout.
Drawing from real-world experiences, we explore how toxic sales environments—where salespeople face public scrutiny, become organizational scapegoats, and operate under unreasonable expectations—damage performance and increase stress. When salespeople feel they must appear infallible, it creates a defensive posture that clients immediately sense and distrust. This defensiveness manifests as the pushy, untrustworthy salesperson stereotype we all recognize and avoid.
The alternative approach embraces our shared humanity. By acknowledging mistakes promptly, being transparent when you don't know answers, and consistently following through on commitments, you build remarkable trust. Clients instinctively respect this authenticity because they recognize genuine problem-solving versus desperate self-protection. This trust becomes the foundation for lasting relationships, effortless repeat business, and valuable referrals.
For sales managers, creating environments where vulnerability is encouraged transforms team dynamics. When mistakes become learning opportunities rather than reasons for punishment, salespeople develop confidence to focus on client needs rather than self-protection. The "under promise, over deliver" philosophy, combined with genuine curiosity about client challenges, creates sales relationships built on mutual respect and long-term value.
Ready to transform your approach to sales? Subscribe to explore more counterintuitive strategies that build authentic connections and drive sustainable business growth.
Welcome to the podcast!
If you have a sales problem you'd like to hear covered in a podcast, please contact me directly. Or, my sales training programme might help!
If you'd like help to improve your sales confidence, please jump onto my free (45 minute) on-demand webinar. I'll teach you three things you can apply immediately, including handling objections and closing a sale.
Graham Elliott
You can contact me at graham@salescraft.training
My website is www.salescraft.training
Please join my mailing list. You'll get all the news and latest offers.
Or... if you've found this helpful, please buy me a coffee!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I must admit that I enjoy things that are a little
bit off the wall, that seemcounterintuitive when you first
come across them, and that's whyI wanted to put this podcast
together, which is to talk aboutvulnerability in a sales team.
So I just want you to imaginewhat would happen if you or your
(00:22):
top salesperson just admitted amistake to a key client and,
instead of actually losing thedeal or losing that account,
losing that client that actuallystrengthened the relationship.
So, as I've said, this doestend to sound a little bit
counterintuitive, but I thinkone of the problems that we have
(00:46):
in sales as an industry and Ithink this goes through to both
salespeople and clients is thatwe can't make mistakes.
We have to be invulnerable,almost we have to get it right
every time, and I think wherethat takes us, certainly as
(01:07):
salespeople, is where we'reafraid of making mistakes.
We put a lot of pressure onourselves not to make mistakes.
We imagine all kinds ofscenarios and questions that
somebody could ask us that wouldresult in us making a mistake,
maybe focusing on questions thatwe don't know the answer to,
(01:27):
and that, in turn, I believe,results in this pushy
salesperson, the sort of sleazy,seedy salesperson that
everybody despises, but to methat's kind of a defensive
reaction to not wanting to makea mistake.
So we tend to sit in the areawhere we're comfortable things
(01:48):
that we know, and we'll pushback against clients who just
ask questions they want to knowbecause they are looking for a
solution to their problem butthe salesperson doesn't know the
answer to.
So that really is the ideabehind this podcast.
So if you find it interesting,please listen to the end, and if
(02:09):
you enjoy it and get value fromit, please like subscribe.
Visit the website, becausethere's a lot more information
there.
There are many more podcasts,there's downloads in some of
them and, of course, there's myonline sales program.
So please take a look at that.
So I really want to dive in alittle bit deeper and, first of
(02:34):
all, look at this myth of theunbreakable salesperson and I
think, where this takes us andit's definitely a culture thing,
because I've experienced thismyself there's pressure on the
salesperson to always get itright, not to make a mistake,
(02:56):
and part of that is becausesales is a very public role, and
what I mean by that is thateverybody within the
organization knows when salesare going well certainly within
the sales team and equally, theyknow when things are going
badly.
So if you are someone who hasbeen to or regularly goes to
(03:20):
sales meetings and you're notdoing well, there's a real dread
because most of the salesmeetings I'm trying to think
pretty much all of the salesmeetings I've been to in the
years I've been doing this haverun through the numbers and it's
a great feeling to go to one ofthose meetings when your
numbers are good and you'redoing really well.
(03:41):
It's a pretty dreadful feelingwhen you've got to go to these
things and you know your numbersare really bad and perhaps even
worse, you don't have much inthe forecast that's going to
pull you out of that situationanytime soon.
And, of course, what that does?
It piles a lot more pressureonto salespeople and I've even
(04:01):
been in a meeting.
I remember going to a meeting inone company and it was a small
company but representatives werethere from every different part
of the company and every one ofthem blamed the ills of the
company on the sales team.
In fact, there was a lot moreto it than that and I have to
admit that I did put up with itfor a little while and I made my
(04:23):
feelings extremely clear andleft the room and I actually
remember thinking that I thinkI've just ended my relationship
with this company.
And I was driving home and Ihad a phone call from the owner
of the company and he was reallyapologetic and definitely
didn't want me to go.
(04:44):
He was very worried that Iwould leave.
And of course I say of course,but basically myself and the
sales manager I was working withwe managed to turn things
around.
But it is a real situation andsales often it becomes the
whipping boy in someorganizations when things aren't
(05:05):
going well.
And then, just to add to thatpressure, I remember another
company.
We had this new sales guy who anew sales manager, I should say
he'd been a reasonablysuccessful salesperson.
It was one of those companies.
It was a British company.
They tend to promote people.
There's an old saying.
It was a British company, theytend to promote people.
(05:27):
There's an old saying, at leastin some companies, that they
would promote people to theirlevel of incompetence and that's
where this guy went.
So one of his rules, what hetold the internal salespeople so
the people who we would phonein the office to just get
updates on what had come in, anymessages, anything like that he
actually instructed them not tolet the sales people know that
they had got an order, an orderto come in, unless they
(05:50):
specifically asked, which to mewas just absurd.
But this might sound familiar.
You may well work inorganizations like this that
have these ridiculous rules thatjust add pressure onto the
salesperson, because as asalesperson, I would call and
I've got other things on my mind.
(06:10):
I'm trying to get this done,that done, solve a customer
issue, whatever it might be, andit's really helpful if I feel
that the internal salespersonhas got my back, and in that
particular scenario I didn'tfeel like that at all.
There was a really nastyatmosphere in that company and I
guess, to add to that, I didleave fairly soon after that.
(06:33):
So the point of talking aboutall of this is that this
unbreakable salesperson, thispressure to get it right every
time, can lead to more mistakes,because it just adds to the
pressure that salespeople areunder and that in turn can lead
to burnout all of thosesituations and when we're under
(06:56):
stress we tend not to be perhapsas nice a person to be around
and that can impact us not justin our work but in family
relationships, in relationshipswith friends, all sorts of
things, so it's not a good placeto go to, and this is why
vulnerability, I believe, is areally important thing to
(07:18):
consider.
So how can vulnerability be anadvantage?
So I think the first thing isthat we're all people and as
people, we all make mistakes,and I've spoken about this in
podcasts before as well, and I'mthe first person to admit that
(07:38):
I've made many mistakes when Iwas selling, and in fact, I've
said in other places it's one ofthe reasons that one of the
things that contributed to mebeing a good sales manager and
being able to teach salesbecause I had messed up.
I've probably screwed up salesin most of the ways it's
possible to do it, but I havelearned from those experiences
(08:01):
as well, which means that in myown career, I could see a
situation developing and goingthe wrong way, so I knew how to
handle it in a way that pulledit back.
And also as a sales manager, asa general manager, if I was
going out with salespeopledeveloping and going the wrong
way, so I knew how to handle itin a way that pulled it back.
And also as a sales manager, asa general manager, if I was
going out with salespeople, Icould see the signs that things
(08:22):
were not going well and then Icould coach my salespeople into
how to turn that around.
And equally, as a sales trainer, I could recognize the signs in
sales teams that things werestarting to go a little bit
pear-shaped, to use a phrase,and what kind of strategies
could be implemented to turnthose back.
So the first thing is we'rehuman.
We make mistakes.
Things will go wrong from timeto time.
(08:43):
It's just natural.
So being able to be open withpeople, to own up and say I made
a mistake, I think builds trust, particularly with clients.
And the important thing withclients.
Now it depends on your business, but a lot of businesses rely
on long term relationships.
(09:04):
They're not just a one off saleand then that client goes and
they're never coming back again.
One-off sale and then thatclient goes and they're never
coming back again.
Most of the businesses I canthink of and that I've been
involved with have relied a loton repeat business, whether it's
buying additions or extensionsto what they've already got or
replacing a current model with anewer model.
That kind of thing you want tohave clients coming back, and
(09:25):
repeat business is the bestbusiness to have because your
involvement as a salesperson islower than with almost any other
kind of business and theoverheads as well, from a
business perspective, are verylow.
Where you tend to spend all ofyour time and effort tends to be
(09:45):
with getting new clients.
Once you've got them, as longas you nurture them and you
maintain that relationship andyou maintain that trust, they
will come back to you, andgetting that second, third,
fourth sale takes a lot lesseffort than getting the first
one.
And what happens when you own upto a mistake is that people
(10:07):
trust you.
So again, I've seen a lot ofsalespeople who get into this
situation, not just in sales,but in pretty much any aspect of
life.
Almost A lot of people are in akind of fear environment.
It's the kind of environmentsI've just been talking about
that I've experienced in mycareer, and your impulse then is
(10:27):
to cover up the error.
Your impulse then is to coverup the error, blame somebody
else or not own up to it or noteven admit it's there.
And then what happens in thosesituations is things go from bad
to worse, so they willdefinitely get worse, and also
you undermine trust both withyour client and within your own
organization, and that is not agreat place to be either.
(10:49):
So the best thing to do is toalways own organization, and
that is not a great place to beeither.
So the best thing to do is toalways own up.
I made a mistake, this is whatI got wrong, this is what I
should have said, this isactually what should have
happened, and let's go fromthere, because then people can
fix the problem.
You're owning the problem,you're creating an opportunity
to correct things.
(11:10):
But think about it.
If you're dealing with someonewho owns up to a problem when
they realize it's there, how doyou feel about them?
What's your level of trust withthem?
And equally, how do you feelabout somebody who lies to
protect themselves and then downthe track when things can't be
corrected very easily?
Everything blows up in yourface very easily.
(11:32):
Everything blows up in yourface.
So do not regard owning up as aweakness.
It actually improves your trust, both with your client and
within your own organization.
So the important thing whenyou're working with a client and
this is something that I talkabout a lot is you're there to
solve your client's problem.
(11:52):
You are a problem solver foryour client.
So sales, in my opinion, andwhat I teach is it's not about
not being caught out by theclient.
That's insane.
You know you're not there tosomehow manipulate them, sell
them something that will be nogood to them.
You are there to genuinelysolve their problem and if you
(12:12):
listen to the last podcast, Iwas talking about being
genuinely curious.
This is really important.
So you're there to problemsolve.
So if you make a mistake, it'sreally important that you own up
to it and you admit you arevulnerable in that situation.
But it builds up that trust andit means the client is much
more likely to buy from you inthe first instance and then to
(12:34):
come back to you later.
So how do you use that?
How do you use that with aclient?
Well, the simple thing is,first of all, if you don't know
an answer, be open.
I don't know the answer to that, but I'll find out.
And this is something I'dalways do, and what I would
always do as well is to committo a time to come back to the
(12:58):
client.
So it might be midday thefollowing day, as an example,
something like that, and then Iwould always come back.
Now, I didn't always have theanswer.
When I was working in Australia, for example, a lot of the
companies I was dealing withwere based in Europe or in the
US or somewhere else.
So there's a time difference.
There's quite a substantialtime difference.
So I would rely on sending amail out to somebody and
(13:20):
hopefully getting an answer backovernight.
But if that didn't happen,there was nobody there.
I could then chase up directly.
I'd have to go through thatprocess again.
But I always just go back to myclient and say look, I said I'd
go back to you today by thistime of day and I have.
Unfortunately, I haven't had aresponse from the manufacturer
it might be or whoever else itis.
(13:42):
So I've taken action to justprompt them again.
I've also escalated it withinmy own organization.
So somebody else is alsochasing this for me and I will
come back to you again same timetomorrow, if that's okay, and
just give you an update on wherewe're at.
But again, what you're sayingto them is look, I haven't got
the answer for you straight away.
(14:02):
I am owning this and I willkeep on this until I get a
satisfactory answer for you.
That's essentially the process.
So this again builds up trustand confidence in most clients
and I always ask people to justput yourself in the client
(14:23):
situation.
How would you feel if theperson you were dealing with,
who's there trying to help yousolve your problem, but they've
got to go back to maybe theoriginal equipment manufacturer
or somebody else to get someanswers?
How do you feel about that?
If the person keeps coming backto you on time and giving you
an update, even if you're notgetting the information that you
(14:43):
need straight away?
You've still got that faith inthat person that they are on
your team, they're trying tohelp you to get this solution.
So that's really important.
So how does that work if you'rea sales manager and you have a
sales team?
So how does that work if you'rea sales manager and you have a
(15:05):
sales team?
This is something that for me,when I first got into a
management role, was reallyimportant.
It was creating an atmospherewhere we could have that kind of
open conversation Because, asI've said, I've been in really
unhealthy and quite toxicmanagement environments, and
these environments are createdby the manager.
That's where it starts andthat's where it stops.
So I would always encouragepeople to talk about problems,
(15:32):
to share problems.
We're there to fix it.
I am side by side with thepeople who report to me and we
would always go through.
I remember talking to one personwho I promoted to a more senior
role within my group and infact they were younger than some
of the other people in thegroup.
(15:53):
They were quite new relativelynew to sales, but I could see
real potential in them and oneof the things that I made it
clear within the group was thatif, for any reason, a
salesperson needed to come to mefor authorization on a deal or
whatever it might be, and theycouldn't get hold of me and they
needed to get hold of someoneurgently, it was to then go to
(16:13):
this other person and they wereauthorized to act on my behalf
and give this salespersonauthorization to make a kind of
non-standard deal.
And the conversation I had withthe guy who was manager was
simply that, look, I don't knowwhat the situation is likely to
(16:34):
be, so just give it the bestdecision you can, the best
decision you can Work on theinformation you have, make a
decision and go from there.
Now, this decision will eitherbe a good one or it might not be
.
Again, this is coming back tothe fact that we're people, so
(16:54):
if it's a bad decision, whatwe're going to do is I will go
through the decision with youand we'll take that apart.
I'm not going to take you apart.
We're going to go through thedecision and look at where it
went wrong.
So and this is pretty much howI work with everyone If we make
a bad decision, let's go throughthe decision, let's look at
what could have been donedifferently, so that it becomes
(17:16):
a learning experience andhopefully we all move forward
and we all do better things.
So these are just ideas thatyou can use if you are in a
sales management role.
But if you work for yourself, dothe same with yourself.
If something goes wrong, justtake some time to reflect on it,
look at what you could havedone differently, make sure that
(17:37):
you learn from it.
You don't repeat those mistakes.
Make sure that you learn fromit.
You don't repeat those mistakes.
So I guess final things tothink about.
What can you take away fromthis and apply straight away?
Well, just first of all,acknowledge that you're human.
If you're a sales manager,create an environment where
people can own up, where you cancreate those more vulnerable
(17:58):
relationships.
But they're much, much deeperand much, much stronger and they
will definitely pay off in thelong term.
If you're working on your own,definitely remember to be honest
with your clients, because thisis how you build up trust.
This is how you get thoserepeat orders without doing a
lot of effort.
Plus, what you'll get fromclients who do trust you is that
(18:23):
they'll refer you to otherpeople, and a referral is the
next best kind of sale, orcertainly the next best thing to
come into your business,because you're getting people
approaching you for a solutionand they're already warm.
They're already warm to you.
They've heard good things aboutyou.
Obviously, your solution needsto fit what they need, but,
assuming that happens, you'remore than halfway there in terms
(18:46):
of making the sale.
It's almost just ticking thefinal boxes and closing the sale
.
So do not underestimate thepower of being vulnerable with
your clients and being honestand open, but be reliable.
So the phrase I always use isunder promise over deliver, and
I would definitely recommendthat.
So look, I hope you found thatuseful.
(19:06):
Maybe it's got you thinkingabout what you can do.
If it has, please like,subscribe all the other good
things.
That really does help me aswell.
Get my message across andplease take a look at the online
course.
I'll give that a final pitch.
Okay, thank you again for yourtime and I'll speak to you in
the next podcast.
Bye for.
I must admit that I enjoy things that are a little
bit off the wall, that seemcounterintuitive when you first
come across them, and that's whyI wanted to put this podcast
together, which is to talk aboutvulnerability in a sales team.
So I just want you to imaginewhat would happen if you or your
(00:22):
top salesperson just admitted amistake to a key client and,
instead of actually losing thedeal or losing that account,
losing that client that actuallystrengthened the relationship.
So, as I've said, this doestend to sound a little bit
counterintuitive, but I thinkone of the problems that we have
(00:46):
in sales as an industry and Ithink this goes through to both
salespeople and clients is thatwe can't make mistakes.
We have to be invulnerable,almost we have to get it right
every time, and I think wherethat takes us, certainly as
(01:07):
salespeople, is where we'reafraid of making mistakes.
We put a lot of pressure onourselves not to make mistakes.
We imagine all kinds ofscenarios and questions that
somebody could ask us that wouldresult in us making a mistake,
maybe focusing on questions thatwe don't know the answer to,
(01:27):
and that, in turn, I believe,results in this pushy
salesperson, the sort of sleazy,seedy salesperson that
everybody despises, but to methat's kind of a defensive
reaction to not wanting to makea mistake.
So we tend to sit in the areawhere we're comfortable things
(01:48):
that we know, and we'll pushback against clients who just
ask questions they want to knowbecause they are looking for a
solution to their problem butthe salesperson doesn't know the
answer to.
So that really is the ideabehind this podcast.
So if you find it interesting,please listen to the end, and if
(02:09):
you enjoy it and get value fromit, please like subscribe.
Visit the website, becausethere's a lot more information
there.
There are many more podcasts,there's downloads in some of
them and, of course, there's myonline sales program.
So please take a look at that.
So I really want to dive in alittle bit deeper and, first of
(02:34):
all, look at this myth of theunbreakable salesperson and I
think, where this takes us andit's definitely a culture thing,
because I've experienced thismyself there's pressure on the
salesperson to always get itright, not to make a mistake,
(02:56):
and part of that is becausesales is a very public role, and
what I mean by that is thateverybody within the
organization knows when salesare going well certainly within
the sales team and equally, theyknow when things are going
badly.
So if you are someone who hasbeen to or regularly goes to
(03:20):
sales meetings and you're notdoing well, there's a real dread
because most of the salesmeetings I'm trying to think
pretty much all of the salesmeetings I've been to in the
years I've been doing this haverun through the numbers and it's
a great feeling to go to one ofthose meetings when your
numbers are good and you'redoing really well.
(03:41):
It's a pretty dreadful feelingwhen you've got to go to these
things and you know your numbersare really bad and perhaps even
worse, you don't have much inthe forecast that's going to
pull you out of that situationanytime soon.
And, of course, what that does?
It piles a lot more pressureonto salespeople and I've even
(04:01):
been in a meeting.
I remember going to a meeting inone company and it was a small
company but representatives werethere from every different part
of the company and every one ofthem blamed the ills of the
company on the sales team.
In fact, there was a lot moreto it than that and I have to
admit that I did put up with itfor a little while and I made my
(04:23):
feelings extremely clear andleft the room and I actually
remember thinking that I thinkI've just ended my relationship
with this company.
And I was driving home and Ihad a phone call from the owner
of the company and he was reallyapologetic and definitely
didn't want me to go.
(04:44):
He was very worried that Iwould leave.
And of course I say of course,but basically myself and the
sales manager I was working withwe managed to turn things
around.
But it is a real situation andsales often it becomes the
whipping boy in someorganizations when things aren't
(05:05):
going well.
And then, just to add to thatpressure, I remember another
company.
We had this new sales guy who anew sales manager, I should say
he'd been a reasonablysuccessful salesperson.
It was one of those companies.
It was a British company.
They tend to promote people.
There's an old saying.
It was a British company, theytend to promote people.
(05:27):
There's an old saying, at leastin some companies, that they
would promote people to theirlevel of incompetence and that's
where this guy went.
So one of his rules, what hetold the internal salespeople so
the people who we would phonein the office to just get
updates on what had come in, anymessages, anything like that he
actually instructed them not tolet the sales people know that
they had got an order, an orderto come in, unless they
(05:50):
specifically asked, which to mewas just absurd.
But this might sound familiar.
You may well work inorganizations like this that
have these ridiculous rules thatjust add pressure onto the
salesperson, because as asalesperson, I would call and
I've got other things on my mind.
(06:10):
I'm trying to get this done,that done, solve a customer
issue, whatever it might be, andit's really helpful if I feel
that the internal salespersonhas got my back, and in that
particular scenario I didn'tfeel like that at all.
There was a really nastyatmosphere in that company and I
guess, to add to that, I didleave fairly soon after that.
(06:33):
So the point of talking aboutall of this is that this
unbreakable salesperson, thispressure to get it right every
time, can lead to more mistakes,because it just adds to the
pressure that salespeople areunder and that in turn can lead
to burnout all of thosesituations and when we're under
(06:56):
stress we tend not to be perhapsas nice a person to be around
and that can impact us not justin our work but in family
relationships, in relationshipswith friends, all sorts of
things, so it's not a good placeto go to, and this is why
vulnerability, I believe, is areally important thing to
(07:18):
consider.
So how can vulnerability be anadvantage?
So I think the first thing isthat we're all people and as
people, we all make mistakes,and I've spoken about this in
podcasts before as well, and I'mthe first person to admit that
(07:38):
I've made many mistakes when Iwas selling, and in fact, I've
said in other places it's one ofthe reasons that one of the
things that contributed to mebeing a good sales manager and
being able to teach salesbecause I had messed up.
I've probably screwed up salesin most of the ways it's
possible to do it, but I havelearned from those experiences
(08:01):
as well, which means that in myown career, I could see a
situation developing and goingthe wrong way, so I knew how to
handle it in a way that pulledit back.
And also as a sales manager, asa general manager, if I was
going out with salespeopledeveloping and going the wrong
way, so I knew how to handle itin a way that pulled it back.
And also as a sales manager, asa general manager, if I was
going out with salespeople, Icould see the signs that things
(08:22):
were not going well and then Icould coach my salespeople into
how to turn that around.
And equally, as a sales trainer, I could recognize the signs in
sales teams that things werestarting to go a little bit
pear-shaped, to use a phrase,and what kind of strategies
could be implemented to turnthose back.
So the first thing is we'rehuman.
We make mistakes.
Things will go wrong from timeto time.
(08:43):
It's just natural.
So being able to be open withpeople, to own up and say I made
a mistake, I think builds trust, particularly with clients.
And the important thing withclients.
Now it depends on your business, but a lot of businesses rely
on long term relationships.
(09:04):
They're not just a one off saleand then that client goes and
they're never coming back again.
One-off sale and then thatclient goes and they're never
coming back again.
Most of the businesses I canthink of and that I've been
involved with have relied a loton repeat business, whether it's
buying additions or extensionsto what they've already got or
replacing a current model with anewer model.
That kind of thing you want tohave clients coming back, and
(09:25):
repeat business is the bestbusiness to have because your
involvement as a salesperson islower than with almost any other
kind of business and theoverheads as well, from a
business perspective, are verylow.
Where you tend to spend all ofyour time and effort tends to be
(09:45):
with getting new clients.
Once you've got them, as longas you nurture them and you
maintain that relationship andyou maintain that trust, they
will come back to you, andgetting that second, third,
fourth sale takes a lot lesseffort than getting the first
one.
And what happens when you own upto a mistake is that people
(10:07):
trust you.
So again, I've seen a lot ofsalespeople who get into this
situation, not just in sales,but in pretty much any aspect of
life.
Almost A lot of people are in akind of fear environment.
It's the kind of environmentsI've just been talking about
that I've experienced in mycareer, and your impulse then is
(10:27):
to cover up the error.
Your impulse then is to coverup the error, blame somebody
else or not own up to it or noteven admit it's there.
And then what happens in thosesituations is things go from bad
to worse, so they willdefinitely get worse, and also
you undermine trust both withyour client and within your own
organization, and that is not agreat place to be either.
(10:49):
So the best thing to do is toalways own organization, and
that is not a great place to beeither.
So the best thing to do is toalways own up.
I made a mistake, this is whatI got wrong, this is what I
should have said, this isactually what should have
happened, and let's go fromthere, because then people can
fix the problem.
You're owning the problem,you're creating an opportunity
to correct things.
(11:10):
But think about it.
If you're dealing with someonewho owns up to a problem when
they realize it's there, how doyou feel about them?
What's your level of trust withthem?
And equally, how do you feelabout somebody who lies to
protect themselves and then downthe track when things can't be
corrected very easily?
Everything blows up in yourface very easily.
(11:32):
Everything blows up in yourface.
So do not regard owning up as aweakness.
It actually improves your trust, both with your client and
within your own organization.
So the important thing whenyou're working with a client and
this is something that I talkabout a lot is you're there to
solve your client's problem.
(11:52):
You are a problem solver foryour client.
So sales, in my opinion, andwhat I teach is it's not about
not being caught out by theclient.
That's insane.
You know you're not there tosomehow manipulate them, sell
them something that will be nogood to them.
You are there to genuinelysolve their problem and if you
(12:12):
listen to the last podcast, Iwas talking about being
genuinely curious.
This is really important.
So you're there to problemsolve.
So if you make a mistake, it'sreally important that you own up
to it and you admit you arevulnerable in that situation.
But it builds up that trust andit means the client is much
more likely to buy from you inthe first instance and then to
(12:34):
come back to you later.
So how do you use that?
How do you use that with aclient?
Well, the simple thing is,first of all, if you don't know
an answer, be open.
I don't know the answer to that, but I'll find out.
And this is something I'dalways do, and what I would
always do as well is to committo a time to come back to the
(12:58):
client.
So it might be midday thefollowing day, as an example,
something like that, and then Iwould always come back.
Now, I didn't always have theanswer.
When I was working in Australia, for example, a lot of the
companies I was dealing withwere based in Europe or in the
US or somewhere else.
So there's a time difference.
There's quite a substantialtime difference.
So I would rely on sending amail out to somebody and
(13:20):
hopefully getting an answer backovernight.
But if that didn't happen,there was nobody there.
I could then chase up directly.
I'd have to go through thatprocess again.
But I always just go back to myclient and say look, I said I'd
go back to you today by thistime of day and I have.
Unfortunately, I haven't had aresponse from the manufacturer
it might be or whoever else itis.
(13:42):
So I've taken action to justprompt them again.
I've also escalated it withinmy own organization.
So somebody else is alsochasing this for me and I will
come back to you again same timetomorrow, if that's okay, and
just give you an update on wherewe're at.
But again, what you're sayingto them is look, I haven't got
the answer for you straight away.
(14:02):
I am owning this and I willkeep on this until I get a
satisfactory answer for you.
That's essentially the process.
So this again builds up trustand confidence in most clients
and I always ask people to justput yourself in the client
(14:23):
situation.
How would you feel if theperson you were dealing with,
who's there trying to help yousolve your problem, but they've
got to go back to maybe theoriginal equipment manufacturer
or somebody else to get someanswers?
How do you feel about that?
If the person keeps coming backto you on time and giving you
an update, even if you're notgetting the information that you
(14:43):
need straight away?
You've still got that faith inthat person that they are on
your team, they're trying tohelp you to get this solution.
So that's really important.
So how does that work if you'rea sales manager and you have a
sales team?
So how does that work if you'rea sales manager and you have a
(15:05):
sales team?
This is something that for me,when I first got into a
management role, was reallyimportant.
It was creating an atmospherewhere we could have that kind of
open conversation Because, asI've said, I've been in really
unhealthy and quite toxicmanagement environments, and
these environments are createdby the manager.
That's where it starts andthat's where it stops.
So I would always encouragepeople to talk about problems,
(15:32):
to share problems.
We're there to fix it.
I am side by side with thepeople who report to me and we
would always go through.
I remember talking to one personwho I promoted to a more senior
role within my group and infact they were younger than some
of the other people in thegroup.
(15:53):
They were quite new relativelynew to sales, but I could see
real potential in them and oneof the things that I made it
clear within the group was thatif, for any reason, a
salesperson needed to come to mefor authorization on a deal or
whatever it might be, and theycouldn't get hold of me and they
needed to get hold of someoneurgently, it was to then go to
(16:13):
this other person and they wereauthorized to act on my behalf
and give this salespersonauthorization to make a kind of
non-standard deal.
And the conversation I had withthe guy who was manager was
simply that, look, I don't knowwhat the situation is likely to
(16:34):
be, so just give it the bestdecision you can, the best
decision you can Work on theinformation you have, make a
decision and go from there.
Now, this decision will eitherbe a good one or it might not be
.
Again, this is coming back tothe fact that we're people, so
(16:54):
if it's a bad decision, whatwe're going to do is I will go
through the decision with youand we'll take that apart.
I'm not going to take you apart.
We're going to go through thedecision and look at where it
went wrong.
So and this is pretty much howI work with everyone If we make
a bad decision, let's go throughthe decision, let's look at
what could have been donedifferently, so that it becomes
(17:16):
a learning experience andhopefully we all move forward
and we all do better things.
So these are just ideas thatyou can use if you are in a
sales management role.
But if you work for yourself, dothe same with yourself.
If something goes wrong, justtake some time to reflect on it,
look at what you could havedone differently, make sure that
(17:37):
you learn from it.
You don't repeat those mistakes.
Make sure that you learn fromit.
You don't repeat those mistakes.
So I guess final things tothink about.
What can you take away fromthis and apply straight away?
Well, just first of all,acknowledge that you're human.
If you're a sales manager,create an environment where
people can own up, where you cancreate those more vulnerable
(17:58):
relationships.
But they're much, much deeperand much, much stronger and they
will definitely pay off in thelong term.
If you're working on your own,definitely remember to be honest
with your clients, because thisis how you build up trust.
This is how you get thoserepeat orders without doing a
lot of effort.
Plus, what you'll get fromclients who do trust you is that
(18:23):
they'll refer you to otherpeople, and a referral is the
next best kind of sale, orcertainly the next best thing to
come into your business,because you're getting people
approaching you for a solutionand they're already warm.
They're already warm to you.
They've heard good things aboutyou.
Obviously, your solution needsto fit what they need, but,
assuming that happens, you'remore than halfway there in terms
(18:46):
of making the sale.
It's almost just ticking thefinal boxes and closing the sale
.
So do not underestimate thepower of being vulnerable with
your clients and being honestand open, but be reliable.
So the phrase I always use isunder promise over deliver, and
I would definitely recommendthat.
So look, I hope you found thatuseful.
(19:06):
Maybe it's got you thinkingabout what you can do.
If it has, please like,subscribe all the other good
things.
That really does help me aswell.
Get my message across andplease take a look at the online
course.
I'll give that a final pitch.
Okay, thank you again for yourtime and I'll speak to you in
the next podcast.
Bye for.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com