As you probably know from experience, emotions exert a powerful influence on decision making. That includes the sales process, which is something sales professionals are starting to realize. In Heart and Sell: 10 Universal Truths Every Salesperson Needs to Know sales professionals are taught to leverage their own emotions to tap into a higher and more engaging level of success.
What is Heart and Sell About?
Emotions are uncomfortable for sales professionals.
You can’t measure the effectiveness of an emotion. They are confusing and often hide beneath tthe service. Sales professionals have to guess when they’ll pop up. Customers often don’t want to show them either.
Yet, emotions are powerful. Without them, people have difficulty making decisions. (Ask a psychologist!) Without emotions, you can’t make the connection motivating you to act.
That’s why sales trainer and professor Shari Levitin wants sales professionals to stop running away from emotions.
Instead, Levitin urges sales professionals to embrace emotions in themselves and their customers. Sales professionals who tap into their “heart” engage themselves deeper in the sales process. They care. They take responsibility for their sales performance and the customers they encounter.
Because sales professionals with “heart” are connected to their emotions, they are more in tune with their customer’s emotions. They can reach their customers on a deeper level than sales professionals who focus on making a rational argument with their customers. Integrating emotions into the sales process also gives them a distinctive advantage, especially when it comes to rejection.
As the book explains, rejection in sales doesn’t mean “no.” It could mean several things from “I don’t want to hear this right now” to “I am not sure what I want yet.” A sales professional who doesn’t tap into the emotional side of the sales process might ignore the subtle cues given off by the customer, providing more details about what’s really going on.
Becoming a sales professional able to leverage the emotional side of the sale takes practice. This process requires more flexibility than following a sales script. It requires breaking out of ingrained habits and letting go of your ego to connect with others. It requires a lot, but the payoff (more sales, better job satisfaction, etc.) is worth the effort.
Levitin is a sales strategist, keynote speaker, trainer and adjunct professor at the University of Utah. Levitin began her sales career with no experience in 1990. A year later, she was the top-selling sales person in her territory. Shortly thereafter, she was the top-selling person in her company. Levitin’s other accomplishments include her role as a professor for the first graduate sales course at the University of Utah. The course was titled, “Pitch Perfect”.
What Was Best About Heart and Sell?
Heart and Sell isn’t simply a book that invites sales professionals to be more emotionally invested. Levitin demonstrates why emotions are important to the sales process. She also shares how emotions can be leveraged to make a big impact during a sale and throughout one’s professional career. By investing in themselves and in their customers, sales professionals will gain more mastery (rather than less) of the relationships in their lives, Levitin explains in Heart and Sell.
What Could Have Been Done Differently?
Heart and Sell offers a plethora of strategies that sales professionals might be interested in, even if you pick up only a single tip or recommendation. This is a powerful thing. To make it even more powerful, more information could be provided on adapting the books’ techniques to various sales situations, which can range from a few minutes to months and involve several touch points including social media, email and blogs. A bit more information would also help sales professionals integrate their sales strategies into a comprehensive sales platform linking the book’s principles with the technology at a sales person’s fingertips.
Why Read Heart and Sell?
For a salesperson, Heart and Sell offers a concrete approach to the invisible but critical aspects of sales. The book provides both the principles and strategies for leveraging emotion within yourself and others to pursue your goals. Like another book, Ninja Selling: Subtle Skills. Big Results. by Larry Kendall, Heart and Sell focuses on daily habits and common sense to help sales professionals maintain their proficiency. But unlike the other book, Heart and Sell also examines strategies for navigating the wide range of emotional issues that can come up during sales. This includes knowing how to handle rejection, balancing urgency with a respect for a customer’s time, integrity, core motivators and more. A lot is covered in this book! If you are a sales professional or sales trainer who wants to understand how emotions and ”heart“ can improve your sales techniques, this book can definitely offer some words of wisdom.
This article, “Heart and Sell: Embracing Emotions Can Boost Your Selling Skills” was first published on Small Business Trends