I feel good! about selling (part 1)

21 Dec 2016

Part 1: Feedback on selling, from the 4N Community:

A few weeks ago I started a 4Networking Facebook Community post asking: “What is your biggest sales challenge?” The vast majority of people answered: “Closing!”

So why is closing such an issue? We might feel good about everything that’s happened up to that point, but then, aarrgh, it gets awkward! We might get butterflies at this stage and may even avoid it, not taking action, and then we have the nightmare of how/when we follow up later - and at what point are we chasing?

We need to re-set our thinking: the secret and the answer is to look at our 40-seconds, or in the case of 4NTV Live, our 40-words, as that is our purpose! We explain there how we help people to improve their business and/or their lives by using our products/services. That’s the whole point of what we do- the outcome we create.

If we’re going to feel good about selling, we first need to re-set and change our mindset and accept the fact that we are all salespeople! If we invoice for goods and services provided then a sale has taken place. If we are in a support or management role without direct customer contact we are still salespeople because those roles involve selling too. If we have to influence, persuade or motivate we are selling an idea and still have to get agreement or nothing changes!

I’m a big music fan and the inspiration for the title of this article is from the funk and soul powerhouse James Brown. Did you know he had 99 hit songs? 99! And his most widely known song is “I Feel Good!” Are you hearing it in your head now? 

James Brown was a salesman because he knew what his audience (customers) wanted and how to serve them. He wrote catchy, quality music- his product, he was 100% himself, and he kept delivering amazing performances - these were ways for people to continue using his product: retention. His customers felt good when they heard the song, it resonated with them so they felt good about buying it.

When we buy something we want it's  because it will solve/ improve something or create an opportunity and so we feel good about the decision.

Our next bit of re-setting is to understand that closing isn’t the final awkward step to be jittery about... it’s the exciting first step that gets agreement to working with (serving) your customer.

It’s vital that we see the people we are considering working with already as our customer not as a prospect, not someone we have to earn the right to speak with or worse still someone we have to win. Winning someone over is hard work and let’s face it - how easily are YOU swayed on a decision once you’ve made your mind up?

So there’s our next piece - the easiest way to get agreement to proceed is for it to be their decision and for that to happen we need to find out stacks and stacks about our customer - really sexy stuff such as their goals, their motives and their challenges.

In part 2 of this article we look at how we can do this, so please go to