Attrition is the enemy..live with it.

It's a tough moment in any organization.  The word gives a negative feeling no ones enjoys.

Leadership hears this word and they think: "Cover my ass."-I'm DONE for .

Sales managers hear it and think: "More work and less pay for me."

Sales associates use it on their prospects to eventually break them down to take a meeting or buy a product.

I have to be honest. I used to sell in an aggressive way.  I thought sales was a gladiators game and I ultimately won by over-matching my opponent(prospect)  I obtained this thinking from always hearing the best quality a salesperson can have is persistence.  So I began to persist that people should talk to me and hear me out.  I believed I could change peoples views by imposing my will.  I was setting this up like a war strategy.  I'm using a lot of strong, and competitive words here.  I already broke a rule.

Rule 1: Understand your audience

I was misinformed.  I forgot that you can't sell to every single person the same way.  Sales has come a long way from how it used to be.  Trust me, I don't want to reminiscence like every other sales associate who misses less informed customers that were easier to convert.  Customers are a lot smarter now and abrasiveness has NEVER been the way-Even more so now.

Rule 2: Make the customer feel as if they reached the "Aha!" moment.

With abrasiveness, came a sense of "cocky."  People love confident people but they dislike cocky people.  Who am I criticize an executive with 20 plus years of experience.  One of the few sales books I love "Sales Challenger" helped me realize executive leadership struggles with various changes within their workforce.  No one likes to be told what they have been doing wrong.  There's a way to "politely" challenge people.  One of my mentors that's a consultant always told me, "Make them feel like they solved the problem-not you."  More and more companies face turnover, and problems they don't know how to solve.   Let's help steer them in the right direction.

Rule 3: ABC is not the right alphabet.

Always be closing...No more.

Customers don't like to be closed on and pressured.  There's so many competitor products out there, they will tune you out and move on to the next less pushy salesperson.  I've learned this lesson the hard way and it's helped me understand I can't control the sales process.  If they are going through transition, I shouldn't be closing.  I should be hearing them out and seeing where the obstacles may be for the future.  You can't close an organization if they have retirement, leadership changes, or workforce being cut.