Hey everybody, Charlie Hauck, President, Lead Trainer, and Founder of Growth Dynamics. It's another one of those Fast Tip Fridays for you.
You know, one of the things I've really enjoyed about being in this business for as long as I have—36 years, it'll be 37 in October—is that the ideas and the concepts that we share with our clients aren't scripted. They're not, "Memorize these things, learn how to recite them, and blow people away with your powerful..." You know, look, selling is hard. It's really hard.
I don't care if you're selling the simplest things or the most complex. I don't care if you're in high-volume, high-velocity transactions or real long capital expenditure, extended sales cycle stuff. Sales is hard because a lot of what we've been scripted to do actually works against us instead of making life more successful for you in the profession of business development.
And so, in my hours and hours and hours of standing in front of groups or coaching people, every now and then a phrase will just come out of nowhere from my brain to my mouth into the conversation that I'm having.
One that recently occurred was an idea called powerful vulnerability.
Those two words are kind of oxymoronic when connected. Clean dirt. Loose tights. Jumbo shrimp. Powerful vulnerability. It doesn't sound like those words should go together.
But I think if you're going to be in business development, you've got to understand they absolutely go together.
So what does it mean?
You can be very powerful and appear very vulnerable, which means you're not giving up control of the process, but you're using kind of a reverse psychology technique to allow people to feel more comfortable and less threatened by you.
Most people think if a salesperson, a killer professional, a deal closer, a big hitter walks in, their freedom of choice is over, and they don't have the power or the capability to put their hand up and say, "No, sir, I don't think this is for me."
So they're intimidated. And in a lot of cases, they won't even schedule an appointment with someone like that, which is probably bad news for both people.
Powerful vulnerability makes you less threatening, more embracing. It makes you easier to get along with, and it's very respectful of the other person that you're communicating with.
And so I'm pushing back on all of you that have been trained to blow people away with your feature-and-benefit brilliance. "If you knew all that I know about this product or service, you'd see how right I am, and you'd realize that you should just do what I think would be best for you."
I can't think of anything that makes a sales process longer and less profitable than that.
Powerful vulnerability puts you in a position to ask for help.
"Can you explain that to me?"
"Can you tell me why that affects your business or how it affects your business?"
"Can you tell me what you've tried to do and tell me how well it worked?"
It really gives you the opportunity to be nurturing by asking people what's most important to them, or what they believe they know, instead of telling them that what they think they know isn't really what they should know.
So my advice to all of you is to stop fighting for control of the business development process and turn it into a very comforting, nurturing, and, on your side, vulnerable conversation that actually gives you the power of acquiring more information than they ever thought they would give to someone who's in sales.
We all can... I take that back. I make this mistake too often. I'm old. A lot of you are not old, and you might not remember a television character named Detective Columbo, played by Peter Falk.
Peter Falk solved every case that appeared in his weekly episodes by being powerfully vulnerable.
He never tried to intimidate a witness. He never told them, "I know you're guilty." He never said, "You have this information. You must give it to me."
He always struggled.
"Can you help me with something?"
"I seem to be confused."
"What part did I miss?"
And everybody thought, "This guy's too much of a bumbling idiot to be a threat to my safety or to arrest me for committing this crime."
You'll catch more people being Columbo than you will by being some brutish hammer trying to force decisions out of people and forcing them to sign a purchase order because you're sitting there.
Give up the ego fight and nurture people to feel comfortable enough to share with you, and you'll shorten your decision cycles. You'll create more trust, and you'll be a lot more relaxed and engaged with the people that you really want to do business with.
So might isn't right when it comes to business development.
Being safe, non-threatening, and willing to listen will get you where you want to go quicker.
Thanks for listening. Have a great weekend. Make a lot of money next week by being vulnerable.
Take care.
