As a sales professional your role is to drive sales to meet your business goals. Different people have different ideas about how to motivate people but most of the greatest people share one similar method which I will share with you today.

For you to inspire other people to do what you want them to do you need to first figure out what inspires you? Think about why you come to work? Think about what drives you and motivates you? I bet you’re thinking, well I want to make loads of money, right? That is a result of what you do and not why you come to work.

To clarify what I mean I will use the example of the late, great, Steve Jobs at Apple.
He had a very clear sense of why. This resulted in him building one of the most successful companies of all time. Let me start by saying how he doesn’t do it and then move on to how he does do it.

“Here at Apple we make great computers. They are beautifully designed, easy to use and very user-friendly. Want to buy one?”

This is not the most convincing sales pitch is it? Luckily for Jobs this is not how he did it.

Now let me move on to how he actually does it.

“At Apple we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in trying to find ways of challenging what people’s expectations of what the technology in their life can help them achieve. The way we do this is we design beautiful products, that are very user friendly and easy to use. We just happen to make computers. Would you like to buy one?”

A slightly more compelling pitch I hope you agree.

As much as I would like to claim to have created this concept I can not. An amazing guy called Simon Sinek created the concept of the golden circles. With the example above the first pitch starts with what they do and then how hey do it. The second pitch starts with WHY they do what they do. They then move on to how they do it and finally what they do.

This reversal of the message is not witchcraft, it is simply giving people an opportunity to understand why you do what you do and then what you actually do serves as proof of why you do what you do.

To quote him on one of his mantras

“Your goal is not to do business with people who want what you have but to do business with people who believe what you believe”

If you try to sell people to people who just need what you have then you don’t stand much chance of winning the deal when they find a competitor of yours who decides to undercut you by a couple of percent. However if you find somebody who believes in what you believe then price becomes less relevant. When your competitors offer your prospect a cheaper deal they are already buying from you in their head.

If this concept has inspired you to rethink why you do what you do then check out the full story from the horse’s mouth. This 18 minute video has changed the way I do business forever. When I first watched it, I watched it three times in a row. Then I went out and bought his book.

If you are unable to see the video follow this link to YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4

Part two of this blog is here – http://chrisheffer.com/2012/05/01/motivate-people-to-buy-2/

 

 

If you liked this video I have put together a YouTube playlist with some other videos of him and a couple of other inspiring videos.

To see the playlist above you can follow this link to YouTube http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL96310696DB312D26

What do you think of this concept? Does it make sense to you? Have you tried this out to see if it works? Let me know your thoughts on the video in the comments below.

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10 Comments

  1. Typically companies invest all their energy into recruiting the right sales team to create success, where the most successful within that team implement FAB with charisma.

    This turns that on its head. If the company convey their beliefs with charisma, then worst case scenario, that sales team are already half way there before they even speak with a customer. The potential suddenly rockets. Love this. Ill be watching again.

    1. Thanks for your comment. I watched this video 3 times in a row the first time and many times since.

      I think the world of business and especially sales and marketing is missing a trick if they do not embrace these ideas. It is a great way to quickly understand who is and who isn’t going to buy from you. The people that do buy will become loyal customers because they believe what you believe and the people who don’t, they either wasn’t ever going to buy from you if they do they will ditch you when they get a cheaper deal else where.

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