OurBlog

Stop Selling, Start Helping

Are you tired of being “sold” to?

Everyone is trying to sell someone something. Sales leaders drive their team to “sell” more. More calls, more meetings, more proposals, more business. Sell, sell, sell. Business leaders try to sell their team to achieve goals. Internal company politics are fueled by people “selling” each other to get what they want.

STOP: You don’t have to sell!

Whether your challenge is to increase sales, drive organizational change, build a team, or expand your personal relationships, the winning strategy always involves helping others.

Reflect back on the last time someone genuinely helped you solve a problem. How did you feel afterward? Grateful? Lucky? Did you want to reciprocate?

Success is when someone tells you: “No one ever cared like that before.”

  • If you are in sales, do your customers say that about you?
  • If you are managing others, does your team feel that way about your leadership?

More than words, it is your authentic actions that generate loyalty, influence, and sustainable change.

Those who have attended my workshops have seen me go to the whiteboard and write the word “SELLing” in big black letters. I then draw a line through the word “SELL” and replace those four letters with the word “HELP” underneath. (SELLing —> HELPing)

If you want sustainable results, you have to help othersnot sell them.

This isn’t a Jedi mind trick; it is a simple mind-set shift that the most successful people I know routinely exhibit. Are you one of them?

Doctors and nurses don’t sell you drugs and prescriptions; they help you get better so you recommend them. Great coaches don’t sell you the X’s and O’s of their system; they develop your skills and help you believe in your dreams. A young person doesn’t bring their resume on a date; they attempt to cultivate a meaningful connection, which may lead them to have a second date. It all starts with emotions—sincere emotions.

I encourage you to do something nice for someone that sincerely comes from your heart. Do something unexpected. Create a memorable experience. Touch someone in a meaningful way. Notice how it makes them feel. More importantly, note how it makes you feel.

Stop SELLing, start HELPing!

If you sell someone something, you make a customer today. However, if you authentically help someone, you create a client for life. Which would you rather have?