Don’t Parrot What Others Are Saying 🦜

Today’s Skill: Honest Reflection

This is Nilla. She is a Goffins Cockatoo and is super smart (did you know parrots have the intellect of a 3-year old human?). She also has quite the personality and isn’t afraid to speak up when she wants attention. It can get loud at times 😅

And, she is now a part of our family (I inherited her through marriage).

Having been around her for the past 18 months, I’ve observed something super interesting. When we bring her out in public, we get a lot of attention (well, she does!).

People are constantly coming up to us to ask questions or take pictures and we hear murmurs and get looks as people walk by.

And, of course, it’s so obvious why. → She is totally unique.

Almost nobody has a pet parrot, or bird for that matter.

She stands out in the sea of humans and dogs walking around.

→ And it got me thinking (if you’re following my odd metaphor today 😅)…

How do you stand out in your entire sales process?

• Why should someone do business with you?

• Do you make them feel a certain way?

• Do you articulate the value clearly?

• Is it easy for them to buy?

Many of you are likely preparing for the new year and getting intentional about your brand or services or strategy.

So, I thought this week, it would be great practice to reflect on your entire sales engine and figure out where you can remove friction, confusion and frustration.

Jot down some notes. Review them. Be thoughtful about what comes from it.

I want you to OWN who you are and I want you to be PROUD of what impact you make.

Now, we just have to be able to clearly show that when you’re talking to your buyers.

When you do those things well, it becomes uniquely you, like Nilla.

→ That’s what people end up buying at the end of the day.

Questions To Ask Yourself

1) Where in my current sales process do I unintentionally create confusion?

If you were the buyer walking through your process today, where would you feel guided and where would you feel lost?

→ Think of areas where the client might get quiet and the conversations turns awkward.

→ Think about times when you get questions that seem obvious to you but weren’t to your buyer.

2) What parts of my conversations consistently feel easy and which parts feel reactive, rushed, or uncertain?

There are times where you get in the zone. Maybe that’s doing the demo or maybe it’s on a 2nd call when you are more comfortable. Who knows?

→ Can you decipher between the moments of ease and the moments of anxiety?

3) When I think about my best clients, what did they say about why they chose me and am I living up to that consistently?

You may not realize it but your current clients are already saying great things (or they have at some point.) Are you showing up as that same person or has something changed?

→ When we add pressure to our plate, we can change from an earlier version. Do you feel you are showing up in the best way possible in your client interactions.

4) If a buyer had to describe my process back to me, would they be able to?

This one might hurt a little (sorry). Can you even describe your processes. Do you have them baked out?

→ When you are dialed in, the focus turns to the client and less on “what do I need to say next?”

→ Can you jot down a general sales process (all interactions) and also the core pieces of each of those interactions (think about steps of a call, as an example).

5) Where do buyers consistently slow down, stall, or ghost and how could my process be contributing to that?

Frictionless processes make it easier on the buyer to actually buy.

→ Is there a certain pattern with where you might lose prospects during the sales process?

→ Ex: 6 out of 10 pricing calls always end with “We’ll get back to you.” That’s a problem. Recognizing it is the first major step.

6) What expectations do I set that competitors don’t and am I delivering on them in a repeatable way?

This is a big one. There might be hundreds of actual competitors depending on your field but is there a certain uniqueness to the way you do it that nobody touches.

→ This could be in your messaging, your approach to discovery or how you structure services or pricing.

→ This might not be obvious (because of the head trash we talk about ourselves) but why do you stand out?

7) When my buyers hesitate, do I provide confidence or do I unintentionally add doubt?

This ties in with objections I spoke about a few weeks ago. (read it here). How do you handle the difficult conversations or pushback?

→ I hear so many people claim they lost a deal because of pricing or no interest but with some digging you realize it was because the buyer lost confidence based on how you answered their questions.

→ What practice are you doing to handle objections or the tough questions?

8) If a buyer chose a competitor instead, what part of my process would I genuinely critique?

What would “future me” wish I had done differently?

→ I find that how you answer this informs two things.

1. The area you might need to double-down focus on.

2. Are you asking enough exploratory questions about how they are making a decision or their evaluation criteria?

9) What is the one thing I do for clients that feels so normal to me I forget it’s valuable?

In a personal setting, this question might be framed as, “What one thing are my friends/peers always calling on me to do/help with?”

→ It could be your professionalism, your attention-to-detail, or anything that feels normal but could be a differentiator.

→ This could be a great question to ask for a testimonial, btw!

10) How much of my sales approach is proactive and intentional and how much is based on reacting to whatever the buyer does?

When I talk about being that leader or “guide” this is a big part of it.

→ How good are you at managing the entire sales process in a leadership capacity versus waiting on the buyer to do/ask/respond to the next thing?

You set yourself apart from the rest by making small, micro changes consistently over time. This could be that one step forward for you in the right direction.

Reply and let me know which reflection question resonated the most.

Your Action Item

Don’t skip this. Bookmark it and make it a part of your reflection not only now but periodically in the future.

BTW any of these reflections could be crafted into a great Linkedin post. It allows people to gain some visibility into your business, how you think about improving and showing off that uniqueness at the same time.