Let’s admit it: We all got excited when we saw Leo nearly-dead- high crawling to his Lamborghini Diablo and closing pressure-driven deals on the phone.
However, that excitement and the whole “Wolf of Wall Street” perception of the sales industry might be exactly what is ruining your sales career.
You see, according to sales expert and founder of the SellingThroughService™ sales methodology, Cris Urzua, Hollywood has been the last shovel of dirt on top of the industry’s reputation.
Why? Because not only has it thrown a massive glass of red wine into the already stained table cloth that the sales industry is but because it’s movies also give out such an outdated view of the sales process – That it’s hurting many sales people’s performance.
So to prove our point here, we asked SellingThroughService™ creator Cris Urzua what his 7 biggest thoughts where on how wolfie and friends could be destroying your sales career:
1. Wolfie would not stand a chance in the internet era.
The modern consumer will now Google you and your company in 2 seconds and guess what? Negative online reviews usually kill every 1 out of 10 potential deals.
“In sales if you don’t have your buyer’s trust, you don’t have anything at all. And you know what is in direct relationship with this? Your reputation. Lose that and you’re gone forever.” – Said Cris.
2. Manipulation destroys customer loyalty (forever).
“One of the biggest human truths there is, is that we all want to feel in control.
We all want to make better and smarter decisions and we definitely do not want to look back and said “I shouldn’t have done that” or “I was impulsive and got caught in the moment”.
So although pressure might still make some people buy, it will ultimately destroy the quality of the relationship between yourself and your client –Making their loyalty say “Sayonara salesman”.
3. Jordan Belfort new ZERO internet marketing.
Telemarketing is still well and alive today, however, the Stratton Oakmont guys would not have survived without a massive team of digital marketers, SEO experts and community managers generating leads for them.
“Selling is social and social brings communication which forces brands and salespeople to raise their game if they want to stay competitive” mentioned Cris about this point.
4. Bluffing and bragging can actually hurt the sales process.
Although lots of sales people still like wearing that golden Rolex and that big bright Gucci belt, this can actually hurt the sales process depending on your industry.
“Within a sales process there is only room for one ego – Your clients. And you have to think about it:
People trust what they know, what feels “normal” to them. So depending on your context “normal” might be a t-shirt and jeans or a golden Rolex. Sales people need to be smarter about how they dress,
what they “brag” about and how they build rapport with their clients” mentioned Urzua during our interview.
5. We moved past the “sell me now, help me later” sales model, into the “add value all the time” sales model. “In the eighties, everything was about taking, taking, taking.
Little to no value was added during the sales process. Nowadays people want you to prove your worth before they even purchase from you and I truly believe that that is exactly what every sales people should do – Make your client’s life better before you even ask them for anything in exchange.
It can be done, in every industry, you just need to get creative”.
6. A long career in sales is about sustaining energy and not burning out.
“Selling is nothing but an exchange of energy between 2 people. He or she who has the most positive, convincing and loving energy, combined with a great methodology, will ultimately win the conversation.
However, in sales your biggest challenge will be holding on to that energy throughout the years and not burning out, like we saw Leo do in that movie.
You have no idea how many people I’ve seen act like wolfie for 6 months to 3 years to then burn out and hate the sales industry forever. It’s not the way to do it.”
7. Karma, just, karma.
And to wrap things up – we even talked about karma with Cris: “It’s simply not ok to sell a product or a service that doesn’t work or that kind of works.
It’s not ok to even sell for companies that hurt the world or other people’s lives.
The world needs great sales people and great entrepreneurs selling great ideas that push the world forward, not the other way around. And hey – Nobody wants bad karma right?”