Everyone does not have it, and it will come to light in a time of need.  Courage is the intangible that you must have to achieve your potential.  Those that have it waste less time, exercise more effectiveness, and create better more trusting relationships.  Read and find out why!

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We don’t talk about courage as the most important trait that a sales professional might need, but I will say emphatically that it is in the top couple of traits you need.  We might term it as ‘guts’.  It is the trait that keeps the sales professional in the game.

It is an ‘automatic’ in the careers for many of the best and because of that it is often taken for granted, but it is one of those traits that some professionals are born with, but it also can be developed.  Yes, sales professionals can develop this important trait, and many do.

Whether it is fairly natural, or developed over time, it is essential if you are in sales for the long haul.

What is Sales Courage?

We are not talking about going into burning buildings to save lives; we are talking about the situations that our profession places us in every day.  Sales couragemanifests itself in so many different ways.  I think it is more easily characterized by asking a few important questions.

You will enhance your career if you have the sales courage to:

• Ask the tough, difficult, and penetrating questions
• Clarify who is making the decision
• Make the next 10 cold calls (then the next 10)
• Walk away!
• Recognize and display your value
• Always be ethical and do the right thing!

Ask the tough, penetrating, and difficult questions – Example, “If we are successful in satisfying the questions you have posed, will we be awarded the contract?”  So many cannot bring themselves a question like this.  If the customer says yes, you can leverage it, and if they say no, you have some more questions to ask.  Ask!

Clarify who is making the decision – There is a way to do everything.  Feel some comfort in having the courage to ask who is going to make the final decision, and what in the product or service is going to make the difference.  Recognize that if you ask it correctly, you will find out whether your ‘buyer’ is gathering the information for his or her manager, is a party involved in the process, or the sole decision maker.  You might say, “Mr. Johnson, is the final decision yours, or are there others involved?”  You might also ask, “I know that price is important, but what other factors are going to determine the outcome for the winning proposal?”

Make the next 10 cold calls- You already know that you will not survive in sales without sourcing prospects.  Making the next 10 calls is a commitment to your trade, and the way you will stay in the game.  Have the courage to make them.  Why 10 calls?  A good reason would be that if you are making your calls in batches of 10 you can easily track your success ratios and keep your statistics on the basis of percentages.  This will help you generate your formula.  After several batches of 10, you will see patterns, your own patterns, which are the only ones that count.  You might take a look at BSJ – 2/28/2011 How Many Prospects do I Really Need.

Walk away! – Yes, you need the courage to say “no” and to walk away from situations that do not fit you or in the end will not work for your and your company.  Do it as early as possible in the process after you recognize the problem, and do it like the professional that you are.  There is no pride in wasting your time.  You might check out BSJ – 11/3/2011 Wanted Sales Professional to Work for Free!.

Recognize and display your value – As a Black sales professional you will be used and abused even when you do your best work, or have the best price.  Some buyers will still not work with you or buy from you no matter what you do.  But many will, and you are doing it for them.  Always display your value as a professional and work through your situations.  Everyone is not a good candidate to work with you!  Never lose the perspective that you have pride and plenty of it, and deserve your chances for success.  If you do the right things, you will have it.

Be ethical and do the right thing! - This one is important as it embodies a courage that touches your customer, employer, and even your family.  You cannot run from this one in any aspect of your existence if you are going to be a consummate sales professional.  Have the courage to tell the truth and always do the right thing!

It Will Feel Right!

Seasoned sales professionals learn that when you do these things, you should feel ‘right’.  Courage in the face of the daily sales activities is a necessity.  It avoids the wasting of time, promotes clarity, assures agreement, and just makes sense.

Black sales professionals need to exercise courage, as it can be a perpetual struggle, especially early in their careers.  I will explain that by saying that as long as preference, negative perceptions, and prejudice exist, courage is the word of the day.

This is what gets you through the day, and takes you to tomorrow while you face the fact that your close ratios may be lower than your peers.  Knowing the techniques and the landscape you can be as, or more, successful than all of them.

Always exhibit sales courage!

Your comments are welcome.  You can reach me at michael.parker@blacksalesjournal.com.  Thanks.

Are you ever tempted to cheat?  Do you know some of your sales associates who have “went out of bounds” in this profession where they may be convinced that no one is watching?  Never give in to the temptation!

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I worked for a sales organization that believed in having sprint contests as well as sales incentives.  It was the nature of the beast to have a contest that had incentive trips, as many organizations have, as well as to have a contest to introduce, or spur the sales of slower moving products.

But this contest was different; it involved a sprint contest that would ‘pay’ on the basis of activity and not actual sales of the product.  In other words, you could get paid on the basis of working on something as opposed to the success of selling it.  Quite strange that an organization would be so desperate to get its sales professionals to work on a new product that they pay on the basis of working on it as opposed to the norm of selling the product.

Here is what I witnessed:

Sales reps in our office were buzzing as they talked about this new ‘program’ that they would be paid to deliver quotations on a new retirement product for small businesses and entrepreneurs.  You got paid for selling it, and if you did not sell it, you got paid in prizes and merchandise for getting to business owners to sit down and discuss it with you even if you did not sell it.  What could be better than that?

The unintended consequence of the contest was that unscrupulous sales professionals could easily augment their real activity with false activity in order to walk with some valuable prizes. As a matter of fact they could totally fabricate enough activity to walk away with stereos, televisions, sporting equipment, and gift certificates.  And that is just what happened.

The sales staff was tempted to ‘pad’ activity and those without morals did just that and were rewarded with a bounty of electronics and other items.  As a sales manager and a manager of sales managers for that same organization later in my career, it was clearly the example for what program never to undertake again.

Play Fair… Everywhere!

“I would prefer even to fail with honor than to win by cheating.”
Sophocles

Yes, companies can decide what programs not to implement again, but the bigger story here is not that there was a ‘dumb’ program; it is that when the moment availed itself, these sales professionals ‘cheated’ for trinkets.

They took the opportunity to ‘fudge’ their activity sheets for some items that they could already afford!  That is the problem with cheating.  Sales professionals work by a system, and the system can be ‘gamed’.   Even more, in most cases no one is watching many of the activities.

Mr. or Mrs. Clean

The impression that you will want to leave on your employer will be based on a squeaky clean image, which negates any perception that you might cheat.  The perception that you may cheat is as damaging as cheating itself.  You need to be Mr. or Mrs. Clean.  I have had this conversation with Black sales professionals on numerous occasions while mentoring.

With that in mind, you should note that if I were your sales manager, perception of your propensity to cheat would be based on some important points:

• If you will cheat your fellow sales professional or co-employee, you will cheat me!

• If you will cheat the IRS you will cheat me!

• If you will cheat on your wife, you will cheat me!

Cheating obviously occurs in more than the workplace.  In the areas that are above we must consider the possibility that if it is known you violated the truth, you can possibly do it to your employer.  You may have no intent to do it to your employer, but the perception that you could do it is what can damage you.

Your personal life is yours, but says a lot about you.  It helps you establish your credibility (Read This - BSJ 4/16– Credibility …You Can’t Buy it, You’ve Got to Earn It!) as well as build a positive perception of yourself as I stated BSJ 4/9/2012 Build a Positive Perception.

Cheating in the workplace includes, but is not limited to the following:

• Expense management
• Handling of company property (cars, computers, etc.)
• Your time management (while you are supposed to be working)
• Your sales prospect data

Protect you future and your career.  Put your energy into maintaining credibility and winning the right way.  Remember, it is always easier to tell the truth! (Read it in BSJ 6/30/2011 Telling the Truth…It Works Wonders for a Relationship).

Be the Best.

I welcome your comments. Contact me at michael.parker@blacksalesjournal.com.