When it comes to sales, we often associate the stereotype of a salesperson who is overconfident, controlling, and unreceptive to any rebuttals. In fact, everyone sells in a variety of different formats every day, and successful people are better at selling themselves, their ideas, and their products. The latest "Counter-Intuitive Selling" released by China Translation Publishing House is a successful method about sales. When sales are done in the right way, for the right reasons, it can make a real difference. Sales can change the environment, change the mind, change the life, and make everything better. If everyone can look at sales with a counter-intuitive sales mindset, then the sales industry can get rid of stereotypes and gain more respect.
All the best sales wizards in the world have a sales mindset that is exactly the opposite of what we think – they use counter-intuitive sales thinking! Coincidentally, Marshall School of Business professors Colin Goggins and Garrett Brown have created a popular counter-intuitive sales thinking class with students, and they have found that these people also use counter-intuitive sales thinking through a survey of elites from all walks of life.
So, what is counter-intuitive sales thinking? In simple terms, counter-intuitive sales thinking has the following characteristics: trading authenticity and honesty for customers' trust, practicing "deliberate ignorance" to focus on what they are passionate about, cultivating a growth mindset and constantly creating, reshaping the brain to maintain a positive and optimistic attitude, building emotional connections with customers and creating co-creative conversations, treating customers as teammates and finding win-win ways to work together, using transformational thinking to focus on what customers need and want, innovating sales methods and integrating them with personal interests, Combination of cutting-edge technology, mission-driven, and focus on quality to achieve goals.
Colin Goggins, two professors at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, teamed up with Garrett Brown to create a popular counterintuitive sales mindset course that breaks down all stereotypes about top-tier sales and opens up a whole new mindset. In addition, they are co-founders of Agency18, a company that helps mission-driven companies use counterintuitive sales thinking to develop new business, improve performance, and innovate.
In the book Counterintuitive Selling, the author summarizes counterintuitive selling thinking into 9 core principles, with a chapter dedicated to each of them. The first rule: abandon hypocritical routines and be true to yourself. The worst mistakes in sales are boredom and hypocrisy. In fact, salespeople themselves don't like to put on the mask of hypocrisy. We need to abandon imitation and camouflage and sell in good faith. At the same time, being true to yourself, facing and accepting your strengths and weaknesses, and constantly growing, not only helps to maintain customer relationships, but also improves job satisfaction and reduces turnover rates for salespeople. Rule 2: You don't have to be omniscient, practice "deliberate ignorance." "Salespeople must know everything" – this mindset can lead to a bad impression on customers and affect customer relationships. When you consciously avoid being a "jack of all trades" and become a decision-making facilitator and advisor to your clients, clients can truly make their own decisions. The third criterion: cultivate counter-intuitive sales thinking, lifelong learning, and lifelong growth. A counter-intuitive sales mindset allows you to have a growth mindset, where you focus on abundance rather than want, and become a creator rather than a victim. A counter-intuitive sales mindset allows you to see sales as a learning tool, full of purpose and satisfaction, fully engaged in life and business, constantly improving, and experiencing real growth. The fourth rule: reshape your brain and maintain a positive and optimistic mindset. Optimists believe that immediate difficulties and failures are only temporary, and they do not magnify difficulties and do not blame themselves. Staying positive and optimistic empowers you to improve your ability and work hard to improve your results. Our brains are malleable, and we can consciously cultivate good habits, suppress negative thoughts, and discover more goodness. The fifth principle: build a loving connection with customers to deepen understanding and trust. When salespeople form emotional connections with customers and others, trust in each other increases, and salespeople develop empathy and understanding for customers. Love is a positive force in sales, making communication smoother, improving customer satisfaction, and making everyone feel happy and comfortable. Rule 6: Use a collaborative mindset and treat prospects as teammates. Salespeople with an anti-intuitive sales mindset start conversations with a collaborative mindset, treating customers as teammates and working together toward a common goal. They support potential customers while also making customers their own advocates and ultimately accountable for themselves and their customers. For successful and happy salespeople, a collaborative mindset is embedded in their work habits, they are genuine and enthusiastic about their customers, and they are courageous and fearless in the face of challenges. The seventh criterion: break through the old transactional mindset and upgrade sales with a transformational mindset. The best salespeople are constantly looking for new opportunities, constantly breaking the mold, and thinking through transformational thinking. Rather than manipulating perceived value, they actively seek out ways to deliver substantial value that will have a transformative impact beyond the immediate transaction. The eighth criterion: awaken and stimulate the inner innovation, and fully express the art of sales. Innovation is the key to counterintuitive sales thinking. Stimulating inner innovation can trigger positive emotions, promote mental health, enhance vitality, effectively reduce depression, stress and anxiety, and strengthen immunity. Selling is both a science and an art, and being constantly innovative helps ensure that the art of selling is always focused on and makes sales more fun. The first few rules: set goals and achieve them. All sales efforts need to have specific, clear and meaningful goals, but performance goals are not the only thing that drives salespeople forward. When we set mission-oriented goals through counterintuitive sales thinking, we are able to realize our potential and transform the way we interact with our customers to give greater meaning to sales. We constantly remind ourselves that sales isn't just about closing deals and meeting performance goals, it can be a powerful tool for good and can make a huge impact on the world.
Since we have become social and professional people, we have to do compulsory courses every once in a while - introduce ourselves: "Who am I, where do I come from, what am I doing?Where am I going?What is my desire?" No matter what industry you are in, introducing yourself to others is to sell your time, ability, achievements and works to others. You'll find that we're selling our value all the time, but we're always stumbling and often missing the point. In this regard, Yan Peng, the manager of the knowledge IP "Crazy Dadby", said that "Counter-Intuitive Sales" has given me great strength - "salespeople not only have to communicate with customers, but more importantly, they have to talk to themselves". Yan Peng said: "The premise of impressing the other party is to impress ourselves first, and the premise of having a dialogue with the customer is to first have a dialogue with our own heart." What does Su Dongpo mean when he says, 'Effort is poor'? He did not encourage us not to work hard, but to let us exert our strength on ourselves (not on the other party). As for how to do it, I hope you can get it after reading this book! Everyone is the CEO of their own life, in fact, everyone is their own salesman. Try counter-intuitive selling, and maybe your results will turn out to be what you want. ”
This book turns traditional sales thinking on its head. The point is that you need to be open to the counter-intuitive sales mindset presented in the book, listen to it and take advantage of it. For example, hypocritical sales routines. The worst mistakes in sales are boredom and hypocrisy. In fact, salespeople themselves don't like to put on the mask of hypocrisy. We need to abandon imitation and pretense of selling sincerely. At the same time, being true to yourself, facing and accepting your strengths and weaknesses, and constantly growing, not only helps to maintain customer relationships, but also improves job satisfaction and reduces turnover rates for salespeople. The book also explains this in detail: "Whenever we talk about what we need to do in order to sell, such as calling a prospect, meeting with a client or account manager, doing a sales presentation inside and outside the company, or even in a non-traditional sales scenario, such as pitching ourselves in a job interview, fundraising for a cause, or asking for a raise, we feel like we have to put on a mask to hide who we really are – this is a big reason why many people hate sales so much." We thought we had to pretend to be a super confident, super sunny, super positive 'salesperson'. Cultural expectations are deeply ingrained in our collective unconscious. If we are introverted, we should act like an extrovert, if we feel nervous, we should hide this anxiety or we will appear weak, and if the customer is hesitant to buy, we should do whatever it takes to close the deal. People with counter-intuitive sales mindsets often don't play their cards by the usual ones, they don't care about what they do in the books, they don't care if they lose a deal if they occasionally 'don't want to pretend', or if they 'do it all the time'. They know that they will succeed in the long run if they can stay authentic. It's important for them to be authentic, and they've realized that showing their authentic selves pays off in any case. ”
There are also wonderful ideas in this book that are worth thinking about in this book. For example, "Salespeople need to understand complex ideas and express them in a form that's easy to understand, collect data and craft it into effective solutions, and put the customer at the center of every sales conversation." "A successful salesperson can completely let go of his or her stature, and introverts are very good at that. "Having the traits of being honest with yourself, being honest with your customers, and accepting imperfections may make you a good salesperson. "As a salesperson, it's also a great way to show your thought process, which can give your customers a better understanding of what you really think and build a stronger connection with them. "The natural self-talk of the sales process is appealing not only because the salesperson brings us into their thought process, but also because we become part of the other person's thinking. ”
Cui Huang, founder of the workplace education brand "Advantage Planet", commented that this is a book that can give us positive power. If you happen to encounter difficulties at work, such as poor customer relationship maintenance, don't know how to achieve performance goals, have been working hard but have little results, and even lose confidence in yourself...... Well, the methods provided in this book should help you. For example, "learning to celebrate" can help you affirm yourself more, "practicing ignorance" can help you stop criticizing yourself, and "giving up routines" can give you the courage to say no to sales methods that don't work for you. "I prefer the method of 'connecting with clients' with love, and I feel warm and uplifted by the many moments I have at work working side by side with others," Cui said. The book says that win-win cooperation is also a way of love, and even provides 3x3 exercises of love to help us achieve this pleasant feeling. As you read, you'll sometimes think, 'Well, I seem to be okay again.'" Yes, it was these moments that we went through one journey after another. ”
Indeed, if you are a salesperson, then this book is a very useful sales guide that will help you improve your persuasion and communication skills, become a better salesperson, and then become the person you want to be. As the authors put it, "We genuinely believe that if enough people use counter-intuitive sales thinking, we can redefine sales." Our goal is for people to stop justifying themselves with 'I'm not a salesperson' and take pride in what they do every day. No matter what their profession is, when they stop relying on manipulation, cheating, or unscrupulous means to close deals, but instead dare to show their authentic selves and are respected for doing so – we know that when these things do happen, everything will be much more interesting for both the salesperson and the customer. (Reader Daily all-media reporter He Jian)