John Voris’ parents wanted him to be a lawyer but he wanted to be a teacher. As a result, he went to Berkeley and studied philosophy, which was good preparation for going to law school. During that time, John needed a part-time job and tried a job doing door-to-door cold calling. It wasn’t easy and John was fired four times. He realized he needed to study and learn more so he went to workshops and seminars. He also read books and listened to tapes. He tried again and failed three more times. Still, he continued to educate himself.
Learn the symbols
Everything around us is a symbol. People collect and surround themselves with symbols that resonate with who they are. These symbols represent with what we like and dislike. Knowing that everything around us comes from who we are, salespeople can use these symbols to discover who their prospect really is and what’s important to them.
Salespeople being human
People have different motivations. We are curious and this curiosity leads to wisdom. We want to change things. This is where our power manifests itself. We think about what is fair and this leads to justice. The books of Donald Edward Brown entitled Human Universals talk about 300 universal aspects that reflect what it means to be human and these are aspects that are consistently repeated. For example, human beings all need to be loved, engage with others, and have relationships. It’s these consistencies that John was able to create into a model of selling.
John recognized there’s a difference between drive and desire. What John wanted to figure out was what drives people to take action. The result? His book, Discover the Power that Drives your Personality: How Four Virtues Define Your World – Introduction to the Life Themes: Love, Justice, Wisdom, Power. This drive is where your energy and power are.
While we live in a visible physical world, we live for the invisible abstract world of ideas. We surround ourselves with objects to manifest who we are. We all have the innate desire to express ourselves. Once you see how your prospects want to express themselves, then you will understand how to sell to them. Through what you observe in these objects, you can find out what motivates your prospect and adjust your language accordingly. Knowing them doesn’t mean you will sell each time but it does mean you’ll get closer to the language you need to connect with them and increase the odds of making a sale.
What is an authentic identity?
Imagine that you are creating a Western movie and you need items for the set that falls under that theme. You would not be able to sell a laser gun to a western-themed movie. The theme dominates everything. A salesperson cannot sell anything that doesn’t conform to the theme.
The same is true for your prospects. If your client is a master carpenter, you know they don’t rush through work, they have patience in learning their craft, and they are interested in details. As a sales rep, talk to them about your product in terms of details and be ready to take your time. As you see the symbols of their authentic identity, you’re able to adjust your language to the symbols that represent your clients. Simply observing their surroundings and being able to find meaning from these symbols, will help you understand who they are as an individual so you can adjust accordingly.
Archetypes and Authentic Identity impacts the sales process
Your job as the sales rep is to language yourself towards your prospect honestly and authentically so it creates mutual trust. With the pandemic going on, most conversations and interactions are happening on the phone. Even then, you can still look for symbols. Everyone has their own lexicon, their own vocabulary. They will drop signals in the way they talk. Listen intently to how they express their own logic and reason and they will tell you exactly who they are as an individual. People fall under one of four archetypes – love, justice, wisdom, and power. Figure out which archetype your prospect is reflecting and speak to that in your discussion.
The idea of a script
A sales rep must have the freedom to tweak how they talk about what he/she is selling so it’s more authentic. When sales reps feel more authentic there is a greater opportunity to connect with the prospect. This is how trust is built.
John suggests that sales reps must deliver selling points in a way they feel most like themselves. When both the sellers and the prospects have room to be truly authentic, a certain level of empathy is created. People typically have their guard up but authenticity is the way to start bringing these guards down. John was able to sell despite failures because he learned how to language his selling. What he lacked in natural talent, he made for in his passion to learn and adjust.
“The One Need Every Human Mind Has And How It Will Help Increase Your Sales” episode resources
Connect with John Voris via his official site. If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald directly. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns.
This episode is brought to you in part by Crmble, the easy-peasy CRM for Trello that helps you manage your contacts and leads without investing in complicated solutions, sync all your data, manage custom fields, and get powerful reporting on your sales. Try Crmble now for free at www.crmble.com/tse. This course is also brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.donaldk4.sg-host.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077.
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