19 Jan Bringing Your Whole Self

Business Points of Performance [BiZPoP #4]:  Bringing Your Whole Self

Video Length:  12:20

Every successful business has one area that is absolutely crucial to its success. Sales.

But what makes a great sales person? Sure, there are individuals who have a natural talent for selling but many of us struggle with this. We’re always seeking ways to make selling easier, more comfortable.

While the Director of the Women in Sales program at the Institute for Sales, I had the opportunity to be a judge for an international sales competition and had attended the awards ceremony. It was a grand night of tuxedos, gowns and dancing. But what really struck me was the message that the keynote speaker left us with.

Julie DeLoyd is now a partner at McKinsey & Company, but what she choose to tell us was not about the mechanics of selling or the art of closing. She choose to tell us of the one change she made in her approach to selling that was the game-changer for her ultimate sales success.

Julie recounted how she began her sales career with traditional selling approaches. Oh, it’s not that she didn’t make the sale. She often did. But, as the years went on, she realized that she wasn’t really being herself, her true self, in her work and client conversations or interactions. Why? She thought that her background as a musician wouldn’t be ‘accepted’ and valued. AND, she was sure that openly speaking about her gay lifestyle wouldn’t be a good thing either.

After one particular client interaction what she came to realize was that to be the best she could be, to serve her clients best, to have the greatest value, she needed to BRING HER WHOLE SELF and with that she started to bring her musical career and her personal life into her work – and she found out just how much more comfortable and valuable it was to be present with her entire self.

I could particularly relate to what she was saying since my formative career years were spent in blue-suited, let’s-keep-it-to-the-business-at-hand corporate technology world. And that’s what I brought over to my early years as a business owner, until I realized that to connect and influence those whom I wanted to serve and have as clients would best be won over if I shared more of who I was, in and out of the office.

Game-changer.

Here’s the thing then …

Our experiences inform our way of thinking, acting and interacting. There is value in all that we have been and have done. There is value in who we are and what we do today – and why. To bring all of this to our work and our conversations allows others to know who we really are and why they are important to us. This is the critical business bond that every business owner should seek to have for it will be the final persuasive factor in any sales and the foundation of a sustainable, prosperous business.