Selling with Presence

What is Sales Presence?

I have worked with salespeople, sales teams, and their leaders for over thirty years helping them improve their sales processes and presence skills. The best sales professionals, those who have long-standing relationships and consistently successful careers, have traits and characteristics that set them apart from the rest of us. They have great “presence.”  These people have the ability to read the situation and seamlessly adjust their behavior to authentically connect with their buyers. They are persuasive because they have genuine regard for their buyers, and a passionate belief in what they are selling. They do the following consistently and well:

• Empathize and Connect
• Authentically convey who they are and what they stand for
• Generate excitement and enthusiasm among their buyers

I have seen deals founder when the right technical skills were present, the  GE story being an example, and I have seen deals succeed facilitated by a sales professional with great presence who relied on others for greater technical knowhow. In fact, sometimes too much technical knowledge can work in opposition to the right presence, as the sellers are too busy demonstrating their knowledge and expertise to pay attention to the buyer.

What is your presence? Do you know? How do you make other people feel not just about you, but also about themselves when they are in your presence?

Characteristics, Traits and Behaviors of People with Great Presence          What Great Presence Allows You To Do                Obstacles to Great Presence

• Comfort in own skin
• Project a sense of ease, poise, or self-assurance,
• Relaxed alertness
• Confident
• Passion
• Bold
• Expressive
• Breath
• Empathetic
• Listen
• Eye contact
• Awareness of self and others
• Communicates Values &

              Beliefs

• Authenticity
• Attentive
• Congruency of voice, body, & content
• Curiosity to know and understand others •             Have Self-Belief
• Connect
• Read the audience and adjust
• Establish Credibility
• Be Trusted
• Build Meaningful Relationships
• Show vulnerability
• Engage
• Persuade
• Influence
• Facilitate
• Collaborate
• Inspire
• Be Creative
• Spontaneity
• Be Flexible
• Recover more quickly
• Feel Personally Powerful
• Be comfortable in silence
• Speak Truth To Power
• Put my best foot forward •             Excessive Anxiety
• Excessive Stress
• Shame

➢           Negative self-talk

• Introversion

  Shyness

• Task orientation
• Workload
• Personal Issues
• Physical appearance
• Personal Blueprint
• Lack of Presence Feedback

Figure 1.

Let’s takes a look at the fundamental things having a great presence allows you to do:

Have Self-Belief , Passion For What You Do And An Ability To Convey It

Being in a sales role and lacking self-belief is like trying to run a marathon while dragging a ball and chain.

Self-belief is that voice in your head that says “I can do this.” It’s the voice that tells you you’ll do better on the next call, or that the next prospect, after a succession of “No’s”, will finally be persuaded by you to say “Yes!”

Self-belief can be the result of nature or nurture. It can also grow as a result of  successfully selling an excellent solution, being a member of a high performing sales team, or being coached by a caring, competent manager. Whatever its origins, a belief in yourself and your ability to sell is the fuel that pushes you to stretch for more when  sales are happening, and to try harder when they are not.

There’s nothing that conveys excitement and belief more than the appropriate use of your voice, body language and facial expression. Think about how compelling an actor is when they move their body or demonstrate emotions through facial expression and vocal variety. You get drawn into the character they are playing.  Likewise, in a sales presentation you can attract and hold your buyer’s attention by using vocal variety, and expanding your physical expressiveness.

Connect

E.M. Forster, the great British writer famously once wrote, “Only Connect.”  The core human task he is saying, the absolute essential requirement for human beings is that they form powerful connections.  People are inspired to achieve great things when they form powerful connections with each other.

Now, in the above sentence, replace ‘human/human beings’ with ‘sales professional’ and you have a battle cry for what is at the core of a sales professional’s work. Whether you are using the more traditional consultative orientation with your buyers, or the more contemporary insight lead approach, the quality of the connection you establish, all other things being equal, will be the difference between success and failure.

A prime objective of the sales professional’s effort is to create connection that ideally is one of what’s called psychological safety. Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmonson coined the term. She defines it as a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, or concerns.  I’m borrowing her term and applying it to the dynamics of selling situations because when we create such ‘safety’ with a buyer we have a true sense of being in it together, mutual respect, a desire to learn and improve, curiosity, and vulnerability. We don’t have the luxury of getting here with all of our prospects and buyers, but when we do it is both relationally and financially rewarding.

Connect: Begin with your orientation

The Austrian-born philosopher, Martin Buber, wrote that we can adopt two attitudes toward others: I-Thou or I-It.  He wrote that I-Thou is a relationship of mutuality and reciprocity, while I-It is a relationship of separateness, where we view the other as something to be utilized. We don’t necessarily see them or their needs. Rather, we see them only in terms of how they can be utilized in satisfying our own needs.

So, when we find ourself thinking more about the revenue or commission, the praise, or promotion we’ll get if we close the deal, then we are I-It oriented. And, the first person to notice when we’re not in it for them or with them is our prospect or buyer.