Yesterday, I referenced Daniel Pink's book, A Whole New Mind - Why Right-Brainers will Rule the Future. I started thinking about the difference in the right brain (our creative, imaginative side) versus the left brain (our logical, thinking side) and how this applies to likability and selling. I asked my eleven year old daughter if she was aware of the difference between her left brain and her right brain? She told me she recently took a test and the test determined she was both right and left brain dominant, and thus she had a golden brain! Go Lucy!
I once had a business coach who stressed that everyone has a 'heart or emotional side' of their body, versus a 'mind or intellectual side' of their body and that we need to know how we interact with others when we are standing (or sitting) to someone's right versus to someone's left. (Everybody is not wired the same, so some people are prone to react emotionally when on the right, and others are prone to act emotionally when on the left, and so forth.) It is important to understand these differences and to appreciate that we are all wired in our own unique way.
Then there is the common belief that our left brain controls our right side, and our right brain controls our left side. I believe that is also medically correct? So that is a lot to think about when on a sales call, or in a presentation room, or at a business dinner. If you are a champion sales person, you do think about these things (maybe intuitively), because you have learned how to leave people feeling good about you, regardless of whether you are on their left or their right!
Let's begin our focus on the third of The Six Characteristics of the Champion Sales Professional: Likability. I am going 'old school' on this one, with the popular sales expression, "People buy from people they like." There is a new school approach, that says the buying process has changed so much over the past several years, that likability no longer matters.
Some sales coaches are teaching that it is far more important to be the most knowledgeable sales person, or the most prepared sales person, or the sales person with the best product. And, no doubt, all of these things are essential and will be discussed next in this series, under the topic of Love: Do what you love and know it well.
Likability, is a critical soft skill. It is positioned third in the series because it is just as important today as it was in yesteryear. In fact, it might be even more important now than in the past? With the advent of technology allowing the buyer to research companies and products, it is easy to assume that the 'human' side of the sales process is no longer relevant.
I have recently had conversations with several sales executives who agree that the human element is going to be of greater importance in the next ten years, as people realize they don't want their world reduced to bits and bytes. A great source on this subject is Daniel Pink, who writes about it in his book, A Whole New Mind – Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.
Where do you stand on the likability scale? Important to the sales process? More so or less so, in today's world?
