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We hear the following worn out sales tip all the time. Be professional. When the pursuit of professional behavior blocks the expression of our personality, it can hurt our sales.

“Don’t you get it? These…are part of your unique formula.”

A Story About “Professionalism”
Many years ago I was having lunch with one of the top sales professionals in our organization. His name was Kyle and I was his sales manager. We were having a nice lunch and were discussing sales tips that both of us could use to improve our performance. Please keep in mind that Kyle was a consistent top 10 performer in a very large sales organization.

Our lunch was going smoothly until he said, “I need to work on talking more slowly. I think I come across a little hyperactive to my customers. I just need to tone things down. I’m not professional enough.”

Our Inherent Value
I instantly put my fork down, leaned over the table and said to him, “Kyle, no one will ever accuse you of having low energy, that’s for sure. You definitely don’t waste any time getting your thoughts out either. It’s those things about you that cause people to like you and do business with you. There are millions of low energy, slow talking sales sluggards out there. Why would you want to look and sound like them? Don’t change anything; it will only come across as disingenuous anyway. Don’t you get it? These attributes of yours are part of your unique formula.”

Our Foundation
Our core personality is what makes our sales skills work in the first place. It’s the foundation from which our sales capabilities grow. We’ve all seen people in sales who had outstanding sales skills but sadly had been subjected to a “personality bypass” at an early age. Their successes were usually few. We want to act professionally, of course, but not to the point of masking our individuality and character.

A sales tip to sales managers reading this - please don’t try to change the personalities of sales professionals. It’s not possible. It will only damage relationships with them and will hinder any sales skills training efforts.

Kyle understood my message and has thanked me a dozen times for what I said to him that day. He was promoted into sales management and to this day has fortunately not changed his unique personality. He still talks fast, and we love him for it.

Further reading: What’s the difference between crazy and genius in sales? Results.

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Tags: personality

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