Why I almost didn't send this

THE PROSPEROUS CONSULTANT

Turn your decades of expertise into a premium consulting practice built around the life you want.

Issue #27

I got on the phone this week with a fellow who's spent thirty years selling.

Big accounts. Real money. The kind of deals that put other people's kids through college.

And about halfway through our call, he told me, flat out, that he can't sell.

I hear that one a lot. Sharp people, decades of good work behind them, and they say it almost like an apology. "I'm just not a sales guy."

I don't know about you, but I've never quite believed that line.

Because this man has been selling his whole life. He just never had to sell himself.

For thirty years he sold his company's product. Somebody else's logo on the box, somebody else's offer, somebody else's name on the building. He was good at it. Great, even. Now the box has his name on it, and all of a sudden he's "not a sales guy."

Nothing changed but the label.

So here's what I think happened. Selling the company's product felt like a job. Selling yourself feels like bragging. Or worse, like begging. And you'd rather do just about anything than beg.

So you don't. You wait on referrals. You “network,” whatever that means these days. And the months you ought to be busy, you're staring at an empty calendar, telling yourself you're just not the type.

I've got a client, I'll call him Rick, who knows that feeling all to well. Sharp guy. He had some early wins when he started, and then the wheels fell off. His own words: he didn't want to burn through his relationships, so he got comfortable, and the pipeline dried up on him.

Last week a group of us were working through a real conversation Rick's been having with one of his own customers, a video guy. And the video guy said the thing lots of folks think but don't say out loud.

“I don't want to be associated with a slimy salesperson.”

I don't blame him one bit. I don't want that either. So here's what I told Rick to tell him. The good news is, you don't have to.

Because you're not a salesman. You never were. You're a leader.

Think about the best leader you ever worked for. He didn't pitch you or hype you. He asked questions. What are you working on, what's going well, where are you stuck. He listened. Then he told you the truth about where you stood and pointed you toward what to do next. You didn't feel manipulated. You felt led. You'd have followed him anywhere.

That's what selling is, when it's done right. It never feels like selling, because you're not selling. You're leading.

That's the key here. You don't sell yourself. You diagnose their problem. And you already know how... it's the thing you're best at. You've done it for clients your whole career. You've just never done it in the conversation that comes before somebody says yes.

So here's how it works. Three steps.

First, lead with their problem, not your background. Nobody follows the leader who walks in reciting his résumé. They follow the one who asks good questions. So ask. The same ones you'd ask if this person were already paying you. You know them cold.

Second, show them the gap. And put a number on it. Where are they now, and where do they want to be? Not “I'd like more clients.” How many? From two to ten? Get it specific enough that you can both see it. Because if you don't know where they are and where they're headed, you can't lead them anywhere. You're just wandering off into nothingness. When a person sees that gap clearly, with a real number on it, they feel it.

Third, lead them across. This is where good people get it wrong, so hear me out. They think the job is to sit quiet and hope the other person asks for help. It isn't. Once the gap is clear and they feel it, your job is to lead. A good leader doesn't fold his hands and wait to be asked. He points the way. So do you. Walk them to the first step, plainly and without apology.

Now, this is the part that trips up good, decent people, so let me say it straight. Leading somebody is not the same as pushing them. I call this being a Benevolent Servant Leader™. You're leading, yes. But you're leading them toward the very thing they just told you they want, in their interest, not yours. The slimy salesman talks a person into something they don't need. A servant leader walks a person toward something they already want. That's the whole difference.

Here's what changes when you work this way. You stop dreading the call. You're not performing anymore. You're doing the one thing thirty years made you good at. And the person across from you doesn't feel handled or pitched. They feel heard, and they feel led. Maybe for the first time in a long while.

There's no trick to it. You're just back in the chair you belong in.

P.S. I almost didn't send this one. I set out to write about pipelines and funnels, then I sat in on that call with Rick and the others and remembered what this really comes down to. Good people, decades in, who somewhere along the way decided that selling meant becoming somebody they'd be ashamed of. It doesn't, and they won't.

“People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.” ...Zig Ziglar

Want to dive deeper? Check out these related articles:

👉 The Prosperous Consultant | Issue #26
👉 The Prosperous Consultant | Issue #25

You might also find these interesting:

🔎 The "Content System Architect" Prompt
🔎 The Content Multiplication System

P.S.: When you're ready, here are more ways I can help you...