Why Be Humble?

After reading yesterday’s post, “What Is HERO Selling?“, my friend Skip Anderson asked the question, “Why is being humble important?”  That’s a great question, and I’ll attempt to provide a satisfactory answer in today’s post.  After you read it, let me know what you think by leaving your comments below.

One of the first things you’ll notice when you deal with a HERO salesperson is that he or she is humble.  Actually, you won’t so much notice the humility as you will notice the lack of it’s opposite: arrogance.  While many of the salespeople you are used to dealing with are, for the most part, arrogant know-it-alls, the HERO is noticeably different.  How, though, is being  humble an advantage in your sales career?

Well, think about that arrogant salesperson for a moment.  How do you, as a consumer, feel when someone shows up at your door to show you a “better way” of doing things using their product or service, then implies that if you don’t buy TODAY, you’re an idiot?  It puts you off a little, doesn’t it?  After all, you were doing just fine before this so-and-so showed up, and you’re pretty sure you’ll continue to do okay without him and his widget.  So then, here’s the question: how do your customers feel when you insist that your product or service is a “better way” of doing things in their business?

You get the point.  Implying, let alone saying outright, that you know better than your customer is a sure-fire way to get their hackles up.  This isn’t to say that your product or service isn’t a better solution for the customer’s need.  You just can’t say that it is.  You have to lead your prospects to arrive at that conclusion on their own.  How do you, the HERO, do that?

Easy: you ask.  That’s right: if you want to demonstrate that you are humble, just ask a lot of questions.  Asking questions demonstrates to your prospect or customer that you trust them to know how to run their business and that you acknowledge that you’ve got something to learn from them.  Let them do the instructing and you take the role of student.  How does this help you sell your product?

By allowing your customer to do the talking, you are going to learn a great deal about them and their business.  You’ll learn what they like and dislike.  You’ll learn about what other solutions they’ve tried in the past, as well as why they are currently using the product they are.  You’ll learn what they like about that product, as well as what they’d like to see improved.  All of that information is what you’ll then use to build a solution that truly fits the prospect’s need.

Does this approach involve more work than trying to “pitch” your pre-packaged solution?  You bet it does!  Then again, nobody said being a HERO was going to be easy!