Weekly Sales Tips: What Can Be Learned and What Can’t

What can you learn and what can’t you learn? We have to know our limitations, right?.

A quick side note before we get too far. You might disagree with some of the things, but that’s okay. When we disagree, it means we’re thinking independently, and that’s a beautiful thing.

We’re going to skip over some of the obvious things such as overcoming objections and really good closing questions. We know these can and should be learned by all sales professionals.

Of course, learning comes through repetition and practicing out loud. What’s the problem with that? It’s uncomfortable for most of us. My advice, which should come as no surprise, is to do it anyway. Winners do the things losers find uncomfortable. Winners might find it uncomfortable as well, but they do it anyway. Winners make a habit of doing things that losers just don’t want to do.

If you really want to be great in the long run, you need to ask yourself the question, “What are some things I know I can learn?” How do I lean into that? Enter repetition. I’ve often said that the destination called mastery lies on a road called repetition, and there’s no other way to get there.

So what can’t be learned? I want to share with you three things I don’t think can be learned. They can be motivated. They can be put on fire if you will, but to a large extent, you either have it or you don’t.

Achievement Drive

I happen to believe that you can motivate achievement drive, but somebody is either driven or they’re not, and that drive is what causes great salespeople to look at it and say, I have to move forward. I have to be the best. I have to get stronger along the way.

Personality Style

Who are you? Seems like a simple question but too often I see salespeople go astray here. I want to encourage you, please don’t try to be someone you’re not. Regardless of what your trainer just told you, a lot of times people will say, do this or be like that. What if I’m not that way? What about mirroring the customer and taking on their personality? What if that’s not you? I disagree with this advice. Your personality is your personality. You be you!

Sense of Humor

We all like to laugh. We like it, even more, when we can make others laugh. Here’s my advice when it comes to humor. It’s ok to be funny unless you’re not. Sometimes it takes brutal truth from people around you to help you realize this. 

Ill-placed humor is a bad idea. It’s okay to introduce humor if you know where you’re going and you’re safe about it. But oftentimes, the sales process blows up because someone wants to introduce humor at a time or in a manner that’s simply not appropriate.

Those are three things that I don’t believe can be learned. But there are three other skills that I think can be learned.

Curiosity

There’s no stopping curiosity. That doesn’t sound like a skill set, does it? It sounds more like a mindset. I absolutely believe that curiosity is a skill set because it’s something that you can work on and develop. My advice is to work on curiosity outside of the sales office. Work on it with your peers, work on it with your family, work on it with the person who serves you dinner at the restaurant. Curiosity is one of the most powerful skills for sales professionals.

Empathy

This is way more than saying I’m an empathetic person or I’m not an empathetic person. Empathy is a skill. It can be developed and takes is intentionality. You have to be able to look at it and say, I am going to be intentional about being really empathetic with the person who walks through my door next, or with my own children, or the person who serves me my meal tonight. But empathy is a skill that can be developed.

Boldness

When I say boldness, I’m not talking about arrogance. I’m not talking about in-your-face intensity.

Boldness, to me, is doing the right thing even when you’re uncomfortable. Boldness is about doing the right thing for the customer even though it feels uncomfortable to you. We’re looking at an opportunity to say, I’m not going to let my comfort addiction keep me from doing that, which is in my customer’s best interests.

Ultimately, we want to improve on those things we can work on in order to get better. We’re doing just that over in our Sales365 community. If you haven’t heard about Sales365, it’s an app built by residential real estate sales professionals for residential real estate sales professionals.

Join today for FREE and learn how to sell the way your customers want to buy so that you can maximize lead conversion, exceed your sales goals, earn top-performer status, and generate more income for you and your family.

Until next time… learn more to earn more!